Category Archives: Life

What Eight Words Taught Me

April 19, 2012 – 8:17 pm

This past weekend I decided to tackle the stack of magazines that I had set aside to read later.  My first not-so-hot-off-the-presses selection was the February 2012 issue of O Magazine.  I thumbed through the magazine until the caption “You…In Six Words” caught my attention and made me pause.  As I read on I discovered that writer Larry Smith issued a challenge in which he asked his readers to describe their lives in six words.

The Six-Word Memoir challenge generated a huge reaction, and Oprah shared the responses of some of her readers.  Perusing the article made me think about what my six word memoir would look like.  I wondered how I would describe my life in six words.  I did not have to wonder long.  Six words popped into my mind almost immediately.  “I live my best life everyday.”

Although those six words pretty much described how I saw my life, something still nagged at me.  There was something more.  Something that I missed.  Apparently I needed a few more words to accurately convey how I live my life.  I needed an eight word memoir to be exact.  “I CHOOSE TO live my best life everyday.”

Those words resonated with me and summed up how I live my life.  You see I live my best life everyday, because everyday I wake up and choose to do so.  Not everyday rolls along as smoothly as I wish, but everyday I live the best life possible under the circumstances.

I wish that I could say that I have always lived this way, but I can’t.  There were many years of my life that I passed time by waiting to get to the place or thing that I thought would make me live a better or happier life.

I’m a different person now.  I’ve grown, and those eight little words helped me to see how much my outlook on my life has changed for the better.  Life is too precious for me to spend my time waiting to live my best life.  That’s why I choose to live my best life everyday.

That’s my story, so to speak.  What’s yours?  Share your story.  What does your six or eight word memoir look like?  Why did you select your particular words?

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessings.

See.  Live.  Enjoy.

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Wise Words – 4/16/2012

April 16, 2012 – 9:02 pm

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Wise Words – 4/2/2012

April 2, 2012 – 7:59 pm

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Wise Words – 3/26/2012

March 26, 2012 – 11:27 pm

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Wise Words – 3/19/2012

March 19, 2012 – 7:00 pm

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Just One Step

March 15, 2012 – 12:03 am

An ordinary event occurred at work today.  A meeting request arrived in my Inbox this afternoon.  There was no indication of a conflict, so I accepted the invitation.  But something inside of me said that I needed to check my calendar for the rest of the week.  I did.  Only to find that there was very little time during the next few days that was not already scheduled for me.

The anxiety started to creep in as I thought about the deadlines hurdling toward me.  As if my schedule for the next couple of days did not turn up the heat enough I decided to peek at my calendar for next week.  Different names and meeting titles appeared in the time slots, but the same volume of meetings and calls showed on my agenda for the coming week.  I thought about all that I needed to do.  I wondered how I would get everything done.

As I pondered my situation, I moved my mouse cursor to open one of the requests to see more details about that particular meeting.  Instead of opening the meeting request I accidentally changed the view of my calendar.  At that point I only saw my schedule for today, not for the entire week.  When I only looked at a day rather than a week, a sense of calm flowed over me.  As the saying goes, I could not see the trees for looking at the forest.  My obligations did not change, but how I saw them did.  I had a new perspective.

I sometimes get a bit intimidated when I try to tackle a large task without looking at the smaller components that are a part of the bigger picture.  Life can be like that.  We sometimes go through periods where we encounter challenge after challenge.  After awhile we start to see one big problem.  If we try to address the one big problem we may fail, because we have not dealt with the smaller issues that are a part of it.  Even challenges that seem impossible to overcome may look more resoluble when we break them down into smaller pieces.

I’m learning to pick one piece of a task or problem at a time and focus on it rather than looking at the matter as a whole and panicking.  When that part is completed, I move on to the next piece and handle it.  The reality is that I make more progress and accomplish more when when I focus on and deal with one thing at a time.

Yes, we need to be able to visualize the big picture, but the big picture should not keep us from seeing the little pieces that make up the whole.  Is there a task or challenge in your life that is overwhelming you by its size?  Perhaps breaking it into smaller parts can help you shift from “I can’t possibly to this” to “Yes, I see a way to accomplish this.”  After all, pretty much anything that we do in life is like walking.  We have to take one step at a time.

“One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.” – John Wanamaker

Blessings.

See.  Live.  Enjoy.

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Wise Words – 3/12/2012

March 12, 2012 – 7:00 pm

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More Than Enough

March 7, 2012 – 7:29 pm

Not too long ago a friend and I discussed some of the concerns and frustrations that he was experiencing on his job at that time.  We brainstormed about what we thought was really going on and some strategies that he could use to deal with the situation, including looking for another job.

