Happy Sunday Everyone:
I couldn’t sleep the other night, 2:00 AM, head spinning, thinking, as soon as I know this, I’m screwed….not sleeping for a while. Started thinking about all that’s going on in the world, then started thinking about personal stuff, then started thinking about Sunday Thoughts topics. How do you not talk about the last 90 days of disaster/tragedy? Houston, Caribbean and Florida, Las Vegas, and now the fires in California (both northern and southern). You can’t really put words on any of it…total devastation to so many. Then i started thinking about people i know, friends going through all types of events, Florida friend’s husband has back problems, ends up with blood cancer, leaves the hospital on chemo 20 days later. Friends brother in Michigan is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, passes away 2 weeks later (literally). Another friend who i meet with every Tuesday, gets a clean bill of health after concerns of a relapse of pancreatic cancer (not good odds), client’s house burn down in Nor Cal fires…friends separated in marriage….bottom line is life is happening, some great stuff, some tragic stuff, some unlucky stuff, some sad stuff, all types of stuff. I started thinking about the conversations I’ve has w/ some of these people, some rightfully crushed, some angry, some negative, but as much as anything, people were hopeful, optimistic, and positive. Then I started thinking about the differences with these people (you wonder why I can’t sleep??) and came up with the thought that people live in 4 different quadrants at various times, some of its a choice, some of it isn’t. Quadrants are:
1. Fortunate with Gratitude.
2. Fortunate without Gratitude.
3. Unfortunate with Gratitude.
4. Unfortunate without Gratitude.
Pick 5 people in your life, pick yourself, what box do you fit in right now? Husband gets cancer and you stand by him, and are thankful to be there with him, you’re unfortunate w/ Gratitude. 90% of your life is kicking ass and you focus on the 10% that isn’t, fortunate without gratitude. Things aren’t going well for you, and you blame the rest of the world and are bitter, unfortunate without gratitude. Surround yourself w/ great people, things are going well, you take stock and recognize it, fortunate with gratitude.
Personally-I only want to be in two boxes, 1 and 3. Reality is I rarely find myself in box 4, but can easily drift in to box 2. Lost people find themselves in the wrong quadrants for long periods of time, found people find themselves in the right quadrants most of the time. I’m somewhere in the middle, but tricks like this help me evaluate it all. If you have gratitude, its next to impossible to be negative, and if you don’t have gratitude, its next to impossible to be genuinely happy and positive.
Challenge yourself this week to take stock in what box you’re in. I’ve been doing it this past week and it’s both a blessing and a curse, but being aware is half the battle, if not more.
Have a great week.