Have you ever been in traffic and started cussing to the jerk that just squeezed in front of you?
Ever have an arguement, that ended up about winning rather than communicating all the issues at hand to try resolve it?
I was in a workshop a while back and got told a story that I would like to share - it changed my perspective so easily.
The story in involved two salesmen from the West sailing to Africa, way back in the day, to sell shoes.
The first salesman arrived a month before the other trying to get an advantage on the market. When arriving on the African shores, he found that the tribes did not wear shoes.
To his dismay, he had no market for the shoes he came to sell.
A month later the second salesman arrived. He met up with the first salesman.
The first salesman said to him, ' They dont wear shoes here.'
The second salesman said, 'What?!, That means I can sell shoes to all of them, they dont wear shoes yet!'
Upon hearing this story, it taught me that life is about the lens you view it through.
Where there is no hope, it is an opportunity to create abundance.
That opportunities is just potential being realised.
It is the same with the power of our choices, if we are aware and in control of them.
When swinging the bat to hit the ball, we dont always hit the ball, but we learn how to wield the bat. When we burn our hands on the stove, we learn to check if it is on before touching it the next time. When making a mistake, we learn from it, it gives us life experience, given that sometimes we make the same mistake more than once.
With in all these moments, we choose to give our control to the situation, or we take control of the situation.
We often have choices infront of us that we are not aware of.
Allowing the things around us, to control what we do, and how we feel.
We allow so many things to dictate our lives because of how we believe things 'should be'.
Ever want that awesome toy as a kid, and when you got it played with it for a day and you went on looking for the next thing? Wanting a new toy because we saw some other kid with something different?
Ever want that awesome cheeseburger with loaded fries, knowing it will fill you up so much that you wouldnt be able to focus on anything else after?
We then get that awesome burger every week knowing that it will ruin us, and we still do it.
(This is me often).
We are in control of our choices, but at the time of hunger, we couldnt care about the other options. In the time of that heated arguement, we couldnt care about the hurt of the next person, we lost the that control.
We always have a choice, and even though its never as simple as it sounds.
Sometimes we also choose to complicate it without realizing it.
Control and Choice stems down to something so fundamental. Self-Awareness.
We give things so much power, sometimes money, sometimes time or/and energy.
The time is not something we can get back. Ever. Do we give that away so easily?
Do we realize it?
Are we in Control? Am I ? Are you?
I am grateful that I have the ablity to learn, from others and myself.
That we have a choice and the time to be more and do more if we are self aware.
We are all blessed in one way or another, but we forget that we are in control to feel grateful, to feel happy, or feel otherwise.
I know its not as easy, but if we are aware of it, its half the battle.
Giving thanks to the universe for the leasons taught and lessons still to learn...
Until next time...
