Happy Sunday Everyone:
I can’t start this without giving a shout out to all the Mothers out there. Talking of parents on a general basis is always a hard topic because there have been some great ones, and not so great ones. There are parents that intentionally love their children, there are parents who intentional do not love their children, and there is everything in between. With my own mom, I was intentionally loved. She wasn’t easy, still isn’t, but she loves me, I’d venture to say unconditionally. I had mentioned a while back an epiphany I had on the concept of turning out the way you do because of something/someone, or in-spite of something/someone. For me, the good qualities I have come because of my mom, not in-spite of my mom. Writing this out, makes me think about what I have learned from my mom along the way, what’s she’s put in me through observation of her. Family first above all else, work hard to survive, intensely loyal to the right friends, leave a legacy, be fair, root for the underdog, have fun, don’t apologize to anyone for being me, stay cool and relevant and your grandkids will want to be with you all the time. I’m grateful for my mom.
Perhaps this is the last time I’ll talk about my taste and smell being gone for 4 months, IT’S BACK. Regular doctor sent me to ENT DR, who put me on a prednisone burst where I’m taking oral steroids for 2 weeks. 4 days in, which was last Sunday, Kim and I are at another tasteless lunch, I bite into a sushi roll and boom- I could taste everything. Until you haven’t been able to taste, or smell, you have no idea what it’s like to start to get those things back in your life. What’s crazy however, is I’m now a week into it and I can feel myself losing the appreciation of it. It’s already becoming a “whatever”. As much as I talk about gratitude, I’m still on the struggle bus of keeping it in front of me, in all aspects of my life.
I was flying back last night from Miami for a coaching summit and I kept thinking about this topic, and something we discussed often as coaches, which is the two most powerful emotions being fear and love, of which I agree. What does this have to do with gratitude, or taste? My brain goes in one of two directions at all times, fear or love. I believe fear is an easier emotion to identify with personally, it’s the what will go wrong, it’s doubt, it’s hedging your risk, and your level of being all in. Love is being all in, love is a growth mindset, love is worry less, do more. Love is focusing on what is going right vs. going wrong and appreciating it all. Love is gratitude. Simple exercise for me, every thought that comes into my brain, push it into 2 categories, is this love or fear? If it’s fear, get rid of it as it serves little to no purpose. Work on focusing on the emotion of love vs. fear, have more gratitude for longer periods of time and I’ll appreciate having my taste back for more than a week. More importantly than the taste, is how that love vs. fear will help with everything else in my life.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms, and have a great rest of your Sunday.