I tell my mother every day that she inspires me. She does this through her decision to be joyful at all times, keep an open mind, and ability to figure out ways to have fun wherever she is.
Decide to Be Joyful
When I was a child, I remember when our family had a rough financial patch. My mother had to teach high school during the day, GED classes on nights and weekends, and tutor kids in-between. I could tell she was doing everything she could to take care of my brother and me, but she was always tired and depleted.
Then, one day that changed and she’s been full of joy ever since.
Recently I asked her what happened. She told me that one day she realized that she was letting other people, circumstances that didn’t’ go her way, or things that she couldn’t control rob her of her joy. She decided to never let anything or anyone take her joy away because she only has this life to lead.
As I’ve been focused on self care, law of attraction and consciousness training, this is the solution to life. All these teachers advocate for internal joy and taking a leadership position in your life. I often reference my mother as she made this decision and has maintained this joy for decades.
Keep an Open Mind
Ever since I had my first idea to sell Halloween candy from my backpack, my mother has supported my entrepreneurial ideas. I told my mom my idea; she took me to Costco, and soon I was generating $40 per day at school–until I was told that I needed a license to sell candy. Ever since then, from the time I started a travel agency, joined an MLM, started an accounting firm, all the way to my current business EnrichHER, she expands my decisions and never limits them. She asks how she can be a part of what I’m doing, how she can help, and she offers to have strategy meetings with me to discuss how to generate the most revenue.
This practice helped me learn to pivot quickly, be innovative, and feed my creativity. As I interact with others in the world, I learn more and more that my mother’s open mind is a rare, beautiful quality. It inspires me that she continues to be this way.
Figure Out How to Do What you Love
Last week, my mother told me she had to go to the hardware store to find sulfur. I asked her why she needed to leave the house in the midst of COVID-19. She informed me that she saw a snake in her yard and needed to put up a barrier so that she could take care of her garden. This rationale made me smile and shake my head. You see, my mother finds such intense joy spending hours every day in her garden that she wouldn’t even let snakes deter her.
If I saw one snake, I would never play in the dirt again.
But this simple fact told me that we each set our own bar when it comes to how much we value our joy. When confronted with an obstacle, either it makes us quit, or we find a way around it. My mother found a way around the snakes, and this teaches me that life is full of decisions like this.