1 HARD THING TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL GOOD ENOUGH

By Marc & Angel Chernoff

Today, let me re-share a quick story and a powerful reminder with you…

Once upon a time, there was an elderly woman who needed to walk down to the river every morning to fetch water for drinking, cooking and cleaning. She carried two buckets with her, filled them up at the riverbank, and walked back with them to her rural cottage home.

One of the buckets was newer, perfectly sealed, and held its water flawlessly. But the second bucket was older and contained a few thin cracks that would leak water onto the ground as the elderly woman walked. By the time she arrived home, typically about one-third of the water in the second bucket had leaked through its cracks.

One day, on the walk down to the river, the cracked bucket – which had always felt like it wasn’t as good as the other bucket – said to the elderly woman, “I want you to know that I’ve been leaking water every morning for the past several years. I’m so sorry for being cracked and making your life more difficult. I understand if you need to replace me with a better bucket.”

The elderly woman smiled. “Do you really think I haven’t known about your cracks this whole time?” she asked. “Look at all the beautiful flowers that grow on the path from my cottage to the river. I planted their seeds, but every morning it’s you who does the watering.”

REMEMBER:

Feeling good enough in life, in work, in business, and in our relationships has everything to do with how we judge the cracks in our own bucket. Because we all have a few cracks!

But are they cracks that wreck us, that taint us, and that ruin our experience and desirability?

Or do our cracks water a trail of flowers we haven’t even stopped to appreciate?

Choose to see the flowers through the cracks in your own bucket – choose to see how it’s exactly those cracks that make you good enough…

Choose to THINK BETTER and your whole universe will shift!

Is this article your wake-up call?

How many times have you thought “This isn’t working” or “Something is not right” or “Things have to change”? Those thoughts and words are from your inner voice. It’s your wake-up call calling. You don’t need more stress or a major crisis to wake up. And no one needs to tell you because you already know. Your inner voice has been trying to tell you, but in case it’s been a challenge to find time and space to listen through the chaos, maybe you’ll resonate with one of these situations.

• If negativity has been getting the best of you, this is your wake-up call.
• If you never put yourself first, this is your wake-up call.
• If you’ve become someone you don’t recognize to please other people or to chase some version of success that doesn’t resonate with you, this is your wake-up call.
• If your life is aimlessly on auto-pilot, this is your wake-up call.
• If you are constantly numbing out with food, shopping, booze, TV, or other distractions, this is your wake-up call.
• If you are worn down, beat up, stressed out, and completely depleted, this is your wake-up call.

Getting your wake-up call is not the hard part, answering the call is. Choosing to answer the call instead of ignoring it is hard. Right now, it may feel easier to keep going, and going, and going gradually in the wrong direction. But you know if you don’t find a way out of the endless cycle you’re in, it’s going to get worse.

What if every time things went wrong you knew how to stay STRONG and stay the course?

How could you be a positive and powerful example for those you love (or lead) if you knew how to actually move through your pain instead of letting it shut you down again?