Disclaimer: this is not a “poor Lee” story, read the whole post to understand.
I fondly recall the 5 and 6-figure months. 30k for a beautiful deck. No problem. 12k for a 2-story spiral staircase – done. 72-inch TV. Pool table. Land Rover, BMW, quads, first class seats to anywhere, luxury suites, travel around the world, and so much more.
Financially, things were awesome.
But business had been declining for a while. Discourse in a relationship causes that to happen. My life was unbalanced and eventually this led to a divorce. It’s all my fault, I own the full and complete responsibility for that.
After the divorce things weren’t sunshine and roses.
By mid-2010, the income had all but stopped. In fact, there were many times when I had to dig for change in the couch cushion of the run-down place I was staying. I took odd jobs doing whatever I could for a few dollars. Every once in a while I got a good copywriting gig – thank God for my writing skills.
But usually I was digging for change.
I recently told a friend this story, and I felt like I needed to share it with you.
Not to get pity or be a victim, but to empower you that no matter how awful the situation looks on the outside 1) it can sometimes get worse, but 2) it will usually get better. If you believe it will.
The “digging for change in the couch” thing was a very interesting part of my experience and this part really resonated with him so we talked about it for a while longer. I told him “the funny thing is there always seems to be enough for me to grab Taco Bell or a value meal someplace, it’s not great food but it kept me going, it kept me pushing forward.”
He asked me if there was ever a time I dug for change and there was none there. I told him, oddly, I trusted there would be and there seemed to always be just enough for a meal. He marveled at this level of faith and asked “yeah, but how do you KNOW there is always going to be change?”
I told him…
“Because change comes from within.”
Think about that for a few minutes. I would bet that anytime you have ever overcome ANY obstacle in your life it was because you finally DECIDED to. Right?
Your destiny is in the decision.
Lee Collins
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