Daily Gratitude: “The struggles we endure today will be the ‘good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow.”

This may be one of the hardest concepts to embrace but it could become one of the most important if you do.

What might help is reviewing your life (which I highly recommend anyway) and finding those times when something “horrible” happened. And then thing about the months and years after that. How “horrible” did it remain? Sure there might be a few things that still seem not so good. But I will bet you that there aren’t as many as you thought that remain “horrible”. Even deaths and other losses.

It’s not that we shouldn’t feel sad or hurt or angry when those things do happen. It’s that we should keep them in perspective. Remember one post I wrote where i mentioned what a hotline caller had recommended. She said ask yourself (or ask a friend) “if this were September 12th, 2001 how important would this be?” That may sound callus but it isn’t. It’s a friend trying to help us put things in perspective.

We can endure so much more than we think we can. As the days go by, the intensity of even the most devastating event decreases. Our resilience helps us through. We may not think we are resilient but we are.

This horrible experience will, indeed, become part of the “good ole days” if we just wait long enough. But you don’t have to wait “long enough” to start to feel better. Recall what else you’ve survived and that will give you the strength you need.

Daily Gratitude: “A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what ships are for.”

How many of us hang out in the harbor yet expect great things to happen for (and to) us?  

That’s not what we are made for. If you look at the well known people throughout history and wonder why this person is remembered when his or her neighbor isn’t, you’ll see that the “famous” one left the harbor and ventured out into the rough seas. 

We get complacent; we get bored; and most of all we get scared. And like little children, when we’re scared we want to run and hide under the bed or in the closet – our own personal harbor. We get nowhere in life. 

I think we should realize that ships do face dangers in harbor. In fact, it’s often more dangerous.  Out at sea when a storm has come about, the ship can move up and down and all about because it can go with the waves and stay safe…or at least intact. 

Ships that remain in harbor are tied up.  Tied to the pier. They have no freedom. They can’t move about.  So what happens when a storm takes aim at a ship in harbor. There is much greater chance of damage and destruction- all without the ship ever having performed any of the wondrous tasks it was created for. There is danger staying in the harbor too. 

Where would you rather be when adversity hits?

Daily Gratitude: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Can you come up with a better definition than this? I doubt it.

I’ve talked about success before and have always said that you define your success. Well, Maya has made it easy on you because if you embrace her definition, it shows you that it is all about you.

What else does this mean? It means that you are responsible for your happiness. You can’t blame lack of it on anyone else or anything else.

The first part is key liking yourself is the most important thing you can learn to do. It took me over 70 years but I finally like myself. Sometimes it still shocks me. And then I laugh. You have to laugh at your path. It isn’t accidental so you need to have fun tracing it and seeing all the twists and turns.

I think that once you really like yourself the other two aspects will come naturally. You will know what you want to do and part of that path you’ve been on will lead you right to the door of what you like to do. You have to keep your eyes open though or else you might just walk by that door.

Once you stop and open the door to what you like to do, it will be natural that you do it well. Maybe not at the start but you will strive to do it better and better. Do you know anyone who really loves tennis and is satisfied with being mediocre? No. They continue to learn about different techniques and they practice because they want to improve. They may not be the best Wimbledon winner but they don’t stop learning and practicing.

What, then, is holding you back from success? You have all the elements. What are you waiting for?