50/50: Where Will You Land?

Birds at a sun dial. Love that they have chosen to land together to discuss all. the. things.

Lately I have heard people talk about how life is 50/50. Fifty percent positive/ good and fifty percent negative/bad. At church and in scripture we read about opposition in all things. Good news/Bad news….this is not NEW news, folks; apparently a truth we may as well respect.

Another related notion is that we get to choose how we think or feel about life. Do you believe this? I do!

I remember years ago reflecting on my day-to-day life and thinking…what is it that makes one day feel so much different than another? Even when comparing days that had very similar tasks and challenges..some of the days I would feel drained and depleted and other days I actually felt invigorated and alive by the challenges. What was the difference?

I knew it had to be in my head but I couldn’t exactly put words to it until I started listening to Jody Moore quoting Brooke Castillo. For those of you not familiar with either…Jody Moore is a Life Coach for LDS women and Brooke is her mentor and the founder of The Life Coach School. Brooke teaches that it is our thoughts around our situations/challenges that generate our feelings.

When I heard this it made sense to me and reinforced what I had supposed; the difference in my day was “in my head”. Of course, being the problem solver that I like to think of myself as…I figured…genius! I now have the secret to feeling happy or positive no matter what, right?! I will just always choose to look for the good in the situation. I am pretty good at that; to be honest I was taught by a master optimist (my mother).

Not so fast..remember that universal truth I started with..we would not be human/mortal if we felt or experienced only happy emotions or positive experiences. A full life consists of both.

With those thoughts in mind, I can share a bit of shower thinking (you know what I mean, right? The aha! moments that happen when our brain is on auto-mode in the shower) from this morning. Those of you who know me well… brace yourselves for some irony here…I am going to use a bird analogy. I know! (I have a serious phobia/dislike/hate/aversion…pick a word for birds!)

Have you ever watched birds…I have out of fear but many of you do out of curiosity or intrigue…anyway the way that they seem to actually hover and consider where they might land. I have seen a bird land on the tiniest of branches…they usually don’t stay there for long but I am surprised they chose to land there in the first place. Other times bird landings make sense like bird baths (thirsty), bird feeders (hungry).

How much thought do you put into where you “land”. What thoughts do you choose to focus on? What thoughts drive your attitude or behavior? I would not suggest that we have control over the thoughts that come into our head, but we do get to choose which ones we land on and how long we stay there.

My best bird guess is that they don’t look over their landing options with any amount of judgment as in…they are not judging the branch for being tiny etc but just notice that it is. I think it is equally important for us to look at our thoughts almost as an outside observer…with curiosity. Where would this one lead me…to feel..to act etc. What would be the ramifications of landing there?

Speaking of landing…pages…ha! Click around on my website if you would be interested in working with me as an Active Life Coach, I would love to help you look at your thoughts and choose which ones will land you where you have always wanted to be1

Let’s go for a run and work it all out! Click on the buttons on my website or email me at kathallenlifecoach@gmail.com