Count Your Blessings…Literally
Contributed by: Al Killeen
I was laying in bed the other night thinking about the things in my life that I’ve forgotten about, forgotten to enjoy.
In the workaday world that you and I live in, do you ever remember some electronic gizmo that you own but haven’t really played with yet, some book that you have and meant to read but didn’t, or some friend that you haven’t spoken to in over a year despite your affection for him or her?
For me, there is that expensive telescope that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago that I haven’t gotten out for a long time (due to excuses of weather, time, or inconvenience). There are the tape recorders, audio listening devices, and 15 books that I’ve bought or were given to me that I haven’t taken the time to dig into.
How about you?
Do you ever find that you are so busy looking at how to protect your overall life position, or grow it still further, that life becomes one long tactical chess match with circumstances that seldom allows you to stop and appreciate what you have already accumulated?
How about the people in your life? Do you ever start treating them the same way as that unused telescope too? Do you ever feel like you have plenty of time, (but just not right this minute), to show them how much you love them or share some fun with them?
Here is my solution: Count your blessings, literally….
Maybe what you and I can do this Holiday Season is to stop our pell-mell quest for “more”, and for “safety”, and for fixing that 1% of our lives that needs fixing long enough to deeply appreciate the other 99% that we already have….
Maybe we can take a vacation from our “responsibility”, and for our drive for growth, and from our fears and worries about what tomorrow may bring.
Maybe we can, instead, count our blessings as Assets in our lives without counting the Liabilities…
Just for the next 2 weeks, try this:
Instead of making your life the usual Balance Sheet of pluses and minuses, assets and liabilities, brief joys and overwhelming fears, try just looking at all of the blessings of your life in a deeper way.
Let’s consider, just for now, going deeper with our life instead of broader. We will return to the usual tactics of defending our life-castle against the ravaging barbarians of adverse circumstances (real or imagined) soon enough…
Here’s how I am going to do it, and I hope you decide to join me…:
I am going to literally write down my “blessings” in the form of people, places, experiences and things like I am looking at my life from 30,000 feet.
I am going to look at both the intangibles as well as the tangibles.
I am going to list:
- The people in my life, at all levels, who really mean something to me;
- The places that I am grateful to be in, to have been in, and that I will get to be in the coming year;
- My spiritual connections to God, my life, and to the people that I have been blessed to come into one-ness with, including, by the way, You…;
- My material assets (money, houses, cars, toys, furniture, clothes, electronics, books, etc);
- My education and experience with growth and wisdom throughout my life;
- My most precious memories;
- My health;
- And countless other things that I haven’t thought of yet, but somehow know that I will before the list is done.
I want to raise a glass of wine to the Divine Source that has given me such abundance, and just for the next two weeks, not feel guilt or unworthy of those blessings, but rather just grateful and humbled by them.
I can use this list to hit the reset button of my life in a new way. I can use it to deeply appreciate what I have and where I’ve been, and perhaps to better set my sails as to what my priorities need to be in the coming year that I should focus on.
I can use it to breathe in my appreciation for even being able to write you this newsletter via an electronic medium that didn’t exist just a few short years ago
(i.e. e-mail), and through that blessing having the experience of being connected to you on this Sunday night in a more direct way that was ever before possible.
Please don’t consider this just another sappy thought bubble that has come across your radar of consciousness.
Instead, consider that you may be reading it because you have somehow invited this perspective back into your life. Maybe your larger Self has manifested this perspective as an invitation to not waste any more time taking anything for granted.
After all, while “no man knows the hour of his own death”, perhaps this approach at least allows you this time as an opportunity to know the “hour of your own life”.
I’m going to start on this tonight, as I explain what I am up to with my family over dinner in hopes that they do the same thing…
What would this World be like if we all spent more time in such a place of appreciation?
I hope you join me….
I’m guessing that it may be the way that you and I could make this time more than just another Holiday Season, and instead make it sacred…
At least that is what I will be wishing and praying for you…, and me.
Al Killeen is an author, coach and consultant who helps leadership and management teams. His book, Sole Proprietorship is not only a good read, but offers the 8 critical steps to overcoming problems in business and in life. Al is a Cool Old Guy who can be reached at 303.544.2113 or via email at alk@integrativemasteryprograms.com