Life! By Design_ 6 Steps to an Extraordinary You - Laura Morton [64]
The better the questions, the better the answers.
Life is all about context and perspective. Every situation and circumstance is full of opportunity. The trick is figuring out how to see those openings and embrace the occasion. Carl Jung, the founder of analytic psychology, once said, “Perception is projection.” How we feel on the inside radiates to the outside.
A big part of living By Design is radiating gratitude for what you have and an eagerness for more. This includes being grateful for your life being exactly where it is in this moment. Living each day grateful for the things we already have and not focusing on what we lack is a potent tool that gives us infinite power. Most people spend a lot of time reminding themselves of all the things that are missing instead of looking around and counting their blessings. They say things like “I hate my job,” “I hate my relationship,” “I hate how I look,” and “I hate my life.” Saying these things acknowledges everything that isn’t working. Understand that everything we repeat attracts more of the same. It’s the basic universal law that like attracts like.
I know that some of you who are reading this may be thinking, How can I be grateful that we are at war, that there is disease and famine, that I lost my life savings. I am not asking you to be grateful for those things. Rather, I am pointing out that you can be grateful for the men and women who are fighting for our freedom, grateful that you are not on the front lines, and grateful for having food even if you lost your savings.
Gratitude is an exercise in perspective. When I talk about gratitude to large crowds, I explain that how they listen to me over the course of those couple of hours will determine what they get out of my message and how it will impact their lives. If they are listening while thinking about their problems, everything they hear will amplify them. If, however, they are thinking about their goals and vision, everything I say will be in alignment with helping achieve those.
If you are willing to accept things for what they are, you must start by declaring that everything is perfect as it is but you are willing to improve. You are the one who got you where you are—likely by default. Now it is up to you to decide how you want your life to be, By Design.
My brother Matthew taught me a valuable lesson early in my sales career. When you make a mistake, no matter how big or small it is, declare it “perfect!” By doing so, you give yourself the power to learn from that mistake, find new solutions, develop better practices, and even create new systems to prevent it from happening again. It’s a simple concept that often throws people a curve. Most people say, “You’re crazy! How can I declare losing a big sale or an important relationship, or being fired from my job, perfect?” Of course, this argument comes only from people who have never tried it.
I was conducting one of my seminars a few years back when I shared the perfect game with the group I was talking to. The next morning, I asked people what they learned from the seminar the day before. One man stood and spoke with great enthusiasm. “I used that perfect thing yesterday and set three new business-building sales appointments—a three hundred percent improvement over my performance the day before.” He explained that he had been waiting for his car in the valet line for thirty minutes when his phone rang. It was his daughter telling him that her car wouldn’t start. Instead of becoming annoyed that he couldn’t be there to help her, he thought Perfect! He quickly hung up the phone to call his insurance agent to confirm that he had towing insurance. After the agent said he did, he paused and said, “I’m glad you called. My wife and I are thinking about selling our home,” and made an appointment before hanging up. Perfect!
The man then called his