It’s Complicated
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
Everybody Has A Story
Life is filled with lots of little moments that eventually add up to one life. Your life. Your story.
Our ability to sort the wheat from the chaff is difficult, given that, well, it’s our story. It’s very personal. And when we sum up our life every bit matters — from what we’ve heard to what we’ve seen to what we’ve felt. These are the moving parts to our story.
It’s easy to pick out the good times from the bad times, but we store both in our minds. For safe keeping. Maybe to use later.
The positive stuff goes under the “good” column. If we haven’t figured out a way to “let go” or forgive or forget the bad stuff, we stockpile this to perhaps use later as ammunition or revenge or excuses.
All wrapped together, the good and bad experiences become our story. Years of data — wounds, failures, hurts, surprises, awards, broken promises, wins and losses, etc. — support the story we tell.
When Will You Say “Yes”?
While you are wondering about your direction, the rest of us are patiently waiting for you to say “YES!”
Say YES to that inner voice. That gut feeling, the hunch, the spark.
Say YES to new adventures.
Say YES when you normally knee-jerk NO.
Say YES to sharing your talents, your gifts, your time, your money, your PIE! (I love pie)
Say YES to taking a chance on a new love or rekindling an old friendship.
Say YES and show us your inner beauty, however you manifest it outwardly.
Say YES to exploring new places.
Say YES to starting this day with wide-eyed wonder by embracing a new beginning.
Say YES, again and again and again, to the things that make you happy. (You know it’s your sweet spot – no harm hanging out there a while, my friend)
Say YES to everything that sparks the smallest bit of interest and curiosity in you today. Because you never know where it will lead, what doors it may open and whose heart you may touch.
Get on with it. We’re waiting for you to say YES!
#1440minutes #BeFAT
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Change Your Story Change Your Life
We are the authors of our story. And the story we tell other people about our life is what we want them to believe is our truth.
But sometimes it’s a lie. Sometimes a fantasy. A mystery. Traveling adventure. Melodrama. Farce. In my case, most days, a flippin’ black comedy show.
The truth is that when we change our story, we change our life. Because it’s a new story to tell. A new life to live.
Think about it.
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
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Being Who You Choose To Become
We all carry bags of shit.
And the reason we do this is because somewhere, a very long time ago, somebody said something to us. Or did something to us. And it wasn’t very nice.
We got older. We brushed it aside. Put it over there, under that. We justified it. We accepted it as part of our past. We felt safe when we hid it. Or buried it out of sight.
With all our acquired grown-up skills we knew what “they” said or did, in the big scope of the world, didn’t amount to crap. But we continued to carry it anyway. In silence. Alone.
In a twisted way we hold on to the hurt, pain, guilt, burden, secret. Because it’s safe. And it’s our excuse to not do the things we want to do. We don’t say it out loud. We are the protectors and keepers of our past. We hold it very close.
But any of it, all of it, keeps us from becoming the curiosity seeker, the doer, the artist, the inventor, the writer, the teacher, the actress, the engineer, the parent — the real us. The person we desperately know is concealed and preserved under layers and layers of shit.
Here’s the thing: How long do you keep that up? How long to you let some person, event, comment — old negativity — burden your potential?
Make it stop. Now.
Tell the world out loud or quietly to yourself: “You are not the boss of me anymore. Love is my new boss.”
Then go be good to yourself today. Love yourself and become the you that you are meant to be.
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Good Day or Bad Day?
Before you put your feet on the floor take a moment. Set your mind today to how you will enjoy the day.
What must you accomplish?
What do you wish to do?
Someone to see?
Start something new?
Finish a project?
Travel somewhere?
Whatever you decide can be set up first thing in the morning.
And when another person tries to change your mind (or mindset) and steal your joy by waving their drama in your face today, tell them to back off.
Nobody deliberately wakes up and chooses to have a bad day. But there are people out there whose sole purpose seems to be to take yours away. Don’t let it happen.
Because you woke up today with a plan. You’ve chosen to have a f-g awesome day.
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
Time for you to change?
You might be surprised to learn that you have more aptitude and abilities than you know.
We hold on to this limiting belief that every body is better than us. They had it is easier growing up, an unfair advantage, therefore they got what we didn’t. Bull.
All we need is to shift our mindset and believe that if we take action things can and will change. Being lazy or feeling stuck or having fears are speed bumps and caution signs we create to keep us from having to change.
For the brave and curious change is exactly what we must do. To put yourself in a position to be the person or do the thing that makes you unique.
But I’m stuck HERE. Set in my ways. With my bumper stickers. Nope. Not buying it.
Everyone has it within them to change. Even you.
Lose the bad habits.
Bad attitudes.
Bad associations.
Doing so frees up the space to allow real growth and change to happen.
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
What are you chasing?
Chasing your tennis ball
Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox and MIT graduate, delivered the 147th commencement speech by suggesting to the new graduates that they spend time to “find their tennis ball.”
It’s the thing that pulls you along, he said.
Houston was a typical MIT graduate — brainy, computer whiz kid — driven and curious but unsure which direction he wanted to take after earning his degree.
At age 21 he started his first company at a Chili’s restaurant he’d drawn up on a napkin. He tried and failed a few business ideas while he watched his friends get wooed for millions of dollars by Silicon Valley investors.
He took a six month time-out period after graduation and began working on a poker bot. If you’re not familiar with online gambling, once you get tired of spending hours at your computer losing your money, a bot will do it for you.
Although his parents began to wonder about their son’s future, for Houston, perfecting the bot was the thing that drove him forward. Because it mattered to HIM.
It’s like a dog chasing a tennis ball, he says. “…Their eyes go a little crazy, the leash snaps and they go bounding off, plowing through whatever gets in the way.”
“It’s not about pushing yourself,” he told the students. “It’s about finding your tennis ball, the thing that pulls you. It might take a while, but until you find it, keep listening for that little voice.”
His message to students is appropriate for the rest of us still listening and seeking. It begs the question: What is your tennis ball?
[In 2013, at age 30, Houston returned to MIT to give the 147th MIT Commencement Speech. Here he talks about his path from student to CEO of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service.]BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Be at peace today
Finding peace in your world is tough some days…
When a jerk takes a parking spot.
When a careless driver scratches your car.
When you didn’t get the raise or the promotion.
When one of kids forgot their lunch — again.
When the checkbook balance doesn’t cover the check.
When the answer is no.
When the answer is yes.
When your day goes awry.
That’s the time to check out for a few minutes (and be very deliberate about this): go find your peace. Take a breath. Take a break. Take a load off.
Get back to the center. Whatever it is, or wherever it is. Some place, real or imagined, where you gather all the small shit that managed to roll itself into a ball of crap, and kick it away. Far, far away.
Know that we have a center point. Call it balance.
I call it my neutral zone. When I veer too far left or right of neutral, things go crazy. It’s like a car going forward really fast or in reverse really fast. You need to put on the brakes and bring your world back to neutral. And find your Peace.
BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
Yup, that sounds like me too