What We Can Learn from the 2013 Boston Red Sox

There are some great stories and lessons coming out of the recent Red Sox win of the World Series.  Full disclosure - I’m a long time Red Sox fan which is why I’m listening and reading about the team.  But I’m also someone who teaches success strategies and there are plenty here for all of us.

 I heard a former player say today that when they come up to the plate to bat, they’re to put all the other times they failed that day behind them.  It’s a new opportunity and that one at bat might be the one that wins the game.  That happened throughout the playoff series with a variety of players who had not at any hits at all.  If they had given up, if they had thought of themselves as failures, they would not have gotten the hits they got that ultimately won that game.  Goes back to my ‘pearl’ theory – that we’re only given this moment and we should treat it like the pearl it is.  It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, last week, last year – as long as the things you didn’t do well taught you something.  Move on – who knows what incredibly experience is right ahead.

We often think we have to be perfect in everything.  A good batter is over .300 which means they hit 3 out of every 10 times they’re at the plate.  Yet we’re so hard on ourselves when we make a mistake or mess something up.  Of course if you only pick your kids up 3 out of 10 times, that’s a problem but you understand the story.

I find this to be true when I’m going through a down time.  It seems like it will never end.  Then it does - because that’s how life evolves - some of my best times follow.  That was definitely true for the Red Sox who had a pitiful year last year.  But as they say now – from worst to first!  You don’t have to be a ball player to experience that.

The other point today was about team.  That former player was asked what he’d remember about the 2013 Red Sox years later.  They weren’t a bunch of big stars like the 2004 Red Sox – they were a true team that cared about the game (their job), their own place in it and each other.  When some were down, the others stepped up.  And they never quit – on themselves, with each other, with the city of Boston who needed the lift, and with the rest of their fans.  Some great lessons indeed.

Is your life like a beautiful strandof pearls?

The other day I was trying to explain the concept of creating moments to my mom (who patiently listens to me test out new ways of teaching the strategies I learn and teach to others).  If you want a happy life, create lots of happy moments because all we have is this moment and it's up to us what to do with it.

I wanted to create a visual to go with the idea for my next seminar. Here's what popped into my head:

Each moment is like a pearl, precious and unique. For the most part, we get to create that pearl by how we decide to process what's happening around us.  Even if what's going on is annoying or hurtful, we get to choose how we're going to take it in.  Remember even a pearl is formed in an oyster by covering up an irritation. Beauty from pain, how great is that?

We get to create moment after moment of wonderful 'pearls' and we get to string them together to make our life.  What does your strand look like? Is it so full of beautiful moments that you have to wrap the string of pearls around a couple of times to wear it? Beautiful to wear, beautiful to give as a gift?

Or are you creating overly dramatic moments, full of complaining, blaming, justifying, negativity and stress?  That unhealthy set of pearls will literally choke the joy right out of you - a choker if you will.

What kind of pearls do you choose?  I know which ones I want. I originally wrote this sitting by the Cape Cod Canal in the fog (it was supposed to be a sunny day!) with a twisted knee and a close to dead cell phone.  But it was my moment so I chose to be happy, healthy and positive because it's my life, my pearl.  

Good news is it works - for me, for the thousands of teens who have been through the Stragegies for Success program, and for the many others who choose to embrace this way of thinking.  It can work for you too!

Keep shining!
Marianne

PS...Having trouble staying in the positive, keeping the stress at bay?  I'll be sharing the strategies I use myself including some of the newest I just learned at my next seminar coming up in October.  Stay tuned!

A Front Seat to History

I love the Cape, especially in good weather.  Love it so much that once a week, I drive out to the canal to work - to write, to study, to edit.  That's one of the benefits of being self-employed working from home along with no alarm clocks, work in jammies days, no boss.  But there are downsides including the fact that it's isolating.  Hence the weekly trip to the Cape Cod Canal.

Two weeks ago I got there extra early so I could get my favorite spot.  I was shocked to find that about 1000 people had beaten me there.  Not only was my favorite spot gone but so were all the other places to park. Was it a holiday?  Work stoppage?  Did the forces of synchronicity conspire to have everyone travel to the same place?  

No.  It was a special occasion, a chance to witness history.  The Mayflower which had been refitted and spruced up was scheduled to pass through the canal that very morning at 9 am.  I found myself with my feet dangling over the canal just a few yards (meters for the rest of the world - why are we the only ones who haven't gone metric??) away from history.

Now I can't claim to be a history buff being more involved in the arts and science but I do love when unexpected surprises present themselves. I wonder if this qualifies as a 'miracle' as Dr. Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey's first day of their meditation suggests, "Be on the lookout for miracles." Guess it depends on your definition of miracles.  I choose to see it as yes...  I mean it's the Mayflower, really!

I do believe that lots of wonderful things are happening all around us - if we take the time to notice.  I remember Oprah saying on one of her Favorite Things shows, "It's not about winning all the great prizes but about realizing that great surprises can be right around the corner." We'll see them if we're open to them. If we're focused mostly on the BJC's (blaming, justifying, complaining), that's all we see everywhere we look.

What do you focus on? Everything that's wrong with your job, your family, significant other?  Or everything you like about them?  You get to choose if you pay attention rather than running around on automatic pilot.  Notice the good, find the surprises, witness the 'miracles'.  Seek and ye shall find! Indeed!

As for me, I got to see history parade right by me!  Wonder what great surprise awaits me next?