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Newsletter 2 as a Web Page

Life Resume Update™
“Take every opportunity to manually update your Life Resume and you will be much better prepared to handle life’s auto-updates”
By Greg Gilbert PHR (Professional Human Resources)

This Months Topic-Too Blessed to be Stressed

How are you doing? What a simple question with such an impact on the asker and askee (I know that‘s not a word but play along). Have you ever really thought about that question? When you answer that question what type of mood do you place you and the asker in? Think about these answers:
1. I’ve had worse days but I can’t remember when.
2. I’ll be better in three hours and seven minutes.
3. If this was five o’clock on Friday I’d be doing better.
4. You really don’t want to know.

Don’t these just bring you down to the lowest level of blah? A person that answers in this manner normally does not have to be interrupted from whistling or singing. Is number four really a true statement? You probably don’t want to know. Be honest now, if you really didn’t want to know, why did you ask? I always ask as a greeting and I do care, but an anonymous e-mail I received a few years ago made me consider my answer in a different perspective. Consider these facts:

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ...you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place ...you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful ...you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

Okay, let’s try it again. In the big scheme of things, how are you doing?



Let me share some better answers to the question:
1. Great!
2. Outstanding!
3. It gets better every day and it seems like tomorrow already.
4. Better than I deserve. (Probably true for most of us)

Don’t these put you in a better mood? Let me share my favorite answer to this question. In 2001 my wife and I loaded the Harley up for what we called the Great Adventure. This motorcycle was really loaded. It looked like the Beverly Hillbillies on their way to California. All we needed was granny on top with her rocker. We rode to Pensacola, Florida and met friends from Austin, Texas. These three couples (self referred to as the six pack of fools) rode to Daytona, Florida for Bike Week along with 500,000 of our closest friends. After a few days we rode to Key West where I saw the most beautiful sunset crossing seven mile bridge on the Harley. After a few days we rode back through the Everglades and alligator alley and returned home. Oh yeah, that stuff about alligators being more afraid of me than I am of them is a flat out lie. All I could think of is Harley don’t quit me now. We covered 3400 miles in fourteen days.

While we were in Daytona it was obviously very crowded. As we entered a restaurant one day the door was stuck. I eased up to it and gave it a bump with my posterior. Let me tell you, the door was no match for this door bumping posterior of mine. As we say in the south, the door slung open. It struck a very large man. He was probably five feet twenty inches tall, leather clad, tattooed with chains hanging everywhere. I first said excuse me and then asked him how he was doing. He looked at me and grinned and said “Brother, I am too blessed to be stressed”. Thank goodness that was his answer. I told him how great an answer that was and that I may use it in the future. He said “Brother if it is true there is no charge”. The more I think about it I am too blessed to be stressed. So the next time you are asked that question and start to look at your watch to say I will be doing fine in XX amount of time, I ask you to really think about it before you attempt to suck someone down to your level. After all, who is most responsible for where you are in life? For the answer to this question, look in the mirror. Remember, keep on giving what you been giving and you’ll keep on getting what you been getting.

Don’t forget to update your life resume and I hope today finds you too blessed to be stressed!!

Greg Gilbert is a semi-guitar picker, semi-writer, semi-songwriter, semi-poet, cattle rancher, public speaker, retired Human Resources manager and currently lives in Southwest Arkansas with his wife and best friend of 31 years (yes, his wife and best friend are the same person). He is a survivor of raising two wonderful daughters in a sometimes hostile, 75% female environment. He also cheerfully answers to the name Pa Paw.
For information on a Life Resume Update presentation for your organization or church check out his web site at www.greggilbert.org . To order a “Life Resume Update” CD, e-mail Greg at greggilbert@swbell.net.