Either Happy or Very Happy
ENERGY WORD: Perspective · BOOK: The Gap and The Gain
Hello,
Every Wednesday I share five things with the GLAS community: something to learn, an energy word, an action, a question for processing and a shout out.
Learn
Either Happy or Very Happy
I recently watched a documentary series on Amazon Prime following former footballer Michael Owen and his family.
There was plenty that could have stayed with me. His extraordinary football career, the family, beautiful home and, of course, those incredible stables. But it wasn't any of those things.
It was Michael sitting on a sofa, talking to the camera. He said:
“I’m either happy or very happy.”
Five words, and they have stayed with me.
The series itself shows that life still brings challenges, worries and things we would never choose, including his son’s eye condition. That's life.
We don't get to choose everything that happens to us. People we love get hurt. Things don't work out. We lose people and things that matter. We get disappointed, frightened, angry and sad.
Perspective isn't about pretending those things aren't painful. It is about recognising that something difficult can be true without it becoming the whole truth about our life.
What changes is where we are looking from.
Happiness isn't something we finally earn when enough things have gone right. I think it lies in the perspective from which we meet what happens next.
I keep thinking about those five words:
“I’m either happy or very happy.”
We can't choose everything life gives us. We can choose where we look from.
ENERGY
Perspective
The word comes from the Latin perspicere, meaning “to look through” or “to see clearly”, from per meaning “through” and specere meaning “to look at”.
Perspective isn't necessarily about changing what we're looking at. It's about changing how we see it. Move position and the thing itself may not change, but what we can see around it does.
Sometimes we are so close to a problem, disappointment or fear that it fills our entire field of vision. Stepping back doesn't make it disappear.
It simply allows us to see what else is there.
ACTION
Notice where you're looking from.
When something difficult happens this week, ask yourself:
“Is this the whole picture, or just the part I'm looking at?”
PROCESSING
“What in your life feels different when you look at what you have, rather than only at what is missing?”
SHOUT OUT
The Owen Family
For allowing the cameras into their lives and sharing the ordinary alongside the extraordinary. And to Michael for one seemingly simple sentence, delivered from a sofa, that stayed with me long after the programme finished.
THIS WEEK’S GIFT
The Gap and The Gain
(Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy)
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ONLY 30 - SIGNED AND NUMBERED
Only in a family business…
FOUNDERS’ EDITION
In 1903, my family opened a business. In 2009, it closed in my hands. For a long time I didn’t tell those stories. This book is where I finally do.
Signed, numbered and dedicated to you or someone you choose.
With the 2027 GLAS Calendar - featuring 12 non fiction book visuals.
Despatched from 21 October, a week before publication.
£39 plus postage
Hardback, paperback and e-book from 28 October.
Thanks for reading. Until next Wednesday!