Weeks went by and nothing changed at his job.  Still he decided to hang in there and opted not pursue other opportunities.  Why?  There are probably a number of reasons, but when he and I talked about the situation again, it was clear that the overriding reason was that he did not think that he had what he needed to make a change.  He believed that he needed more credentials and experience in certain areas.  The belief that he needed to do and be more paralyzed him.

I pointed out that he had everything that he needed.  Few, if any, of his co-workers had experience that matched his.  His skill set allowed him to step up and find solutions to problems that no one else could solve.  The team members that he supervised loved him and appreciated the guidance and leadership that he provided on projects.  The bottom line is that he did not need to be or have more.  He simply needed to recognize, appreciate and use what he already had.

One of the conversations with my friend replayed in my mind this morning as I sipped my cup of tea.  A light bulb went on in my head.  I realized that I was guilty of what I accused him of doing.  There was a time not too long ago that I was not using what I had.  I stopped blogging and writing for months, because I felt that I always needed to write long blog posts.

For several months I did not post anything.  During my time away from blogging I agonized about what I should write.  I started several posts, but I never finished them. Each time I convinced myself that those posts needed to say more.  The belief that my posts needed to be more shut down my blogging.

Fortunately my desire to write and blog was stronger than my concern about word count. That desire finally made me give myself permission to publish short posts, and freed me to launch “Wise Words”, a recurring post in which I share a quick thought that I find insightful.

One insight that I gained from this experience comes from a saying that states if we do not use what we have, we will not be blessed with more.  It’s not that I have to be or have more to be happy.  I don’t.  But I do believe that I have a responsibility to be a good steward of whatever is given to me, and that includes using the talents, gifts and opportunities that I have at any moment in time.

I may not always have the time to write a long post, but that’s okay.  Not everything that I want to say requires five hundred to a thousand words.  It’s more about the quality of the words that I write rather than the quantity.  Sometimes less is more.  After all, tweets are literally changing our world, and they are doing it in 140 characters or less.

With that in mind, I decided that my posts will be enough regardless of the word count. That decision broke away the shackles that prevented me from moving forward with my writing and helped me to start blogging again.  The bottom line is that I’m committed to using whatever I have wherever I am.

Is there something that you keep putting off until you have more, or think that you are more?  Do not over think it.  Start now.  Start where you are with what you have. Whatever we are and have at any given moment is usually more than enough for us to at least step out and start something.

“Whatever you’re ready for is ready for you.” – Mark Victor Hansen

Blessings.

See.  Live.  Enjoy.

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Wise Words – 3/5/2012

March 5, 2012 – 10:12 pm

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A Simple Thing

February 29, 2012 – 7:43 pm

Oh My God!  The temperature climbed to 77 degrees in Dallas today.  That’s not an unusual temperature for north central Texas during the spring and summer months, but it’s still winter according to the calendar.

The day took my breath away when I stepped outside.  A few high clouds floated by overhead as the sun beamed down and chased away the chill that the morning typically brings.  It was the kind of day that makes you want to play hooky from work and find something to do outside, so that you can take advantage of the perfect weather.  I didn’t.  I went into the office, but I will admit that thoughts of me sitting by the pool with sunglasses and a good book repeatedly invaded my mind.

In a world where we are connected 24/7 and receive a never ending stream of information about breakthroughs and major events, a warm sunny day in Dallas in February may not seem like anything worth taking note of.  For some of us it may not have enough wow factor to capture our attention.  I have been there.  In that place where I needed the ‘incredible’ to make me pause.

A few years ago I probably would have been in such hot pursuit of whatever was on my calendar for that day that I would have failed to fully appreciate the splendor of a day like today.  But thank God that most of us wise up at some point.  I learned that if we only focus on the so-called big things in life, we spend much of our life bored, discontented and waiting for the next big thing.

There absolutely is a time and place to celebrate the spectacular, but if we can appreciate the simple things, the extraordinary things seem even more special.  We may even realize that the simple things are sometimes the most extraordinary things.

Do you notice the simple things?  Do you recognize the blessing in a beautiful day or the gift of the presence of people in your life who always seem to be there and love you unconditionally?  If the answer to these questions is no, perhaps it’s time for you to slow down, disconnect for a moment and take a look around you at the things that are simple but priceless.

“It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary.” – Paulo Coelho

Blessings.

See.  Live.  Enjoy.

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