FOCUS: 2020 Is A Good Time To Get Your Life Into Focus
By Sally Tippett Rains
2020 is the perfect year to get our lives into focus, and I hope you will join me on a journey to live a more positive life– even if you are going through a tough time. ESPECIALLY if you are going through a tough time.
As we navigate through life, which sometimes is a stressful, terrible, sad, negative time– if we don’t let it make us bitter, we will find it can actually make us better.
I wrote a book called “Choose Happy; Find Contentment in Any Situation.”
Don’t let the title scare you. It’s filled with stories of people going through things like you are facing and how they did it. Think about your own life. You are doing a great job. If someone had told you you would be facing some of the things you’ve gone through you probably would have thought you couldn’t do it.
But look at you. You are awesome. You are not giving up, you are doing your best every day.
The photo and quote shown left are from my book which is filled with beautiful photos by the award-winning Allen Ahner.
I liked that quote by Kevin Costner. We have all been given a life. Some parts are good and some we wish we didn’t have to experience.
If we fall apart with anger blaming people– the doctors, the government, our parents, our ex, people we think aren’t supporting us, whoever it is we feel like taking it out on– we are like a wilting flower. The only way we can truly gain power over our life is to “live the life we have been granted” like Costner says. Never give up, no matter what.
When using the phrase “choose happy” I will give this example: A family sits by the bed of a loved one who has been placed on hospice. (This could also apply to someone who is very sick and hopefully will recover but at the time they are extremely sick in bed) Since no one knows how long that time will be, they continue “living” throughout.
There are still memories to be made– both with that person and other members of the family. How can you live your life when everything is so bleak? You could decorate their room. You could read to them– stories they already know and love or new ones, or maybe even poems, or the Bible. You could play games with them, or with visitors if the patient is asleep. You could sing. It’s amazing how music can bring joy.
A great memory in my heart is singing childhood songs shortly before a loved one passed. I brought in a karaoke machine and handed him a microphone.
One song we sang was “Sweet Caroline” and I gave him the “wo, wo, wo’s” and the “so good, so good so goods!” (Sweet Caroline– “wo, wo, wo”– the good times never seemed so good — “so good, so good, so good!”) We didn’t realize our time was so short, but we were glad we continued living, and I’ll always have that memory.
That may have been an extreme example. Maybe all you have going today is the day to day stress of life. We all only have a short time, so we should make the most of it no matter our situation.
There are two words to aspire to as we move further into 2020: FOCUS and BRAVE.
I’ve worn glasses since age two so when I see “2020” it pertains to vision, and that’s where I came up with FOCUS as a goal.
One of the things I want to FOCUS on is living my life in a positive way and encouraging others to do the same thing. You can do that too. I also want to BE BRAVE because it’s a little scary putting things out there. I want to be brave with my Christian faith and encourage you by telling you my faith is what gets me through the day.
If we work together we can bring more happiness into the world– well at least into our little corner of it.
I hope you will read my periodic blogs and I welcome comments or ideas from others. If you know someone who could use a little “positive” in their lives tell them about this. I’d love to hear your comments.
Until next time… #ChooseHappyFindContentment.
BIBLE VERSE:
“Set your minds (focus) on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” — Colossians 3:2 ESV
QUOTE:
“We only have a certain amount of time together so we should make up my minds to be happy.” — Margie and Jack Tippett
ACTION PLAN:
Think about these things: What is important to you? What would you like to focus on? What are you afraid to do but you wish you could do it? It might help to write it down.