Why We Give Thanks – Even for the Rocks in the Road

It's Turkey Day and I am sitting upstairs in my Man Cave – also known as my office – while downstairs, my two-week old baby girl is thrilling her grandparents by acting like she can understand all the gibberish her grandparents are speaking to her…

We have lobsters in the cooler, ready to steam for the feast this evening; my wife, who had an urgent c-section giving birth two weeks ago, is up and around, looking like she is ready to start working out already.

It's sunny, 85 degrees and the view of the canyons leading to the ocean from my office are awesome.

Life is good.

Notice that nowhere did I mention anything about muney, career, politics, the state of the economy, jobs or anything else.

Why.

Simple.  Days like today are to remind us that the truly precious and valuable things in life are about more than just muney.

Yes – muney makes everything easier.  Muney does make the world go around.

Having a job, steady income and cash flow keeps you in your house, puts your kids through college, gets your wife that car that keeps her safe.
It allows you to help your parents or friends when they need it; it allows you to give generously when you feel like it.  If you break a bone, need a filling or need a good lawyer, muney fixes all of that.

So – I get it.  You may be sitting there, having lost your job, or gotten no bonuses, or maybe having to take a pay cut.  I know tons of folks who had to walk away from real estate, fold up companies, lost their jobs, their retirment and start all over.

Well guess what?  I did, too.

I had to walk away from some real estate.  Lost a bunch of muney, had to take a credit ding and keep my wife from having a nervous breakdown because of the credit hit.  I retired from teaching martial arts full-time – the only career I've had in almost twenty years – and started a new company in one of the worst economies known to man.

Oh, yeah…and in the middle of all of that, we started a family.

You'd think that all of this would be cause for panic – or at least a trip to the Funny Farm to get my head checked out, right?

No.

I can tell you that the past twelve months have been the scariest, most uncertain, most unsettling of my life – but even with all the change and turmoil, I have never been happier, more confident or more thankful. 

I'm thankful because it is teaching me more about myself, what I am capable of, and it is steering me on the path that is my "dharma" or destiny.

I say that because one of my mentors once told me, "You even need the rocks in the road; if you don't hit a rock once in awhile, how can you appreciate what a smooth ride you have?"

He was right.  And right now, regardless of how hard you life may or may not have been this year, you can look at it in an entirely different way – if you choose.

Everything that ever happens in your life can be GOOD and worthy of GIVING THANKS – if you look for the reasons why.

Lost your job and had to get a different one that doesn't pay as well?  Good.  Now you have the motivation to go get the job or career you REALLY wanted but were afraid to go after.

I know of a guy who was so miserable in his career that he was drinking himself silly, giving himself ulcers and generally just being a miserable S.O.B.

Well guess what?  He finally got the stones to quit.

Now he's out of a job, barely making it by with his family…and he has never been happier.

Got another friend who damn near killed himself awhile back doing something stupid – and it turned his life around.

He is now traveling the world, making good muney, living the life he wanted to live, but it wouldn't have happened unless he had hit a BIG "rock in the road".

When you are doing your thing today for Turkey Day, give thanks for all the good things in your life…

And the rocks in the road.

To you and your family's best this Thanksgiving,

Sensei William Harrison Huff, Jr.

P.S. – Duty calls; from the sounds coming from downstairs, it sounds like my beautiful, angelic, perfect baby girl just had a "blowout" in the diaper department.  Nice.