As I look around the world we live in, from social media posts to everyday interactions with people in person, I am sad about society. Many people came to America all those years back for freedom, the ability to work hard and make a home for their family. Many desired to create success in America. America was the new world where hope was fueled. That all happened, jobs were created and laborers were able to make a decent living to support a family and times, albeit tough, were good. Today all I see is people complaining or asking for pity because they lost a job, they can’t find a job or that they want the rich to be taxed more because, “how dare they get away with making a fortune while the little guy is left not being able to feed their family.”
“We all have the power to rise above our circumstances, choose a more positive path and run with it.” – @brandyellen
I was That Single Mom
I was that little guy, the poor single mom living on pasta and barely able to make ends meet. I wasn’t able to buy my first born Christmas gifts, there was one Christmas that she had two gifts. Literally one gift from me, one from Toys for Tots and that was it. I was so upset, but being that she was a young toddler, maybe around one year of age, she had no idea. There was another Christmas year that her father gave me $45 to spend on her for gifts because he found me in tears over not being able to get her any gifts one year. Another year we were blessed to have a stranger’s family adopt us and there were a boat load of gifts on my office desk at the place I worked. I cried.
While I was lucky in that good things started happening to me, and one could argue that doesn’t happen for everyone. Regardless of the help or surprises that occurred for me as a single mom, I stood firm in wanting to create my own success. I had no desire to live on state assistance forever or get hand outs every holiday season. I wanted success, I wanted to create my own success story … and I did. More on that another day.
When you become humble, honest and okay with your scenario, great things start to happen. We don’t need to take from those who worked their butts off to create success, after all isn’t that why so many came to America in the first place? To have a place where they were free to create their own success story?
“We are all born of flesh, bones, thoughts and feelings which allows us to choose where you go from here.” – @brandyellen
Success is Different
Each of us has a different success story, mine is different than yours, my boyfriend’s is different than mine and that’s okay. Success has a similar definition for us all but the how we got there or how we view that definition is different across the board. I personally feel that changing who I was to be a better person as a mother to a daughter all those years back was my first taste of success. I also feel that the next portion of my life where I got married and then divorced after having two boys was a success. I once again felt success when I started to learn how to properly train my mind to be optimistic versus pessimistic. Armed with an optimistic attitude my life changed yet again when I met my current boyfriend.
Practice Mindfulness
There are little pieces of my life where I can see success, it’s not one large story, it’s many impactful moments built into one life – mine. I have empathy and compassion for those who are struggling, for those who have divorced and are now broke and not certain what is going to come next. I feel sad for those struggling with illness and can’t seem to find their happy during these trying times. I get all of the feelings that consume one when enthralled in a bad scenario, I have been there. I have been in your shoes, with a different scenario, more often than not. With that being said, I also believe that I can feel empathy and compassion for you while still having this little thought in the back of my head that reminds me:
“We all are allowed to go downward or upward in life. We all have the free choice to learn from mistakes or just keep making the same ones again, without judgement from others.” – @brandyellen
I understand that you are all wrapped up inside of this difficult time and it’s not easy to see the light. Life was never meant to be easy, it was meant to be lived. We were all meant to have hardships, to have difficult times and in turn have beautiful moments as well. It’s all about how you look at the situation as to whether or not you choose to build your success story or not, today I invite you to think about your thoughts.
Ask Yourself Some Questions
- Are you constantly focused on the problem versus the solution?
- Do you spend more time dwelling on what occurred to create this hardship than focusing on how you can rise above it?
I now invite you to take a moment to jot down some ideas on how you can focus on a solution, focus on surviving today with a smile upon your face. Jot down some moments that you cherish among this madness of bad times. If you can start there, I promise you, life will start to look up and you will soon realize that the American dream is still very much alive within each of us. You, too, can have a little piece of success, if you only open your mind to view the situation slightly different.