A New Perspective

Major life events always have a way of waking us up to what really matters the most to us. I woke up Sunday morning only to be greeted by the news that a tornado had caused massive damage in the middle of the night to a town 35 miles southeast of where I live. That’s getting rather close! What if it had been my neighborhood? It was only a county away. Talk about getting a new perspective on life!

These days with all that is happening in the news around us and the economy we are all being challenged about our "perspectives." One could easily agree with Charles Dickens that these are “the best of times and the worst of times.” I guess it depends on what side of the fence you are on and more importantly how you view it!

As a certified life coach, I am profoundly aware that life is about perspective. It really does matter how you view or see things. You might say one will go only as far in life as their perspective will take them. What’s your perspective on life? Is the glass half empty of half full with you? Is your focus constantly on your problems or what’s wrong or missing in your life, or on what’s right about your life and what you have to be grateful for? It really does matter how you view things.

A man who had lost his job and was suicidal called his minister and told him that because he had lost his job he was suicidal. The minister’s response was – “Can you walk? Can you talk? Can you see? Well, I figure you have just about everything. You have only lost a job.” Talk about perspective! After the damage had been done in this recent tornado, one man made a very profound statement. His statement came after observing that one half of his house was flattened by the tornado while the other half has been destroyed by a tree. It's hard to believe, it's hard to take in," Stephenson said but "We've got our lives and our health, so we're good to go.” We’re good to go- now that’s perspective! I believe this man’s perspective will no doubt help him to make it in the days ahead.

If our life flows from our perspective and I believe it does, then maybe we could all learn a few things from the courage and heroic lives of others like Mr. Stephenson. Things may not be great or as we would like them but as long as we are living and breathing we are “good to go.”

Andy Andrews, motivational speaker and author, recently wrote an article on hope. I believe he says it best. Andy shares some of his own personal struggles of losing his home to a hurricane and other major life events. “Even in the worst of times, I must remember that I am still breathing. If I am still breathing, that means that I am still here. If I am still here, that means that I have not completed what I was put here to do. If I have not completed what I was put here to do, that means that my very purpose has not been fulfilled. If my very purpose has not been fulfilled, that means that the most important part of my life has yet to be lived. If the most important part of my life has yet to be lived, then it doesn't really matter how old I am or how broke I am, how long I've tried or how depressed I might be ... Here, at last, is proof that the best part of my life is ahead of me! Without a doubt, there is more laughter to come, more success in my future… there is more” Now, that my friend is quite a perspective, and better yet, a great way to live!

Why Your Choices Matter

When you woke up this morning, you made several choices about how your day would go before you even left your house. You decided whether to eat breakfast or not. You decided what to wear. Just a few decisions about getting up or not getting up, eating or not eating food, could affect your whole day. Our choices both small and large really do matter. In fact, every decision matters.

Sometimes we think our choices really don’t matter, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth! For example, what you decide today about education or lack of it, the friends you associate with or don’t associate with, who you will marry and a host of other decisions could affect your entire future! When we don’t believe our choices matter we become passive and unintentional with our lives. We let others decide for us and then we wonder why we have problems and difficulties.

In reality, the greatest thing you and I possess as humans is the ability to decide or to choose. We not only get to choose a number of things about our external world- what to wear, where to live, what to drive etc. but we also have choices about our internal world- our thoughts and attitudes. Those that realize the importance of their choice with their inner world, are the ones who have the greatest opportunity to succeed in life. They are using the greatest gift they possess- the power of choice.

We have been blessed by our Creator with a free will. What that means is we have more power than we realize. Even when circumstances are beyond our control, we still have a choice on how we will respond to those events. Roberta Flack’s parents once said, “You can live in the circumstances but the circumstances don’t have to live in you.” It’s a choice!

It’s always a choice! No one can make you respond in a certain way. No one can choose your thoughts or how you will think about a situation but you! At the end of a day, you always have a choice with even what you do with the difficult situations of life. You can either grow through those circumstances, learn from them and become a stronger and better person, or shut down and become bitter and angry. It’s always a choice!

To say that you have no choice is not only the ultimate blame game but it is not a very good way to live! The person that says they have no choice in the matter somehow believe they alone have been singled out and picked on by life. As long as it is someone else's fault or I can blame some circumstance then I do not have to take ownership or responsibility for my life.

The real freedom comes in life when we take ownership for our life and our own choices. We realize we are not a victim unless we choose to be.. We learn to use the one important thing we possess- our choice. We realize that our choices do matter and that one choice at a time, we can move ahead, we can grow, we can change and even succeed in this life.

I have a new video series including the Power of Choices at http://www.coachjanet.com