Perspective...it really does change everything. Our minds are the most powerful tool we have, hands down. Take, for instance, my recent experience with change where NOTHING except how I looked at the situation changed, which in true snowball effect, changed the way I viewed the situation, which in turn changed my view of my day and my life, and on and on and on.
Recently I was conversing with one of my customers and we were talking about retirement - the good, the bad, the ugly, but mostly about how good and fun retirement can be. After that conversation, I have to admit, I kinda felt the pangs of, "uhhhh..I honestly will never be able to retire." I'm self employed, having started my own business towards the middle portion of my life, I've raised three kids on my one income, survived twice being saddled with someone else's bankruptcy debt, and still lived through what I affectionately term the "big crash" of a few years ago. However, as circumstances would play out, living through those things has caused me to have no savings left and no company retirement to depend on. Usually things that don't matter to me at all, but in the light of this conversation, I felt the pang of....well, that's a bummer. Feeling a little sorry for myself, I just left it there and hoped to squeeze in a couple little long weekend trips this summer.
Fast forward a few days to today, when my first appointment was scheduled to start at 10:00. I was kinda tired, woke up a little chilled in the middle of the night, and decided to sleep in a little. I made my coffee, leisurely ate a donut, watched some of the Today show with Savannah's big announcement, etc., etc., and got ready for work. Then it dawned on me - at least for today, I AM semi-retired! Yay! I didn't have to beat an early deadline, fight the traffic, miss breakfast and rush on out of the house! None of that! I could just lolly-gag around and be.....semi-retired! Suddenly, thoughts flooded my mind of how blessed I am to 1) be in the line of work that I am - it's very rewarding helping people; 2) be able to work out of my home which frees up some of my time and helps with all kinds of issues; 3) be able to have some control over my own schedule so I can help out my family as need be; 4) be free of the stress of a boss or a supervisor looking over my decisions, questioning my judgments; and 5) be able to sleep in once in awhile! Now, nothing physically or circumstantially had changed since the referenced conversation a few days ago with my client - not one little bit. The only change was my perception of the situation. I changed my point of view to look at what I did have instead of what I did not have, and that, at least for today, has changed my world!
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