#Squadgoals

Today was an interesting and awesome day.

In a normal day, I talk to various people.  Some clients, some friends, some family.

It wasn’t always like this.  As a kid, I was kind of a misfit.  I pigeon holed myself to a few friends.  They were EVERYTHING to me.  But as life changes, so does the direction of your life and that of your friends and…well, suffice it to say…things change.

Sadly for me, at an early age, I realized that when things change and you have few friends and they leave….you have nothing…..  and as a kid, you just don’t know what to do with yourself when  you have nothing!

As I grew older, I started watching people more.  I became a true observer of life.  I watched behaviors and outcomes of those around me and I started formulating my life around what I learned by my observations.

One of the best books I read in my life is “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers.  It was a life changing book for me and solidified that having just one important thing in your life will never serve you will.

Just like a financial portfolio, it’s best to DIVERSIFY!

I’m a visual person, so the visuals in the book really helped.  In the book Dr. Jeffers explains that if we create a box of our world and we only have ONE important thing in it, (Let’s say our most prized relationship) and that relationship goes away…the box (aka our world) is now EMPTY!!!

BUT….if we take our same box and fill it with MULTIPLE things, (i.e. JOB, FRIENDS, FAMILY, HOBBY, PARTNER, KIDS, CHURCH, SCHOOL, etc…) if we take away ONE THING…we are still left with much to fill our lives!  That ONE example in the book changed my life!

Thankfully, today I’m filled with many opportunities in many areas of my life.  I have many friends and acquaintances in different crevices that don’t intersect and therefore can’t cross contaminate.

On this day I have found myself reflecting on the various relationships I have and how they are all different and I’m taken back to that book that opened my eyes so many years ago!

The reason this is hitting me is I watch my kids and see where all this has made a difference.  I have taught my children, that though they dance, dance friends shouldn’t be all they have.  And as a result, they have school friends and dance friends and church friends.  They have diversified their lives at a way younger age than I started.  And I’m so happy to see that one small influence from a book I read OH SO MANY years ago, is paying its way forward into the lives of my children!

I’ve said it before…life is a journey.  We all trudge our own paths and we all pay our own dues.

As I was talking to friends tonight, we were discussing the vast difference in personalities of the people around us.  Some are on the same page while others fly a whole different route.  And we laughed as we realized how we have learned to appreciate the differences in who we all are as individuals in life. We ALL bring something to the table that will help us to grow if we just see the lesson in who we all are!

I’m very thankful for those who surround me.  Though I’m not perfect, in any way, shape or form, I love the journey we call life!

I’m feeling very blessed today by all the people I call my friends…and many are my clients as well.

I learn and grow every day.  I try not to judge even though some people make it really hard at times.  But I was told long ago that if you step back and look at something with interest and curiosity…you cannot judge it…… And it’s true….

We are the sum of our actions.  If you are unhappy with your life, YOU are doing something to cause that unhappiness.

If you keep hitting the same issue over and over again…the one common denominator is YOU.

You either blame OUT…or you blame IN….  IF you blame out…you should ask yourself why.  If you blame IN….you should ask yourself why!

People show you who they are by their actions.  Believe them the first time.

Life is not perfect.  If you feel people owe you, you are wrong.

Life is a gift.  If you can’t appreciate the flowers, you aren’t seeing them.

Every friend will teach you something.  Good or bad, they will teach.  The BEST friends will make you cry when you are feeling down yet deserve to hear what they are telling you.  Your BEST friends don’t walk away when you make a decision that doesn’t align with what YOU thought.  The BEST friends let you be who you are and if there is an issue they TALK IT THROUGH.

I have relationships that span over 30 years.  We didn’t always agree, but we always respected.

We aren’t all the same, people.  But we are who we are for a reason.  Figure out what that reason is and for God’s sake, be good to each other and to yourself!  None of us get out alive!