Your Choice.

Lately I've been on a bit of a kick to listen to different speakers on different topics, mainly motivational & faith based... but a few others in there as well :) Who knew YouTube could be such a positive thing? it's not just bloopers and homemade videos gone viral after all...

Anyways, my time at work has been helping this 'kick' as my schedule for the next 2 months is training time. Time to do online trainings, full day courses & other requirements, but along with this extremely flexible schedule, I've been able to see a few guest speakers that have come to Fort Sill or even some special events which is fantastic!

One of the speakers said something that really stuck with me, his name is Jon Gordon. Most of his talks are in the business sector so they're motivational leadership type of talks, but I definitely got a feel that his content is faith based. Especially with this thought. He said "research shows that you cannot be thankful and stressed in the same moment."

Wait what? Read it again.

"research shows that you cannot be thankful and stressed in the same moment."

That means, at any particular moment, you cannot be both stressed and thankful. That's pretty powerful. If you're stressed, you're not thankful. If you're thankful, you're not stressed. So the next time you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, stop and take a minute to count your blessings and remember all that you have to be thankful for. You can literally choose to be stressed or blessed! (the saying "too blessed to be stressed" comes to mind... and fits!)

This has definitely helped me with my move here and the transition to being by myself & such. If I catch myself feeling overwhelmed or stressed by one thing or another, I just take a step back, take a moment to think of at least 5 things I'm thankful for and I can just re-group with that. So simple yet so powerful.

And to go along with this, I was listening to another talk online the other night (sadly, I can't remember details to reference) and this talk mentioned a similar concept. But instead of talking about being blessed or stressed, they were talking about hope & doubt. You can not be hopeful for something and doubt that it will happen in the same moment. To take it a step further, you cannot be hopeful in the Lord and doubt Him in the same moment.

This is another thing I've been struggling with, admittedly more than the stressed vs. blessed idea. I've been struggling with doubt, wondering what I'm doing in Oklahoma, why did I leave Colorado, is this really where I should be, and so on. So hearing this thought shortly after the stressed vs. blessed thought really hit home... whenever I'm in a moment of despair and doubting God and His plans for me, I just need to stop. Rid myself of those thoughts and think of all the things I'm hopeful for... all the things God has promised me, all that He has done for me thus far that show me He won't lead me astray, and what I hope will come out of my time here in Oklahoma.

I know this wasn't much of an update on my life, but I thought it was something worth sharing. Hopefully you were able to follow my thought process somewhere in there & thought so too :)  So today's quote is my quick summary written on a post-it note that's stuck to my computer for my daily reminder.

Stressed or Blessed? Hope or Doubt? It's your choice today.