Reflections
What you see
usually matches
what you are looking for.
So if you’re looking for trouble,
you’ll find it.
If you’re looking for ways
people have let you down,
you’ll have them.
If you are looking for ways
you have failed…
I’m not saying you shouldn’t
be prudent
or
analytical
or
cautious about the potential danger.
I am saying,
be careful what you look for.
What you see isn’t
always
what you get.
So we are always suspicious.
But when you
show up,
care,
do the work,
you
become
the
“what you see is what you get”
person
and gain the
trust
everyone really
wants.
Everyone wants to be a winner.
We buy lottery tickets.
We play fantasy sports.
We enter raffles.
All hoping for that great surprise
of our name being called,
our number being pulled.
Being a winner by that strategy
may not work out.
But today?
You’re already a winner.
Here’s what you’ve won:
another opportunity
to become the person
you’ve always wanted to be.
What are you going to do with
your
prize?
So often,
when we get what
we always
wanted,
we realize
it is
not
what we
needed.
And this is the moment of
choice:
Do I pretend to be
satisfied
or
work through
disappointment
to create
the life
I really want?
Halloween is one big game of
dress up
where
people are encouraged to
express their creativity
and
get to become
something else,
someone else
for just a few hours.
It’s why we love Halloween.
Too bad we can’t
find a way
to encourage
people to
be creative
and
really
become who they want to be
every day of the year.
Don’t
tell me,
yell at me,
scold me,
guilt me,
shame me.
Please
stop
and
take the time to
teach me.
I know it takes longer,
but when you do,
we all get
better.
When he found out how long
I had been married, he asked,
“How did you make it so long?”
I said, “It’s like being in recovery,
you cannot think about
weeks,
months,
years
in the future.
You must wake up
every. single. day
and
promise to love
your partner
the best way you can
for today.
Some days,
you’ll get it right.
Some days,
you won’t,
but if both of you
make that promise
every. single. day.
all of a sudden
you’ve lived a
lifetime,
together.”
It's as simple
and
as incredibly difficult
as that.
as
Showing up
consistently,
patiently,
purposefully
as an advocate
for
yourself
is
much more difficult
than doing it for someone else.
But if you don’t start
showing up for
yourself,
who
will?
Our days are like untamed animals.
They seem to have
a mind
and
an agenda
of their own.
No wonder so many people say,
“The day got away from me.”
Like breaking a horse
or
training a dog,
our days
need
methodical,
consistent
nurturing
and
focus.
But you must find
the path between
absolute rigidity
and
free-ranging
otherwise
you’ll be the one
who wants
to get
away.
A basic rule of golf:
Play it as it lies.
Wherever your ball ends up
is
where you have to go
and
hit your next shot.
You can get
mad about it,
fuss,
fume,
cuss,
grind your teeth,
but the ball
is
where
it
is.
And it must be played from there.
The best golfers
learn to accept this
without
all the
drama.
They just plan their next move
based on where the ball is,
not
on where they wished it had
landed.
Wherever you are
in life --
in the rough,
behind a tree,
blocked from advancing
or sitting pretty in the fairway --
the only choice you have
is to make your next move
from there.
Play it as it lies
and
move on.
