One of the most powerful things that I am learning is that I can impact the world. What I believe, think, say and do influences those around me to a great degree. I can choose to be, as Maya Angelou says, the rainbow in someone else’s cloud or I can be the cloud in someone else’s rainbow. Which feels better to me? Which is more helpful for everyone?
Pollyanna is my nickname. Or Jiminy Cricket. I actually like both. I wasn’t always this way, not by a long shot. If anything, I was the cynic who would tell you that won’t work and here is why. Worse, I may not have said it to your face but thought it or said it as we parted. Thank God that has changed! I believe we need both in our lives in their proper place and time but as a general rule, give me Jiminy most every time. The cynic gets very little done.
How did I change my perspective and thus my life? Well, it started with awareness and lots of prayer. Knowing that I needed to change, I moved to surrender and then I spent literally thousands of hours of study in a relatively short span of time. What I learned in the process, some of it relearning at a deeper level, changed my whole way of thinking, speaking and living. Now it is natural for me to look for the good in everything, to have gratitude for the learning that comes from the setbacks, and to speak to others to help them see another side of their situation. I am no longer the caring angry friend, to borrow one of my mentor Larry Bilotta’s phrases, to those who come to me to jump on their pity party bandwagon. Or to be outraged at the injustice heaped upon them as part of their own doing. That may sound harsh but the reality is that it is the most lovingME way there is. To own my part in every situation and to take my growth opportunity from it. To not be a victim because I choose to see things differently. As Victor Frankl showed, there is no way anyone can take my perspective from me. My perspective is always of my own thinking.
I suppose I still have remnants of the cynic’s take that everything is my fault and the Pollyanna view that it is all good. These views actually work well together. I control what I can, which, with awareness, is me. When I do that, I am moving forward in freedom. Now I help others to do the same in their lives.
