Infusing Life and Business with Authenticity and Appreciation
My wife Michelle sent me this great video – it made me laugh and inspired me. The power of dance, joy, travel, community, and self expression all come through…check it out:
To find out more about this guy Matt, his project, his travels, and the story behind this video, check out his website at https://www.wherethehellismatt.com/?fbid=BOYzro
Death has a way of putting life into perspective, doesn’t it? While I did not know Professor Randy Pausch personally, his life, his message, and his death (just one week ago today) touched me deeply. Randy gave his famous “last lecture” to his students at Carnegie Mellon University last September and has inspired millions through that lecture (thanks to YouTube, Oprah, and people sharing his words of inspiration), as well as the bestselling book he wrote, The Last Lecture.
This week all three of my blog posts have centered around Randy and his incredible message and example. One of the most poinignet aspects of what he said and what I took away from his lecture, as well as every other experience I have ever had personally with the death of someone close to me, is that most of the stuff we focus on, worry about, and even do on a daily basis doesn’t matter that much. It is the people in our lives, the love we have, and the simple things that are the most important.
This week I am in the midst of finishing up the manuscript for my next book, BE YOURSELF, EVERYONE ELSE IS ALREADY TAKEN – which I am excited about, but also has caused a great deal of stress, worry, and anxiety for me since the deadline is fast approaching and I have been behind schedule. As much as I try to remind myself that I will get it done and that it will all turn out, it is so easy for me to give away my life to the process and to my fears about it not getting done, being bad, etc.
As important as this new book is to me, in the scheme of things and when I ask myself what really matters, I realize that Randy’s reminder is so important. Incidentally, we are also expecting the birth of our new baby girl sometime soon as well. Now, that is something that really does matter.
What really matters to you? Are you spending as much time and energy as you can on the things that really matter to you…and letting go of the stress, worry, and anxiety that you allow to flow in the direction of the many things in your life that don’t really matter? If so, let’s all together see if we can remember what Randy taught us and focus on the truly important stuff.
Sometimes in the course of daily living we have a tendency to get very “serious,” have you noticed? It’s easy to get caught up in the perceived stresses of our lives, the things we worry about, the stuff we want to change, and the things (and people) that get on our nerves.
What if we had more fun? What if we made a commitment each day to find the good, to laugh as often as possible, and to have a great time doing whatever it is we’re doing? Regardless of what we do, we always have a choice about our attitude about it.
We don’t have to take ourselves or our lives too seriously. And, we can still remain committed to our families, our work, and all of the important things in our life that we’re passionate about. Bringing a sense of lightness and fun to what we do, our relationships, and all the aspects of our lives gives us energy, perspective, and freedom.
Things are not inherently “fun,” “stressful,” or “boring,” they are whatever we make them! Even when and if we’re dealing with some serious circumstances or situations in our lives, we can still bring a sense of genuine lightness and perspective to them, which almost always make them easier for us to deal with.
When we remember that the “fun” in our life is generated by us, not by others or even the specific activities we engage in, we’re empowered to make any situation, relationship, or activity enjoyable – if we choose to do so.
Enjoy this day and see if you can find different and creative ways to have fun. It’s up to you and if you make a conscious choice today (and any day) to have fun, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll have a good one!
Our thoughts, feelings, and intentions have a big impact on the results, experiences, and outcomes of our lives. Conventional wisdom tells us that we live in the world of cause and effect – that our thoughts and feelings are simply reactions to what happens.
However, as we’ve all experienced in various ways throughout life – what we expect and focus on has a lot to do with what actually happens in life.
Michelle and I had a powerful reminder of this recently. We found out a few weeks ago that the baby girl, Annarose, we are expecting (our second, due in mid-August) was in the breech position (feet down). This becomes a concern when you are getting closer to the due date. We both immediately were scared and upset upon hearing the news, although we pretended not to be.
We started talking about it and after expressing our fear and concern honestly to one another, we went into action – talking to people, doing research, and finding out all we could about getting babies to flip around. As we found out, there are many physical, mental, and meta-physical techniques out there for this specific situation. We began to talk to Annarose, ordered a hypnosis CD, had a session with an intuitive, and Michelle set up an appointment with a chiropractor who uses the “Webster Technique” which is designed to help breech babies turn around.
As all of this was going on, even though we were both still concerned about it, we did what we could to focus on what we wanted and visualize Annarose turning around easily. On Michelle’s drive home from the chiropractor, she called me to tell me how it went. In the middle of our conversation, she said, “Hey, something is happening – I think she is flipping around!” The next day she went to Kaiser to have another ultrasound and it was confirmed, Annarose is now in the proper, head-down position. How wonderful!
Notice if you’re focusing more of your awareness on what you don’t want to happen, what you’re worried about, or what you think would be “bad.” Sadly, this is what most of us do all the time – automatically and unconsciously.
If we can flip our attention to what we want and away from what we don’t want, we are more likely to create the positive results we truly desire.
Remember, we create our reality – life doesn’t just happen to us. When we remember this, we can no longer be victims of our circumstances and we’re empowered to be the author of the book of our lives.