Motivation

Motivation: the general desire or willingness of  a person to do something

Beverly and I were motivated to go to the Get Motivated seminar. We were interested in hearing several of the speakers that were supposed to be there...for me it was Bill Cosby.  We got up early and took children to sitters. We went to Greenville-seems everyone else did too! Wow what traffic and droves of people making their way to the Bilo Center. Guess they were more motivated than they thought too.After 3 full parking garages, we had to park at the TD Center and ride a shuttle to the Bilo Center. Again a lot of people wanting to get motivated there too. We stood in line a block long waiting on a shuttle bus. We finally got on a bus and made our way to the Center.  After Beverly was forced to throw out a perfectly good pack of peanuts, we made our way inside. Every where you looked there was people for as far as the eye could see. Oceans of people. We went into one of the entry points and saw that Rudy Guiliani was speaking and also saw NO empty seats. We must have tried about 10 or more entry ways still with no luck in finding a seat. We got robbed the same way you do at the movie theater, at the concession stand-$4 for a pepsi and it wasn't even a large one!  One last try, one last entry way, when Lou Holtz appeared on stage.  We stood-like a lot of people-and listened to his 30 minute speech about life peppered with a lot of humor. He was good-at least what I could understand (ever heard Holtz talk?).  We decided we had had all of the motivating we could stand for one day. We caught a shuttle bus back to the TD Center and had a fabulous driver who dropped us off near our car so we didn't have to walk the block back to the car in the blazing heat. A quick change of clothes-yes I changed my shirt in the car-so hot I had to peel it off of me-I am still hoping there wasnt some freak with a video camera who has now posted the act on youtube!

I had fun, just like always when Beverly and I go somewhere but do we really need 10 motivational speakers to talk about how they over come the worst obstacles in life but still managed to become a millionaire, have the perfect spouse and 2.2 perfect children?  Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to sit and listen to a couple of these folks speak-just because and I do think that their stories of their lives is interesting. We can always find someone who has had a worse life than us, we can always find people with worse problems, etc. So shouldn't that be motivating enough? If Joe Blow grew up in an abusive house hold with a drunk for a mom and druggy for a dad, was homeless for 3 years as a teen, had to quit school to get a job, got married to a woman who decided she would rather do anything else beside staying married one more day, his car broke down yesterday and they repo'd it this morning AND he is STILL living, breathing in and out and making the best of life...then why can't we, who haven't been through the same, keep living, breathing in and out?  Wouldn't his testament of life be motivating enough? Why superstars? Why not your fellow man?

I suppose that is what this blog started out being. Look at all my "bad luck"/black cloud stuff and I am laughing about it...that means you can do the same-at least if you look at life as a whole and not just the bad parts.

I, too, have gone through a lot in life and not just broken down cars and crazy hair choices of my teen aged son, but I try everyday to see what is good about the bad stuff. That is why at the end of every entry I put what I am thankful for in that situation. You choose your happiness or your misery. A lady once told me not to feel rained on. It has taken me a lot of years to choose to see the sunshiney parts of the black cloud and not to feel rained on. Life happens to all of us and we have to decide to make the best of the darkness and rejoice in the light.

Even though we didn't get a seat or get to hear the people we wanted to hear speak, I am thankful for the day with my sister, where people watching took on an entirely new meaning, the giggles we shared and for the realization that we all have rainy spots in life, but it is the way we choose to see the rain that matters.