I hope you’re having a good Air Force day, if not try minding your own business.
“Your business is never really good or bad ‘out there.’ Your business is either good or bad right between your own two ears.” – Zig Ziglar
Becky never understood why her new restaurant wasn’t doing well. She spent every last dime she had going to culinary school. Everyone told her that her seafood was the best they’d ever tasted.
“I guess I’m not a businesswoman,” she thought. “Maybe everyone was right when they said this was a foolish venture. I should have just kept working at the call center, because it’s a steady job.”
Over the next few days it got worse and she was ready to close the doors as her problems mounted. Her bills were piling up, her seafood vendor had a horrible selection, her staff could tell they wouldn’t be employed much longer and were going through the motions, plus her location was obstructed and hard to see from the street. She didn’t know what to do and she felt hopeless.
She decided to take her son to the park for some playtime, to get away from her problems for a while. Her son loved the swing set and he immediately ran to it and yelled, “Push me, Mommy, push me!”
While swinging, her son asked, “Mom, can we go to Six Flags this summer?”
“I’d love to buddy but my new restaurant isn’t doing so well,” Becky said. “We won’t have the money this summer.”
“Most likely never…” she mumbled to herself.
Her son stopped swinging, looked up at her, smiled the biggest smile anyone could have and said, “Mommy, why do you think I like the swings so much?”
“Because you can go high?” Becky asked.
Her son replied, “Right, but you are the best at pushing me higher and higher. Aw, Mom, I know you can do it. You’re my mom, you can do anything.”
That’s when it hit her: “I can do anything,” Becky thought. “I’ll get a better seafood vendor, change the location to one by the water with a view, and train my staff to be like my son, to be positive and grateful. That will keep them wanting to come back.”
Soon she had the most exclusive restaurant in town and it looked like trips to Six Flags were a guarantee. As Becky reflected on that day with her son, she couldn’t help but notice it was her son who was the best at pushing her higher and higher.
The point is we are not victims of our lives; we are the creators of our lives. Once we realize that our body responds to how we think and feel, we can create doors to open and opportunities to appear. The single most important talk you will ever hear is the one you have with yourself every day. So mind your own business and go higher and higher.