Where's Our Focus?

All of life is flavored or  colored by our focus. Two people can see or experience the same thing and walk away with completely different descriptions, feelings, & thoughts because of what they were focused on.

Check out this post from Perry Noble about focus.

Where's your focus in life?

What Do You Do When Everything Sucks? Pt. 2

Just thought I'd follow up on a previous post sparked by the struggles of my favorite football team. What Do You Do When Everything Sucks? I offer a few suggestions:

1. Walk around with a tragic look, so people can tell that everything sucks. Black turtlenecks can help with this, but not those cool Steve Jobs kind - keep 'em sloppy and a size or two too big. Be sure not to offer any real clue when people ask what's wrong, though. They might just do something helpful and mess up the whole suffering vibe you've got going. Just embrace the suckiness and let life take shots at you like a fish flopping around the bottom of a dry barrel.

2. Frequently let out heavy, audible sighs. These are kind of wasted when you're alone, but try a few for practice anyway. See how long you can keep the exhale going and experiment with a little bit of vocals thrown in for good measure. If you work in a cubicle, you can learn to bounce these off the ceiling into some neighboring boxes, while not alerting some others to your plight. This way, you can ensure a little sympathy from that nice looking hamster in the next wheel over and avoid any awkwardness with that guinea pig, Stan, on the other side. Be really careful with the vocalizing though, too much and you're just going to start laughing at how ridiculous you sound and the levity of the moment may make you forget that everything sucks.

3. Lie around and don't really do anything productive. Being productive may actually change something about your circumstances, then what would you have to feel crappy about?

4. Turn off the lights and walk around in semi darkness - in your sloppy dark turtleneck, of course. When anyone asks why the lights are off, just shrug your drooping shoulders and tell them you didn't notice... must be because of all the darkness you feel surrounding your soul these days.

5.Write a blog post that will remind yourself what a moron you're being as you go around as if everything sucks, when in fact, ever thing does not suck. Actually, while it is true that some things do suck, there are many things not sucking in the least. Then turn the freakin' lights on, ditch the "sackcloth and ashes," grab hold of just how deeply you are loved by the one who made you, and get back to work living the life He dreams for you. (Also, throw that stupid turtleneck away and get some clothes that fit.)

What Do You Do When Everything Sucks?

I'm a Denver Broncos fan. Last season was brutal. Watching the team implode the way it did was awful. I guess they didn't implode so much as they just sort of forgot how to play football against any other team... I don't know. I remember some bad games when I was a kid, even tough seasons, but nothing was ever like that. I remember watching with my grandma and laughing as she got so irritated with John Elway that she'd be yelling at the tv. Grandma was little, but I think she was ready to step through the TV and put  on a helmet a few times and show those boys how it's done. I loved watching games with Grandma. Even the tough losses. But last year... all the fun seemed to be sucked out. There wasn't much to enjoy.

I didn't get to watch the game last night, but as I checked my twitter feed occasionally, I saw lots of updates (thank you @milehighreport). There seemed to be signs of life at times, but the end result was still a loss. I bet it's tough to get the tar knocked out of you and have nothing to show for it but a loss, knowing you're going to get back out there and work to do it all over again.

But life is like that isn't it? We have "seasons" where it seems like everything sucks. Maybe every single thing doesn't actually suck, but it sure feels like it. After the horrible season last year, a time where nothing seemed to be going right, the Broncos fired staff, rearranged responsibilities, brought in fresh ideas to the organization, all in attempting to defeat the suckiness and bring back the joy (and hopefully some wins!).

What do you do in those times? How do you regain a perspective that lets you enjoy life again? Do you need to "fire some staff" in your life? Or rearrange your priorities? Where can you bring some fresh thinking into your day?

Does 'reality bite' or 'life suck'? You can't change it until you refuse to accept it. Make some move today to make it better.