I was an ACHIEVER in my early 20’s! I would push, drive, plow through and make it happen! Determined and headstrong. Everything I wanted…financial freedom, house, cars, travel, whatever it was. I relied on no one, I made it all happen for myself!
At 2 a.m. in the morning you could easily find me with a pint of Ben & Jerry®’s sitting on my couch watching QVC until my spoon hit the cardboard thinking “Is this all there is?”…and I wasn’t just talking about the ice cream!
What was missing?
I had no clue. All I could figure out was I needed to be happier than this!
I began my journey into personal development, because it was the only thing that felt great to me! I took the first step on the journey just by following my FEELINGS. When you take action, life has a way of bringing you the lessons and answers you need.
Many years later, as I did more and more work with Tony Robbins, I was becoming more and more of the best version of myself. My relationship with Paul was becoming magnificent, but I still struggled to be happy in the other areas of my life.
One of Tony’s famous quotes starting coming to my mind every day…”The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with” – Tony Robbins
Well, there’s no rocket science there. I was a control freak. I was completely unwilling to live with any uncertainty. That’s how I got out of where I came from and hustled to make the life I had…I controlled everything and got my outcome!
So if what Tony is saying is true, (and I’ve come to learn after 21 years with him that he’s pretty much always right…it’s so annoying!) then that explains why my life at the time sucked.
So then I asked the big question “how does one get more comfortable with uncertainty?”
Ohhhhh, if you learn one thing from this story, please learn to be SOOO careful when you ASK the Universe a question!
The answer to my question came about 40 days later when three of my six-figure consulting contracts were cancelled in one day and Paul and I headed into a financial crisis. Time to learn how to live in the uncertainty! Ding-Ding: Class is in session!
Through our financial crisis, Paul and I decided to spend all the money we had in the world to save our family home so our kids wouldn’t have to lose the only house they had ever known. (They were 5 and 1 at the time).
I found myself GRATEFUL to find bars of soap that I forgot I had bought the year before and stored in a closet.
I found myself GRATEFUL when my sister in law gave me an extra cutting board she had when she was moving because she had too many.
I found myself GRATEFUL that I did the work with my husband to create an unshakable love and unleashed passion so we were rock solid during that time!
I found myself GRATEFUL that sex was FREE!! Ha ha!
I found myself GRATEFUL to my son’s preschool that helped us during the months that we couldn’t make the payment to keep him in school.
I found myself GRATEFUL to Kohl’s® Department Store who gave me $500 credit on my credit card during a month when we had absolutely no money to buy Chanukah presents for our children.
I found myself GRATEFUL for my health, Paul’s health and our two healthy children.
As we recovered financially, I found myself happier than I had ever been!
Having an extra $20 to go to the dollar store with was like winning the lottery! Going to the grocery store with enough money to pay for everything without counting what was in the cart was a blessing worth crying over!
I was so much happier in my life, even though we had so little money at the time!
I heard an interview that Tony did with Sir John Templeton. Tony asked Sir John, “What’s the secret to wealth?” and Sir John said “You teach it Tony…it’s GRATITUDE! That’s when it hit me. That’s what was different about me.
I was no longer trying to control ANYTHING. I had surrendered to God all the things that were beyond my control. I created myself into the best version of me that I could be, and I lived in GRATITUDE for everything in my life (the problems and the glories)!
That was the answer to the question….”how does one learn to live more comfortably in uncertainty”? GRATITUDE!
The control that we NEED in life is the prison we keep ourselves in. Our misery is not because of our conditions in life, it’s because of the control we think we need!
When you live in gratitude and focus on cultivating yourself into the best version of yourself that you can be…..life is so positively amazing, it will bring you to tears! Tears of Gratitude!
