Watching TV for me consists of flipping through the channels trying to find something positive and inspiring to watch. The History channel, the Learning channel and the National Geographic channel seem to be where I end up most. Last week while surfing the channels I ended up coming across a commercial from a company called West Bend. The West Bend I knew growing up made small kitchen appliances and certainly wasn’t in the business of creating inspirational commercials that not only sold their products but left you with a strong message. This particular West Bend is an insurance company and their commercials center around being your best when you are faced with the worst. I think it is a brilliant ad campaign and to follow it up with their tag line, “West Bend” “The Silver Lining Company” is even cooler.
Terry Lyles, America’s Stress Doctor and Human Performance Engineer, likes to say “Expect the best but prepare for the worst” . There are the practical applications of this thinking that we can apply to our everyday experience that helps us better cope with what ever we are facing and then there is the deeper and lasting application that can change your life.
I like to think that I have spent most of my 51 years life looking for the good in everything, that certainly was the case for the first 47 when I enjoyed incredible success and happiness in just about everything that I took on. But over the last few years when my guard was down, I let the opinions of others influence my thinking. When I was faced with what anyone else would consider a major issue, I no longer tackled it myself, I tried to tackle it by committee, unfortunately the committee wasn’t on the same page with me. While I was saw the cup as half full, those that surrounding me always saw that cup as half empty and worried about all the bad stuff they expected to happen. I had done a poor job of inspiring the troops and bringing them to the level that had always served me well. All of sudden my knowing every situation would work out was outweighed by an army that expected it not to work out and worked hard and ultimately convinced me that in their opinion I was not in their words a “realist”. Funny thing though, for 47 years, my definition of being a “realist” worked pretty well for me, I made incredible amounts of money, bought my dream home, improved my dream home with more funds than I purchased it with, travelled all over the world, gave my kids everything and experience they could want and it was all easy because I knew I could create anything I wanted. For 47 years, everything flowed to me like magic, friends would tell me that everything I touched turned to gold and that I always landed on my feet when ever there was a down turn and you know what they were right. Those first 47 years were incredible but it wasn’t the best I could do because I wasn’t as disciplined in regards to managing my thoughts as I needed to be. I let the outside world seep in to my head, I let well-meaning friends and associates try to bring me back down to earth and they certainly did.
So after 47 years of living an incredibly fulfilling life, the wheels came off because I did not manage my thoughts efficiently or did they come off because the Universe needed to find a way to tell me to “kick it up a notch” to really bring out the best that I could be. The past 3 years were pretty horrible by anyone’s standards, losing my home of 25 years, losing many loved ones to cancer and other diseases and losing everything I had created materially during those first 47 years. I needed the Worst, to shake me up so I could bring out the Best ! and baby you ain’t seen nothing yet !
Truly bringing out your best requires massive action and when it comes to managing your thoughts and getting your head in the right place it calls for massive infusions of “The Right Stuff”. In my case, the first thing I did was to quit listening to talk radio and news on TV while removing myself from the political discussion of the day. Once you do that you realize that the least intelligent life forms on the face of the earth are our politicians and elected officials and it doesn’t matter which party they are in, they are all small thinkers focused on advancing a personal agenda. The next thing I did was to fill my car and Ipod full of the most positive and enlightening audio material I could find. And finally, I keep a personal written journal and a video journal to record my thoughts and to remind me of the reality I am going to create. The next 51 years will be hundreds of times more incredible than my last 51 years. The Universe has so much to offer and you can find it anywhere.
Let me leave you with a little story from last night while having a conversation with my son. Another part of my massive action plan is that I have taken on additional positions ( I won’t call them jobs because I don’t see them as such) that pretty much fill up 20 to 22 hours of each 24 hour day, 7 days week. One of those positions happens to be as a night manager at convenience/gas station. I took the position because I truly wanted the opportunity to interact with people and see if I could make a difference in the lives of people who visit that store when I am there. I didn’t even care what the position paid, I am not even sure I asked. I think the person who hired me wasn’t sure what to think as he told me I was way over qualified for the position and I told him that was a good thing that I wasn’t even considering this a job. I think he thought I was nuts, but he hired me anyway. Back to the conversation with son who couldn’t believe his dad was going to work at a gas station. He told he could get me a job working at the place he does unloading trucks and stocking shelves overnight for twice the money. He also told me that how much you make is much more important than whether you enjoy what you are doing…really ? The wisdom of a 22 year old ! and an illustration of how one person’s reality is totally different from someone else’s. The bottom line is I look at everything I do as an adventure, as new experience, as something that may take places I have never been before. Life is all about experiences and finding new and interesting experiences is most of the fun. I wonder how much more people would enjoy life if they looked at every single thing they do as adventure that may take them well beyond what most people would think. Whatever you do, let “The Worst..Bring out the Best” and soon you will understand that the worst is what gave you the best.
You Know It ! Blog 