Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. -Corita Kent
Have you counted your blessings?
The year 2007 is coming to an end, and many people use this time to reflect on the past 300-and-so-many days.
Reflection can be done in two directions: towards what didn't work the way you wanted it to, and towards what did work the way you wanted it to.
My personal and professional philosophy is quite simple: life "is", and you decide -by your thoughts, feelings and actions- whether you see "what is" as positive, or as negative. Simple example: for the one person a bankruptcy could be the end of the world; for the other it could be an event that makes him/her even more determined to succeed next time round. Still, whichever way you want to see it, it is still a bankruptcy. An event in life taking place. Not good, not bad. Just what it is.
The same goes for illness & health, divorces & marriages, financial hardship & prosperity, personal dilemmas & victories, deaths & births. All are events, and depending on our perspective on life will we consider these events nasty or nice.
What I would like you to do for 2007 is, put your "good" hat on, and look for the successes, victories, celebrations, highlights etc. that came your way. And for events that you originally didn't really appreciate: can you see the blessing in them, the lesson you learnt, the opportunity that lay in them?
Once you start to observe life from both sides, you will start to recognise that there is no "good" or "bad" in life as such, only good and bad in our perception of it. And no, that is not some sort of "positive thinking" hype, it is all about thinking differently, thinking both ways. I honestly think I learnt to understand this concept through and through when I studied and practiced Law. Never ever was there one side to the story, there were always at least two, but most of the time even more than two!
I've made it the foundation of my coaching and mentoring: learn to see the balance in everything, and you will be able to choose to see ANY event in your life the way you desire to. Stick to one (i.e. your own) perspective only, and you may not be able to see the "other side to the story", and could therefore miss out on a solution, or another approach or viewpoint.
Choose to look at only what went right in 2007; think about it and linger over the details. And in what hasn't seem to have been right, choose to see the lesson, the learning, the benefit in it. There will be one, when you commit to finding it. Or as Dewitt Jones once put it so aptly: choose to celebrate what is RIGHT with the world.
Set a Landmarc:
Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly and Lastly: Do it! Please! Our brain operates on "associations", which are memories we hold of events in our lives. If we can choose to hold a better memory, we will choose better actions in the future. It will be worth our while.
Have a great Christmas and New Year, and let's get together next year to make it the best year ever! I look forward to it.
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