☀️ 🌱 Why Choose to Revive in ‘25

Curveballs Precede Homeruns!

Dear Why Team member,

I hope this week’s message finds you well and enjoying the time of your life, because..

‘Life is Difficult’.

So begins one of the most powerful books ever written: “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck

This book was on the New York Times best-seller list for ten consecutive years - clearly it struck a chord. This opening line, that ‘life is difficult’, may have you thinking that the tone of what you’re about to read is all doom-and-gloom. However, immediately after opening with his book with this gloomy statement, Peck goes on to say that life becomes easier when we embrace this truth.

Here is exactly how it reads from his book:

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

I highly recommend this incredible book- it was an early awakening read for me.

Brene Brown explains, “Choosing to write our own story, means choosing courage over comfort.”

It’s all right to take time to recover from punches; but don’t get too comfortable in being down. I encourage you to acknowledge that YOU GET TO CHOOSE to get up and continue the same road or choose another path.

Several years ago, I heard Tony Robbins say; “Our primary problem is that we believe we shouldn’t have any problems... every problem you have is life happening for you, not to you.”

It can be hard to swallow this truth in the moment of pain. And this is not to deny the real pain we feel in the heat of our loss. Few experiences feel better than having someone come along side us with authentic care, concern, and empathy. It’s important to know that we are not alone AND it is important to know that in time, we will be more than “just okay”; we will prevail and grow stronger for our experience.

Dr. Kevin Elko often encourages us to ask ourselves: “Am I getting Bitter or Better?”

I certainly have had my moments of bitterness - and it felt good in the moment, but like alcohol, it can leave a nasty hangover with no real growth or resolution. I once heard bitterness described as a poison, we drink to hurt someone else. There was a time in my life, that I returned to this wisdom, time and again, to remind myself that I was only hurting myself if I chose bitterness.

We all have ideas about what we want and what we don’t want - what we believe to be the best and the worst for us, but it occurred to me in one of my darkest moments, that our lives read like a story. How boring a story if it didn’t have twists and turns. Think about it! The book or the movie you remember for years is the one that made you say, “Wow! I didn’t see that coming!”

Life has a way of throwing us curve balls - we hit some, we miss some - but as the saying goes, it’s not our personal definition of what we define as winning or losing, it’s how we choose to play the game.

Life always gives us a choice - a choice in how we think about any situation that arises. Sometimes the choice we want is no longer available to us, but there are other choices within our power. And it is within these choices that we can choose hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Hindsight is always 20/20. But doesn’t overcoming past challenges give us more hope when facing the next storm? And how can we truly support others if we haven’t faced the same or similar experiences ourselves?

Socrates said: “The unexamined life is not worth living” and nothing in my experience has been more powerful for examining my life than asking the question “Why?” - both proactively and reactively. Some of my greatest insights have come from asking ‘Why’ while in the fetal position; why me? Why did this happen to me?

Life as you know it has ended.

But never forget that there is so much more to “life” than you know, and so much more to life-as-you-know-it.

The mind only knows what has happened in the past and can only assume more of the same in the future - but there is so much more than we can imagine in store for us. We have all had the experience; “if I only knew then what I know now”.

I’ll never forget what my mother said to me a month before she died, “Ah honey, you just want to hold on to the happiness you have known, there is so much happiness coming your way, that you don’t know about.”

My mother, literally on her death bed, gave to me what she so often gave me throughout out my life: Hope!

If you or someone close to you is going through a significant loss, consider being as present as you can with the experience or returning to an experience you had like that of your friend- to empathize. Consider watching Brene Browns YouTube cartoon on empathy versus sympathy and you’ll hear her say, “Rising strong after a fall defines who we are.”

Only life as we know it ends, not life itself! To be born into a new life, does not the old life need to end?

Consider choosing to focus more on your rebirth and not the death of your old life.

Life brings us many gifts, be not restricted by the packaging - focus on the unfolding gift within.

Consider being more present for yourself and others during the initial shock and attending fear - but know that underneath, in the dirt, a new life is emerging that will rise above it all and be beautiful.

So, get up, rejoice in your awakening, and take that first step towards your “New Life” in 2025!

⏩ REVIVE & THRIVE IN ‘25 ⏪

No matter the hardship, sometimes just showing up to what life gives us - is making it a great week!

Choose life, choose hope, and never forget what a difference a day can make. The sun will come out tomorrow, but in the meantime, we only have today, as difficult as it may be, choose to live it with joy and gratitude because it is the time of your life.

Make it a great week!

Steve Luckenbach