Couldn't be better
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 09:18AM Yesterday in a short space of time, I overheard three separate interchanges that went exactly the same.
Person one asked person two "How are you?" Person two immediately responded "Not bad".
It got me wondering that whilst this is not an unusual interaction, there is an implication in each of those responses that bad is our default state. It also suggests that there are only 2 possible responses, bad or not bad.
That made me think how sad it is that so many of us see our lives through such limiting lenses, and I also realised that I answer in the same way quite often myself.
When I run, and when I let myself, I realise how lucky I am simply to be alive, even luckier to be able to run, and how I have the gift of this day to do what I want. I have complete choice over what I do with my day.
It might not appear that this is true for you, but if you think about it, there is nothing to stop you phoning work and saying that you're not coming in today or that you resign. You may not think it's an option, but believe me it is.
It's only because you choose not to have the consequences that you don't.
You absolutely have choice over all aspects of your life. You can choose to go wherever you want, do whatever you want, even choose to do absolutely nothing. You weigh up the consequences and then you choose.
So today is a gift. I have absolutely no doubt about that.
I know that because my father had none of the above choices at the age of 56 (my age), because he didn’t reach 56. Steve Jobs can no longer choose any of those things despite the billions of dollars he had.
I don’t have billions of dollars but I, like you, have the gift of today, which cannot be bought.
The questions that I think are worth asking today are: “what can I learn today?” and “what can I contribute today?”
If you can learn one thing and/or contribute one thing then it will indeed have been a very good day.
And you know what, I don’t think I would have discovered that if I didn’t run.
And if you really want to know how I am today, “I couldn't be better”.
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