One Day at a Time

Ever notice when you start getting anxious and overwhelmed by various "stressers" in your life, you start to wish your days away in order to know or get to the end result? Whether it was waiting for the news about what colleges you got into, finding out if you got that next big job or promotion, waiting for news from a doctor, or even just getting through a weekday in order to get to the weekend...we've all done it. I sure have! I am most guilty of this in about January/February when all of the football coaching jobs begin their shake ups and we are all left wondering, will we be kept with the current team? Where will we go if we aren't? Will we have ANY job? Luckily, at the moment, we are a long football season away from that lovely part of year, but I have still found myself wishing to know the outcome of other things that I know can't control.

No matter how much you wish the weekend would just get here already, or to know if you will ever meet Mr./Mrs. Right, have babies, be the inventor of the next big thing, or if you are going to be Vice President of your company someday, the only way to know is just...to...wait. Wait, and enjoy every single second on the road to getting there. There are some times that this is easier to see and keep in perspective(and we are ALL guilty of losing sight of it), but every day on this earth is a blessing. No single day is guaranteed. I think this is a sobering thought. Sometimes we wish to "fast forward" through the difficult, or "boring" things in order to get to the "good stuff", like Adam Sandler's character in the movie "Click". But for anyone who has seen this movie(which is actually has a great message, so watch it if you haven't already), you know that if you spend your life wishing to get to the good part, you will very quickly get to the end of your life and realize that you actually missed all of the good parts and that you fast forwarded through the very best days of your life. Today's reminder is: be grateful for today, but thankful for the now, slow down, and take it one day at a time. God Bless :-)

It Feels Like Fall

Who is excited for the start of COLLEGE FOOTBALL?!? I woke up this morning and by 10am there were four different college football games for me to choose from on my television (this is a large perk of living on the West Coast). A lot of the match ups aren't all that exciting since it is only the first weekend (with the exception of Notre Dame v. Purdue), but I can't help but feel like the fall has really started to arrive. I know that the calendar says that the first "official" day of fall isn't until September 23rd, but I don't really think it is dictated by the calendar, I think it is dictated by a few of those tell-tale signs.

College football on Saturdays, NFL on Sundays, the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks, a little chill in the air, the smell of fresh cut grass on the soccer field, a plethora of apples to choose from at the grocery store, school supplies in the stores, fires in the fireplace, the changing tree colors, the smell of the leaves, the list goes on and on. Of course we are only at the VERY beginning of these signs on September 4th, but there is a definite warm fuzzy, comforting feeling in knowing that the rest are coming.

Some of my favorite memories growing up were from Saturday afternoons in Bedford, NY. After playing in town soccer games, complete with fresh cut orange slices at half time, we would ride to the Deli with my Dad and get a sandwich and a Nehi Grape Soda (since soda was not something we had in the house, it was definitely a treat that became one of the driving factors in my continuing to play soccer as a kid). We would head home in the early afternoon and play outside with our friends. In the late afternoon we would head inside and do homework while my Dad made a fire in the fireplace and watched college football and my Mom made dinner. Sometimes on Saturdays, if the schedules matched up correctly, my Dad, big brother and I would head up to West Point to watch the Army Black Knights in action at Michie Stadium. I never much paid attention to the actual game because I didn't really understand it, but LOVED the atmosphere. I loved the smells, sounds and sights of the games. The hot dogs, the cheers of the cadets, the sound of the band, and that crisp fall smell. To me, those kinds of days were the definition of fall.

What are the things that make you feel that the fall has definitely arrived?

You Choose

The other day I came across another section of Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike" that I wanted to share. I thought it was good to post on this blog because a) it provides an excellent perspective on how to live your life and b) it has to do with the namesake of of my blog. As you have seen in the past, I have shared moments of my day to day life...mostly things that shape me and make me who I am. I also share things that I believe....things inspire me, have special meaning to me, and things that I hope will inspire others to live their most positive life.

I believe that optimism is a choice. You have the ability to choose every day if you want to let your life be driven by doom, cynicism, and negativity or if you want your life to be driven by hope, happiness and optimism. I know it is completely unrealistic to believe that ALL bad days can be beaten by a simple outlook, because there are some days NOTHING seems to go your way...but I also realize on those days, that however bad my day is going, there are people in this world going through something much harder and much worse than me. The truth is, that I am, and you are, truly blessed. It is my choice each day to realize and focus on the blessings and be thankful for them. Do you choose to focus on the positive? Or do you choose to focus on the negative? If you find yourself focusing on the negative, it is a great internal challenge to reverse that habit. Challenge yourself!

Armstrong wrote: "Without belief, we would be left with nothing but an overwhelming doom every single day. And it will beat you. I didn't fully see, until the cancer, how we fight every day against the creeping negatives of the world, how we struggle daily against the slow lapping of cynicism. Dispiritedness and disappointment, these were the real perils of life, not some sudden illness or cataclysmic millennium doomsday."

Keep your spirit, keep your hope, and live what you believe.