Father’s Day 2017 – Very happy to be with my Mom and Dad, vacationing in Minnesota. We are at our favorite breakfast place. Plates of scrumptious eggs have just arrived at the table. Unexpectedly, my nose itches intensely. No time to grab a napkin. I quickly turn away as a sneeze rockets out of me. Hand over my face, I sprint to the bathroom to clean up this epic web of mucous I had no idea was even within me.
June 2017 – I made a proclamation on Facebook that I will avoid consuming blatantly sugary foods until my birthday at the end of July. Yet, week one I ate a candy bar while driving to Orange County, then another week two in Dallas. Week three and, now, four – my trip to the Midwest has been an all-out-sugar-a-thon. I’ve given in to so many sugary temptations that I’ve literally lost count.
July 27,1975 to Present – I came into this world premature and lost some oxygen on the way in, as a result I developed a speech impediment and some coordination differences….
What’s so awesome about any of this??
Ok, wait just a minute Jason! I thought your way of being in life was to focus on its gifts rather than its limitations, on the opportunities rather than the obstacles, on the joy rather than the despair. But this week you’re bringing up horribly inopportune sneezes, going back on your word by embarking on a sugar rampage and saying your voice and coordination are actually a lifelong embarrassment?!?!
What??!!!??!!!##@@&!!!!
I’m so confused . . .
I offer you this ringside seat to what often goes on in my head because if you are anything like me there’s often a World War III-level cage fight playing out in your mind.
I don’t believe we create happy and productive lives for ourselves by pretending that our minds lack the capacity to think profoundly negative thoughts.
Maybe some people have the capacity to only think positive, but not me.
Luckily, what has saved my life from being profoundly and endlessly negative, is developing my capacity to focus on the good.
For me focusing on the good is a daily practice that takes mindfulness, determination, and creativity.
Daily practice provides endless opportunities to do our best and in the process to be totally imperfect. It’s not a coincidence that the subtitle of my book Awkwardly Awesome, is Embracing My Imperfect Best. My epic Father’s Day Sneeze? Imperfect. Not at all what I had planned. Not following my commitment to eat substantially less sugar? Imperfect. Not at all what I had intended! Having a speech impediment and coordination differences?
Ahh, see, here lies the center of our power to focus on the good:
I now use my speech and coordination as a profound gift that propels me to write books and travel the country.
My life could have been and still could be a riot of endless embarrassment fueled continuously by the thoughts in my head.
Maybe your life could be a similar riot.
Or we can do our imperfect best each day to focus on the good within us and the good that we can create for ourselves and others.
This is an imperfect path filled with accidental sneezes and things that don’t go quite as planned. But it is also such a rewarding experience because it brings out our very best.
Now, this is AWESOME!
(See! We found it!)
Jason’s book, Awkwardly Awesome: Embracing My Imperfect Best, is available on Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback formats!
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