Back in May, I started a list of suggestions for how we could live and operate our businesses from a place of greater happiness. This is a list of what could make us happier people and better business leaders, but it could also be interpreted as a list of the things that make us miserable or make our lives and businesses harder necessary if we don’t pay attention. My suggestion in May was to assume the best. Today’s suggestion is:
Suggestion #2: Roll with it.
We all believe that what we are seeing and experiencing in our work and life is THE reality. We write our own movie all the time, and we’ve been at the center of it with every experience. We know what we want to happen. The problem is everyone else is living inside their own movie, too, and it’s not the same as ours. According to our script, others forget their lines, don’t love us properly or at all, don’t give us the raise or promotion we deserve, and sometimes leave us at the absolute worst time, and our movie is ruined.
Don’t hold too tight to your pre-written script for business or life. When I speak on a big stage, of course, I have to prepare and practice, but on the day of their performance, I let go, connect with what this audience is going to give, and embrace whatever is bound to show up in the room. It rarely ever goes exactly as planned. The best speakers let go of their script and step fully into the moment wide open and agile, accepting fully “what is.”
We have to constantly be rewriting our script or even better, lose it altogether. Let someone else star in it once in a while. Welcome in new characters. Embrace plot twists. Laugh at set and costume malfunctions. And notice how much more fluid your life and business becomes when you don’t hold too tight to the “way it’s supposed to go or be” and instead embrace “what is.”
“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”
~Ann Landers
