Life Happens – You Determine If It’s Going To Be Sh*t or Sashimi
A little wake up call
Buddha proclaimed that “All life is suffering.”
In today’s vernacular he’d more likely say, “Hey, SH*T happens.”
With deep love and respect for Lord Buddha I disagree.
Life happens – it is us who turns it into SH*T or Sashimi.
Life loves a laugh!
The problem is we usually don’t set ourselves up to be in the best place to laugh with life – which can make life’s unexpected events pretty dire.
A little while back I popped over to Europe for a few days in London and Paris (yes I know my life is tough) and then on to the French Alps for some seriously fun skiing with friends. This was pure play time and I had been looking forward to this for ages – being back in the snow, feeling the adrenaline rush through my body as I careered down the slope getting my ski legs again, being physical all day and sleeping like an exhausted log all night and having no qualms about drinking copious amounts of hot chocolate with mountains of fake cream!
It all started so well, a huge snow dump set the scene for a glorious week and I was feeling strong and really good on my skies despite not having skied for three years – that is until I got wiped out by an out of control person crashing into me and my weeks skiing ended rapidly with a broken arm!
While I was sitting in the medical centre to get myself plastered up, I watched the other ski accident recipients around me. I caught the eye of a French chap who seemed to have exactly the same arm injury as me and we developed a shared drama camaraderie, and a canister of freeze spray to keep the pain down until we could be strapped up. I then noticed one man who seemed to be fretting terribly and eventually he went to the main counter and explained he did not have the money to pay for his treatment, and please could they give him the bare minimum treatment to enable him to go and borrow money for the rest.
In that moment an experience has been turned from a “Life Happens” to a “Sh*t Happens” event for this man due to the lack of an emergency fund.
YOU MUST HAVE AN EMERGENCY FUND!
Not having quite the ski holiday I expected and thanks to the wonder of life I got so much more.
In addition to not having to fret about any of the medical costs thanks to always having a cash emergency fund available I am reminded there is a second key element to ensuring “Life Happens” events don’t turn to “Sh*t Happens” dramas.
“Let go of the attachment to how things are meant to turn out
in order for you to be happy!”
As humans it is so easy for us to get hooked to the story, the movie we have made up in our head about how every step of our life needs to happen and “should” happen to enable us to live truly wealthy joyous lives. Then when something happens which changes the movie we get hooked to that drama and create all sorts of judgement and meaning to it.
Everything is energy. Wayne Dyer puts it bluntly.
He says, “A lot of people do personal work on their shit.” These kinds of people walk down the street and see a lump of it. What do they do? Not only do they step in it, but also have to kick it around, stick their noses in it, smell it, be in it and call everyone else they can over to see and smell it too.
Why not notice it and just walk around it, or go get a shovel and try to clean it up as best as you can?
Do you have to clean up every piece of crap in your life in order to be happy? NO!
So many people say, “Once I sort out this issue or problem, then I’m going to be happy.” “Once this and that and the next thing is over then I’ll feel joyful.”
Here’s a big Wealth Chef wakeup – If you think like that, you’re never going to experience the wealthy life you desire.
LIFE IS MADE UP OF ENDLESS UPS AND DOWNS, INS AND OUTS.
Accept it or suffer.
If your relationship is going great, there will be some issues in your business or with your health. Maybe someone is suing you or you’ve broken your arm or both LOL!
Then that gets resolved and your relationship gets messed up or your car breaks down or your home gets flooded or you get a call saying your best friend has just been diagnosed with a fatal illness.
Wealthy Life Tip:
Let go of the the need for everything in your life to be going well in order for you to be happy.
Here’s what you do to really let this lesson sink in:
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Have An Emergency Fund, Commit to creating and maintaining your emergency fund.
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Be Grateful. Make a list of TEN things that are great about your life right now. If you can’t think of 10, then you’re focusing too much on the pile of crap in the road. Maybe you’re not living in your dream home. But if you have a roof over your head, guess what? Millions of homeless and displaced people don’t have that. Maybe you hate your job, but there are millions who are desperate for the opportunity to work and have almost no hope of ever experiencing employment. Maybe some aspect of your health isn’t great, but today you got to wake up above the ground and breath in. Today millions of people won’t take that breath.
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Define what a wealthy life is for you. What does success and living a wealthy life really mean to you? Think about this. If success means, “ …when I have $1 million in my bank account,” how are you going to feel until then? If allowing yourself to feel wealthy and joy depends on “…when my significant other no longer works so hard” or “…when I find an intimate relationship that blows my skirt up,” what does that say about how you should feel about yourself if it’s not happening now? Remember, if you’re waiting for some “big” thing to happen in order to live the juiciest, wealthiest version of your life, that’s a dog chasing its tail and the recipe for a lifetime of regret and sadness. No one can tell you how to define success and what your wealthy life looks like but I do know, when you let it be easy, it is. Set yourself easy to achieve wealthy life goals like – “Tomorrow, I will play with my kid / dog/ cat / goldfish from 8:00 to 8:30 and nothing will stop me.”
Here’s to loads of Life happening and a lot less of shit happening.
With huge love,
Ann
