Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 516 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! What’s going on out there? Life just seems to fly right on by, doesn’t it? That’s why we have to make sure we are making the most of every day, being present with our friends and family, and being the best that we can be because it is all up to us how our life goes. I read a quote this week that “The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it and it will in our look sourly upon you. Laugh at it and it is a jolly kind of companion.” William Thackeray said that and I feel like that’s a secret we all should know. It came from the book “The laws of life.”
I’ve been trying to finish up the book “The laws of Life” this week. Every time I pick it up I remember why I love it. There was a story I read yesterday about Twin brothers who went to their 20 year high school reunion one as a successful rider. The other had tried and failed miserable at so many things he just kept failing at everything he did. When friends asked the successful twin, what he attributed his success to his first and foremost answer was my parents! That’s a funny story obviously because those parents who were also the parents to his twin brother so much in life is what we make of it and how our attitude is matters more than what we have been given. Opportunities show up partly based on what we expect. If we expect for things to be unfair and life is against me and I was never given a leg up so of course I’m a failure…if you have that attitude…that’s all going to come true for you, it’s part of the law of life.
We all experience life, every one of us has good things happen and also not so good things happen. Our attitude about it all is what ultimately matters. If you’ve been listening for a while you know that my husband is a pilot and over the last 7 months he hasn’t been able to fly because he lost his medical due to Afib. He got it fixed and has changed so much about how he is doing things, I am so proud of him. Well, I have an Update.. Eric flew for the first time in seven months this week. He was apprehensive as you can imagine, but it went well. He said he felt a little rusty but overall he felt right back at home. I couldn’t be happier for him. I wish I could explain how I felt about this whole experience. From finding out he had Afib to now where he is back flying. It was scary and there were moments when I was worried and he was worried, of course there were. But I really feel like we came out of it stronger individually and as a couple. We weathered every up and down and just kept knowing for sure that things were working in our favor and they always did. Honestly, we needed that wake up call because we had gotten a little lax in areas, but instead of letting this get us down, we rallied together and we made big changes in our life like our eating and drinking, our exercise, Eric is now even going to the sauna too which has gotten me back in there as well. We have grown so much from this. I don’t look back on the seven months and think negatively about it. I actually look back and think it made us stronger and it brought us closer together and we realize that no external thing is bigger than us individually or together, we can always rise above our circumstances if we choose to. And so can you. No one thing can take you down permanently unless you let it.
I read an article this week that was in Abundant Living magazine. It tells of an Irish uprising in 1848 in which the me were captured, tried and convicted of treason against her majesty, Queen Victoria. All were sentenced to death. Passionate protests from all over the world persuaded the queen to commute the death sentences. The men were banished to Australia, a place as remote and full of prisoners as Russian Siberia was later. Years passed. In 1874 Queen Victoria learned that a Sir Charles Duffy who had been elected Prime minister of Australia was the same Charles Duffy who had been banished 26 years earlier. She asked what had become of the other eight convicts and learned that two had become brigadier generals of the US army, one was attorney general for Australia, one was the next attorney general, One became the minister of Agriculture for Canada, one was elected governor of Montana, one became a prominent New York politician and one became governor of Newfoundland.
You see what happens to us on the journey of life is not nearly as important as how we handle what happens. Life sometimes takes unexpected twists and turns that can throw us off course for a little while. The key though is to learn from those experiences, good and bad and go on from there. We can try to move forward and create as life we really love in spite of the falls we may have had. But it doesn’t happen without an attitude of being willing to move forward knowing in spite of it all. I often think about the idea of a rut. You don’t like being in the rut but it’s what you know so you stay there in the rut, heading exactly where that rut is heading without ever leaving it OR you take the bounce that you know is coming if you get out of the rut, you know it’s going to take more effort than you’re currently giving but once you get out of that rut, the world is your oyster. The rut no longer is your prison. You’ve changed your own life. So many choose to stay in the rut because it’s safe.
My challenge to you this week is to ask yourself what the mirror of your life is showing you. Our attitude matters more than any circumstance. Life is working in your favor you just have to keep looking for how. Share this with 3 people who deserve to live a happy life. I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
