Happy Sunday Everyone:
After last week’s ST’s on being depressed about being virtual all the time, I’m happy to announce that you can’t get on my calendar next week. I’m physically booked with human interaction in an effort to get out of the fog of virtual. Just putting some intentionality around it last week was helpful.
Separate topic this week:
I have a lot of friends out there which is something that brings me great joy and something I consider to be one of my biggest blessings. Some of those friends are extremely close and we spend a lot of time together, others are far way and we don’t interact much but when we do, it’s special. Having a lot of friends also makes you more aware of what others are going through bigger playing field, both good and bad.
7 years ago I was coming home from a summit. I was grabbing a quick breakfast at the bar with a friend, another guy came up and sat down with us, they worked together, so we started talking a bit, he had heard of Sunday thoughts and asked if I could add him. Since that time we didn’t really talk except for him replying to various ones and me responding back. His responses are always detailed, thought out, caring, and appreciative, probably why I like him so much!! Fast forward, about 3 months ago, my original friend (one of my best friends) is telling me about a guy in his office, perfect health, 54, goes in because of a pain in his leg only to find out he’s in stage 4 of a rare cancer, doctor says terminal, he’s pushing for other options. He then casually mentions his first name, I reply with his last name, and my friend says “yes, how did you know”, having forgot that I knew him. I asked my friend if I could reach out to my Sunday Thoughts friend and acknowledge that I knew, He said I could, and so I did. I called him on a Sunday. We talked for a while, had a really good talk, I asked if I could check in on him every few weeks, he said “of course”.
I left my friend a voicemail this week, told him to I was just checking in on him, see how he was doing, told him to call me, text me, email me, or nothing at all. Two days later I get the following text from him.
“Thanks for checking in on me, Hunter, you’re the man! I’m right where I’m supposed to be. Learning a ton! Here is my latest game changer. It sounds oversimplified but its a humongous concept. I focus my attention only on the next two hours. (Striving toward this). How great can I make the next two hours? This brings me a tremendous amount of peace. I’m not worried about the clients that might leave me for a lower rate, the realtor call that didn’t go as well as it should have, the value of my 401k, or if everybody’s going to be all right. I’ve been given an amazing opportunity to look at life different. I hope your next two hours are the best ever!! Keep making a difference like you do! Love you my brother”.
I apologize in advance for the self-promotion but didn’t want to doctor his text.
You can probably tell he’s not done fighting for all that is good, including continuing to work, which is why he doesn’t want his name out there, but if you’re anyone reading this, how about the next 2 hours? I’ve reviewed my friend’s message to himself, and now to me, and to all of you at least 10X when I’m a little funky, and boom…”next two hours” pops in my head. Even used it the other night to fall asleep, just thinking “enjoy this time of falling asleep”…next day…30 things blasting through my brain, “just enjoy the next two hours”….found myself just rolling through a few tasks that had to get done but I was doing them with a singular slow focus and enjoying the time with myself.
So this isn’t a sad story about a guy with cancer. It’s a learning lesson to me from someone I love from afar, who is battling but learning along the way. I think he would say his best days are right now because of how much weight he’s putting on enjoying his life with his family, all by looking at it 2 hours at a time. He’s reading this, I wish I could call him by name, but for now, I’ll just say thank you my friend. We all appreciate you and your advice, and wishing you the best!!