90 – March 31
“When you’re in the muck you can only see muck. If you somehow manage to float above it, you still see the muck but you see it from a different perspective.”—David Cronenberg
Oops! My car broke again. Well, machinery gets old and stuff happens. This time I was in a parking garage behind a restaurant in Culver City. It was 10:00 P.M. and I was one of the last people leaving a networking dinner. The key wouldn’t turn in the ignition and the steering column was locked. The parking lot attendant came over and tried to get it to work too, but no go. Rats.
Okay, time to play “The Glad Game”: Thank you, God, for the Auto Club. Thank you, God, for cell phones. I made some notes for my book and did some affirmations while I waited for the tow truck. Finally, my knight in shining armor arrived in the person of Bijan, astride his trusty steed, the Auto Club tow truck. He strapped my car to his truck, I got in the cab, and we took off for the repair shop.
“You know, there are some good things about this,” Bijan said to me as we drove away. I looked at him in astonishment. The tow trucker from Iran was playing “The Glad Game”! He continued, “If your wheels hadn’t been straight, I wouldn’t have been able to tow you.”
“Really?” I commented. “I guess I’m just lucky!”
Today’s Affirmation:
“I am a lucky person—I feel lucky today!”
The Wealthy Spirit: Daily Affirmations for Financial Stress Reduction
My friend and fellow author, Mariaemma Willis, gave me a great leg up when I was first writing The Wealthy Spirit. She was in my Financial Stress Reduction Workshop, and one class she brought in a flyer advertising Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield’s “How to Build Your Speaking and Writing Empire” weekend seminar and shared it with the class.
“I want to go to that!” I exclaimed, and made a copy of the flyer, called them the next day, and enrolled. Mariaemma went too and we both had a fabulous time and learned a lot, and nurtured and supported each other over the next several years as we wrote and then published our books.
Mariaemma is an expert at education and particularly children’s learning sytles, the subject of her book. She posted this excellent piece on Facebook and she gave me permission to reproduce it here:
Last week, at one of my networking group meetings, we discussed Gay Hendricks’ book The Big Leap and his concept of the Zone of Genius. Our hostess focused on the idea that if we stayed in our Zone of Genius pretty much the whole day, that would bring us the most fulfillment and success, in our careers and our lives. We then did some exercises to re-discover and identify where our genius lies.
And here is what’s so sad, I said to the group, when it was my turn. Here we are trying to resurrect our genius and encouraged to spend lots of time in that zone; yet for 12 or more years kids are prevented from doing this very thing, especially in school.
What, you want to draw all day? No drawing until you learn your math facts. Do experiments all day? I don’t think so – you’ve got English and Geography and Economics…Spend most of your time reading…or working with animals…or learning about aviation…you get the idea – it just can’t be done.
School is set up to give you a well-rounded education and you must spend lots of time on these other topics, whether they are relevant to your real life or not. And then, years later, therapists and life coaches and career counselors ask, So what do you love? Why aren’t you doing that? What makes you the happiest? Geesh, why not encourage kids to do that in the first place – discover where your genius is and you will be happy and successful!
By: LearningSuccess(tm) Institute Mariaemma Willis is co-author of Midlife Crisis Begins in Kindergarten and the best-selling Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. She provides programs that create learning & life success for all students.
It reminded me of a quote I love from The Road to Happiness: Simple Secrets to a Happy Life by Mac Anderson and BJ Gallagher (available at www.simpletruths.com):
“When I was in grade school, they told me to write down what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down, ‘Happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life.”—Anonymous
