This time of year always reminds me of a life lesson that my dad taught me.
Fear of missing out is a real thing!
I was pretty young … like 10 or 11.
It was a cold December day and my dad thought it would be fun to take me to an Eagles game at the Vet (a pretty iconic stadium for many reasons. Most notably, it was the only stadium that had an actual holding cell inside lol).
No, I didn’t get locked up that day.
But, I do remember having an absolute shit attitude (hello, almost teenage boy).
Anyway, after my dad had already made arrangements to take me to the game, a bunch of my friends decided to get together for some winter activities.
We likely were going to walk around the neighborhood, throw snowballs at each other, and basically act like idiots.
It was all I could think about.
I wasn’t going to be there.
It’s funny how even at that young age, my 2A personality type was strong as ever. FOMO is real with us 2A’s.
So here we are at the game, and I’m sure my dad wanted to smack me upside my head …
Poor kid! You’ve got it so rough being at a football game with your father!
He was patient as ever and then I’m sure reached the point where he couldn’t keep his mouth shut anymore.
We were standing in line for a Philly pretzel (best ever) …
And he pulled me out of line.
He said, look, I know you’re upset that you can’t be with your friends right now but listen …
There is really only one choice that any of us have in life …
And, that’s how we respond to the situations and circumstances we’re in.
We can’t control a lot of things but we can always control our response.
You can choose to be miserable and mope around all day.
Or, you can choose to make the most of this experience and have fun.
In the moment, I kind of hated that he was right.
I probably rolled my eyes and moped back in line for that pretzel.
But, it struck a chord.
It stuck with me for the rest of my life.
And, I’m reminded of it every holiday season.
In fact, I’m reminded of it every time I face adversity.
It’s the reason I was able to start and successfully grow my business during the most challenging time in my life.
I don’t always remember it in the moment …
But, more often than not … it’s my driving force.
YOU control your response to every situation
This time of year can be tough for a number of reasons.
And, especially given everything that’s going on in 2020.
There will be plenty of situations that come up that you can’t control.
There may be a lack of physical touch, family drama, food pushers, bad weather, gyms closed, over-indulgences, or just regular old FOMO …
Let the control you have over your response be your beacon of light.
You get to choose how you respond.
No one gets to decide that for you.
And, to take it one step further … you don’t have to justify or explain your response to anyone!
