It's Time Many of Us Lightened Up

WARNING - Today's post isn't directly about business or marketing. It's not even about photography.

However, it is about learning to lighten up and stop taking every aspect of your day and life so seriously. I'm not making light of the challenges you face, some far more difficult and serious than others. However, if you don't lighten up, you're going to crash and burn and be sitting there trying to analyze what went wrong.

You'll find no scapegoats in the answer - each of us owns how we choose to take on the challenges every day. While I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching, you're going to have to trust me as I learn one of the toughest lessons in business - you can't do it all!

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 Lately in my life there have been a few challenges making me realize at times I can be a total drama queen. I act as if every little thing that goes wrong is going to sink the ship. The harder I work, the more sensitive I become to different things. The truth is: we've all been built to be pretty resilient. 

As usual this is why I love reading Melody Beattie's work, and I'm going to share another one of her thoughts this morning...

"The time for heaviness is past - heaviness of body, mind, spirit and heart. That heaviness many of us felt was part of a time now gone. It's time to lighten up.

"He was a different person," she said, "Cheerful. Happy. Fun to be around. Things that used to bother him no longer did." The woman was talking about her husband of only three years. She had dated him for a long time. Then after nearly dying of a heart attack, he was changed, transformed. They married and had the best three years of their lives before he died.

Those years were possible because he had learned to enjoy life, learned the value of love.

We don't have to wait to open our hearts and enjoy life. We don't have to wait to lighten up. We can do that now. We know that we can trust, that we can journey through each stage of our lives with open hearts, loving and living freely.

Let go of heaviness. Seek that which is light. Gravitate toward joy. Your soul and body will lead you, if only you will listen. Walk lightly. Speak and laugh lightly, as much as possible. Go lightly along the way."

I know there are those of you who hate this stuff and will email me, telling me to stick with marketing and business. Guess what, this is ALL about marketing and business. I know from my perspective, I'm a work in progress, and I have good days and bad days and just roll with them. I also know I'd have less bad days if I'd stop acting like every bump in the road was a mountain to climb. 

I also know a lot has to do with spending too much time working...we all get absorbed and sucked into being independent business owners. We're often on our way to crashing and burning.  Instead of slowing down, we work even harder when in reality you're only one person, and there's only so much you can do. So, it's Friday, and even if you're shooting the biggest wedding of your life over the weekend, you'll still have time to appreciate life.

And, if you need a little help, I highly recommend any of Melody Beattie's books. Here's the one this piece came from today. Just click on it to read more and see her other books.

Make it a great weekend everybody. Take the time to hug your spouse, a friend and yourself. Appreciate the fact that no matter where you are in your career there's nobody else who can do things the way you do.

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