At what point in your life is it exactly as you expected? Does this really ever happen? If you asked yourself 5 or 10 years ago, if you pictured yourself where you are today. . . would you have been right?
Now for some, and yes I fall victim to this as well, look at this question in a negative light. You are NO WHERE near what you expected. Your life at some point, took the left turn, instead of the “right”. You pictured yourself more successful, better job, living in a bigger house, married, children, healthier, fitter, or better educated. At what point in life do you prove yourself “right”. You are going “exactly” to plan, you go down the right path, you accomplish everything “according to plan”.
Well, I know some people that do have “plans” and they do a wonderful job sticking to them. “I will be married by the time I am 27” etc. Funny part is, the individuals I know that have specific plans, from my perspective are not that happy.
Life does take unexpected turns. New people come in your life and people unexpectedly leave. Some you may fall in love with and others, will fall out of love with you. Heart break will tear down your walls and others won’t even let you through theirs. Success will knock on your door and you’ll forget to answer. An extra heart beat may sound in a womb of a new mother and you may become an unexpected father.
We know, or have become, any of the above.
I can honestly say in 2004 when I moved to Los Angeles I thought my life would be in a totally different world than it is. I don’t for one second regret it (especially after traveling to Kenya), but is it different? Night and day. At times, this causes me to be negative. Feel like I need to work harder to get back on track, please more people, or to make a bigger difference.
Yet, it is the challenges that come into our life – it’s the adversity that we unexpectedly face that make LIFE a great story. Movies have their bit of unexpected twists and turns. AND IT MAKES THE STORY GREAT!
So when you are mentally in your downward “dumps”. . . what gets me positive?
I think of every moment as a “Bar Stool” moment. As if 10 / 20 / or even 40 years from now I will be telling this story on a bar stool. And the story I am writing with my life right now, will gather the attention of everyone. It will chill their skin, place smiles on their faces, and even at times, cause tears to roll down their cheeks.
One great example is a famous band called the Eagles. They said, ““Just for the record, we never broke up. We just took a fourtee year vacation.” Now, 40 years later they talk about how they broke up, lived separate lives and got back together.
Everyday children are reuniting with their birth parents, rekindling old lost relationships, finding old friends, and igniting the drive to reach their true potential. Truth be told, nobody has a plan. . . just a history. Your history is written every day. And as you sit down on your bar stool decades from now, your life will not be where you thought it would. . . but if you seize every breathe and every moment. . . it will be even better. I promise!
To Your Bar Stool Moment,
Brian Williams
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