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How to Win 7 out of 8 Days a Week
You're Something Else
I was talking to an audience on how to feel good about yourself. Afterward, a woman came up to me and said, "You know, I'm seventy-six years old, and tonight's the first time anyone ever told me it was okay to like yourself. I always thought I was supposed to hate myself." Then she got a gleam in her eyes and she said: "Do you know what I'm going to do in the morning? I'm gonna get up and look in that mirror and say, 'Hey, gal, you're something else!'"
Why not try it yourself? Tomorrow, when you get up, instead of looking in the mirror and saying, "That's the same old slept-on thing I saw yesterday,: why don't you say, "You know, you're really something!"
Keep that thought in your mind all day. See what it does to your relationships with others. The better you like yourself, the more people are going to enjoy being with you.
You Have All the Time You Need
Do you have a problem with time? You say you never have time? Well, hang on, because I have some ideas for you that will at least give you a different way to look at time.
More than any of us probably realize, our days are shaped by the clock. The clock tells us when to get up, when to leave for work, when to eat lunch, when to head for home in the evening and, finally, when to go to bed.
The clock also tells us something else. It tells us we are timed. We only have so much time between the time of birth and the time of death. The clock ticks off this interval in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years. The clock records the quantity of time, but it tells us little about the meaning of time. It doesn't tell me whether I'm doing the things I should be doing to fill my days with meaning. It says nothing of the priorities of my life. Unless I deliberately think about time, I'm apt to awaken near the end of my life very discouraged about the way I've spent my time.
What can I do about this? Here is a critical idea: You have all the time you need to do everything you really need to do in your life…Puzzled? Let's continue to think for a few moments.
You Have Time
I've suggested you have all the time necessary for what you must do in this world. I believe that. However, I realize this will be your personal story only if you think about what you're doing with your life. Are you doing the important things?
One way to determine whether you're doing the important things is to ask this question: If you knew you were going to die in twenty-four hours, what would you do with those hours? Does your answer have any connection to the way you're living your life today?
Your answer will lead you to consider the most critical things in your life. You must structure your present life so that it provides for what would be most important to you if you only had one more day to live.
Get Over Yourself
I saw a teenager in a Chicago airport who was on the right beam. He came skipping through the airport, wearing a big button that said, "Get over yourself."
Now, that's what you have to do to become a world-class laugher. You have to get over yourself. If you're always tense and high-strung, if you're very self-centered, you're probably not a very good laugher. You're probably not a lot of fun to be with, either. You need to get over yourself.
A critical part of winning is learning to laugh. It takes a long time to learn to laugh – some people say it can take as long as forty years. I know I've laughed a lot more since I've turned forty!
I've read that, in some Zen monasteries, the novices are trained in laughing. When they first get out of bed in the morning, they have to stand up immediately, get in this clownish stance, and then laugh as loud and as hard as they can laugh – at themselves.
As I read that, I thought, "I don't think I've ever done that." As I thought about it, I couldn't remember whether I had ever laughed immediately upon awakening. I thought, "I'll try it."
Well, the first morning, I forgot! But the next morning I remembered it. And as soon as I woke up, I got up, got into the most ridiculous position possible, and laughed - just as loud and as deep as I could. It felt a little awkward and strange, but it sure woke me up. Afterwards, I walked lightly across the room; I felt lighter all day.
Try it yourself. But one word of warning: If you sleep with someone, you'd better alert them the night before. I'm not quite sure what they would think if you just jumped up and started laughing.
People who live in triumph know how to laugh. And they know how to laugh at themselves, and how to inject laughter into moments that otherwise would be tense and hostile.
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