Gratitude, Turning the Corner, Chaos, and Order, The Seven Key Areas of Life

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
— Melody Beattie

7:13 am, coffee is made, liquid iv water in my Yeti, back massager on, let's see what is whipping around in my mind this morning. I began feeling better yesterday morning; I found the more I moved, the better I felt; I cleaned up the kitchen, headed up to get a shower, worked around the house, and we did get a bite to eat at one of our favorite local restaurants.

My wife got some groceries, and then we came home and watched some football. The kids retrieved Griffy about 4:00 and then headed home; we watched the first game and headed to bed. Unfortunately, we missed the Bills game; I got up to see they lost in overtime. A quick health update, sore throat and aches are gone, now I'm left with a pesky cough, but I feel much better. I've got some meetings to run in Muncie today; I'll head up this morning and hope to stop and see my parents; I can't imagine I'm contagious, but I probably won't be giving any hugs.

I mentioned yesterday our men's group had selected Jordan Peterson's Twelve Rules for Life to read this year. Each month we take a chapter and jump in, and during our meeting will discuss each rule. The book is to help bring society together, aligning us on some basic agreements and understandings of our world. I have read the book but started rereading it yesterday morning. I like his take on chaos and order and how those two things are the yin and yang of life.

I just spent the last few days in chaos, mentally and physically drained, but today I can begin to reclaim a small order. By week's end, life should be back on track. I'll spend the next three days preparing for our trip west; we load up on Wednesday night and hit the road about 10:00 on Thursday morning, arriving at our first stop about 4:00. Friday is a big day driving approximately seven and a half hours; Saturday will be a short trip home.

I woke up and began thinking about being uncomfortable. Not from a physical standpoint, but I asked myself when was the last time you did something that caused you discomfort, and I would ask you the same question. When was the last time you recall when you were uneasy with a situation or decision? We don't usually grow through comfort; we grow through those times when things are not as we believe they should be.

As a young man, I was tasked with finding some money for our firm. Back in the day, we used to bill our clients, and if they didn't pay, it was common to let them slide. One day our bookkeeper asked me to her office, where she told me we might not make payroll if I didn't go collect some money. We had about $25,000 of over ninety-day premiums owed to us. This event was my first experience with accounts receivable, and boy did I have a lesson to learn.

I remember going client to client with the invoice and explaining how and why they owed the money. I dreaded showing up and asking for money, but it was owed, and it was overdue. I didn't ask for the entire amount; I would ask for a partial payment; I was just trying to get enough to pay our teammates. In one day, I was able to get the money, we made payroll, but I began learning about how we billed our clients and put in a policy and procedure that would never allow us to have an accounts receivable issue again. I now get a monthly receivables report, and if someone is over 30, we begin taking action.

These days I'm not pushed out of my comfort zone as much as I would like. I seem to have hit a nice rhythm; I am looking for ways to challenge myself and get uncomfortable. My relationship with my wife is at a ten; my business life is running well, physically I have work to do, mentally and spiritually, I'm connected. My family is good, but I could work on that a little socially. I find myself surrounded by amazing friends.

Based on that analysis, I need to get uncomfortable with my physical body. I need to push myself to be better, eat better, move more; I know what needs to be done, but will I make the small changes required to achieve a better physical experience? We all need to take time and review how we stand in the seven critical areas of life; this should not be an annual review but a constant assessment of how we are faring in our lives.

One of the things I love about my artificial intelligence grammar checker is she does not allow me to say "I think," I used that phrase a lot, and then she will correct me, eliminating those two words. So instead of thinking, let's all agree we will do. "Thinking" is good, but doing is better. For example, I have a client I'm going to call today; for a few weeks last year, we had some activity on his account, he shared that he had been calling me too much. I agreed; I shared that it might be nice if we just connected to say hi one time. So today, I'm going to call him and say, "I'm just calling to say Hi."  

I have turned a corner; thank you for tolerating my less than stellar last few days as I struggled to find words to match my thoughts. I find I need to write even when I'm not my best self to allow my future self to review my past self's work. I have written most days for the last 15 or so years with a unique perspective. I should probably spend a little more time learning lessons from my past self, which makes me uncomfortable. Wait that gives me an idea.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
— Melody Beattie