Today I’m going to talk about a topic that I covered in last month’s secret e-mail and it has to do with perspective. Normally I don’t share the content of the secret e-mail anywhere except with my newsletter list because I want it to be sacred. I want it to be something that only my subscribers receive. However, with this particular topic, the response was so overwhelming that I felt that maybe this time it would be okay to break my own rule and share this on a broader forum. For more details check out my Coffee Chat below.
The Secret Email
So what is the secret email? It is something that I send out once a month to my newsletter list subscribers. It’s where I go into some deeper topics, maybe some personal life things, things that come up or things that I’ve learned that I really want to share. If you’re already a subscriber then you know what I’m going to be talking about today. If you haven’t yet subscribed to the newsletter but want to, click here. It’s super easy and you can opt-out at any time.
It’s All About Perspective
In last month’s secret e-mail I was addressing the holiday tidal wave that tends to sweep us all away. It’s something we don’t even realize is there until it completely knocks us over. A few months ago I had the pleasure of hearing Jesse Itzler speak. And if you guys have not heard him speak, then I highly recommend you Google him, go on YouTube and watch him speak. He’s a motivational speaker. He’s a billionaire. He’s also married to Sara Blakely, who is one of my icons, the founder of Spanx! But he said something that has stuck with me every day since and it goes like this:
We think of life in years. In the number of years we hopefully have left. We think we have ten years left with our parents on Earth or we think we have 18 years with our kids at home or we think we have 40 years left of holidays. But when you really look at it, do you have 10 years left with your parents or, especially if they don’t live near you, do you only have 10 visits left with your parents? Or do you have 10 hours left when you look at it that way? It brings everything into perspective because it’s not really 10 years when you think about it in these smaller chunks of time, you realize that you really truly need to make the most of every single one of these visits. And we’re not even guaranteed 10 years or 10 visits. I’m not saying this to be morbid or to make anybody feel sad or guilty or anything like that. But hearing it this way totally changed my perspective.
For me, hearing this was a gift. It helped me to appreciate the calm and the chaos and choose how I spend my time. To enjoy each moment. It may sound cliché but it’s seriously the truth. As we head into the holidays this way of thinking is constantly in the back of my mind. My two older kids are still single and I still have one living at home, so it’s just our little family right now. I know one day they’re going to have spouses and kids and our family will grow and that will be a huge blessing, but for right now, I just want to appreciate the fact that we’re in this season of life and it is just us still and really truly appreciate the time that I spend with them.
Maybe you’re stressed out right now and all you’re thinking about is the stuff you have on your to-do list. With this newfound perspective, whenever I look at my to-do list now, I’m like, “okay, maybe I’ll get thirty-five more times to do this list.” When I put it in perspective like that, it doesn’t seem as overwhelming. If I only get to decorate my house for Christmas 30 some more times, then that is going to make each time I do it that much more special. Right? That is why I wanted to share this with you because I feel like personally, this has been one of the things that has truly shifted my perspective in a huge, huge way. I wanted to share this gift with you because I had that gift shared with me from Jesse. My hope is that this perspective will help you as you navigate your way through the holidays. To help you enjoy both the peace and craziness. And to make the moments count.
