Reflections on Limited Time and Relationships | 0:04:32 – 0:06:13 (101 Seconds)
0:04:32
When we get to this time of the year, going to the end of the year, people think about being kind or being nice, and while I think that’s important, I always wonder well, what about the other 10 months of the year? And while I think that’s important, I always wonder well, what about the other 10 months of the year? Where does that go in terms of how we see each other, and so I’ve thought a lot about that and, ironically, the tone of the movie I was just watching was basically this question, because the person was told you only have 12 days to figure out your life, to figure out how to rectify and restore some of the relationships that this person had, especially with their daughter. And essentially, after the 12th day, it wasn’t fixed in a way that would connect him to the people that he loved, and so he made a deal to have one more day, which I find ironic, because I don’t know if I can make a deal at the end of my life to do something and get more time. I think I just have the time that I’m granted, and if I waste that time or if I negatively impact people, especially people that I love, then that’s on me. So anyway, on the final day, after that wish was granted, the basic premise is that great, you can have that day, and yet after that day your life’s over, so you’ll be all done.
Reflections on Life Priorities | 0:07:00 – 0:09:05 (125 Seconds)
0:07:00
If I knew that this was my last day to live, how would I act? What would I do and I think it’s an interesting question for everyone to think about, because I I’m going to presume and I’ll just base my clarity on my own life is that if I had one day to live, I’d do as many kind things as I could and connect with as many people that I’ve been neglecting up until this time, which is a number of people that I’m aware of, people that I think about and I never call People that we had a connection with. And I wonder, gosh, what happened to it? We both just drifted apart, and it’s almost like I’m acting as if I don’t care, and yet I really do. I really wonder, like whatever happened to that person, and some of them I can touch base with and others I’ll never be able to. And so I think if we were living our life as if today was our last day, I think we’d all act a little bit differently. And I’m sure some of you would just go out and try to get as much as you could, some of you would try to go out and be as much as you could, some of you would do something in the middle. And it’s all about our choice and we have these extremes in everything. And then there’s this happy medium that it would be really nice if we could figure out how to find what that happy medium looks like, where I have my needs met and I can still be engaging and connecting with other people. And so, again, it just made me reflect on what would I do, what would I regret, what would I resent if this was my last day.
Resolving Unresolved Emotional Conflict | 0:13:08 – 0:16:08 (180 Seconds)
0:13:08
One thing in my understanding now of conflict is that the emotional energy of unresolved conflict never goes away. It stays in our being somewhere and we hold it and it’s harmful to us and it can create resentment and it can create feeling victimized. And so if you have something to clean up with somebody, clean it up, and that could just be by saying I’m sorry, that was not my intention. I understand how you could feel this way and I didn’t intend to cause harm, because if you’re able to let go of that unresolved emotional energy, it gives you more space, more breathing room, more life, and by cleaning it up with the other person, you give them more space, more breathing room, more life, and so it really benefits both of you. The one thing that I wished I could do is to go back and release all of that unresolved emotional energy that I carried around as a teenager, because that’s what really kept me in that angry, mean mindset for so long, and it’s not as an excuse for what I did. I’m not blaming anything that happened to me anymore, because that’s a victim mentality and blaming and feeling victimized. It doesn’t work. I have to own my outcomes and, growing up, the things that I went through at home, I mean, I own what happened, and yet it was other people’s behavior as well that I couldn’t control, that I had to trust and that worked out sometimes, not all the time and so I guess what I want you to think about is, if today is the only thing that we have, how do we make the most of it? How do we impact the love of families, the love of friends, the love of humanity? Even thinking about what does self-love look like? And so my goal this year is to keep this feeling that I have about being hopeful, about being kinder, about being more appreciative all year, and I’m going to work on it and I’m going to talk about it, and I’m going to let you know when I didn’t quite get there, and I would love to talk with some of you, so if you have a story about the content of this conversation that I’m having with you, reach out to us and I would love to interview you on my podcast.
