Make Life Worth Living

If you were asked, “What makes life worth living?” and your response had to be a single word – what would your answer be?

This is a great conversation around the water cooler, or the lunchroom, or even the dinner table. Lou Tice would often use it as a way to understand the people he would meet. When asked what he thought the answer was, Lou said, “The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that what makes life worth living is ‘You!'”

Here is what he meant. Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote about a summer day during his childhood when his mother sent him out to pick a quart of raspberries. “I dragged my feet in rebellion,” he said, “and the can was filling very slowly. Then a new idea came to me. Wouldn’t it be fun to pick two quarts of raspberries and surprise her!”

“I had such an interesting time picking those two quarts, to the utter amazement of the household, and they never forgot it. We can change any situation by changing our attitude toward it. Nobody ever finds life worth living. One always has to make it worth living.”

Each day, we are faced with situations that we didn’t plan for, or plan on, but still need to succeed at. How are we going to face them: with a positive, can-do attitude, or are we going to drag our feet and give in to adversity? We do have choices, and the effects of those choices reverberate through our lives, our families, our co-workers, and to some extent, our communities.

The kind of life you have is a choice you make, every single day. The success you have in your work is a choice you make every day. Change seems to be a constant in universe, as well as in our lives. How do you deal with change, either face forward and keep your eye on your goals or do you get caught up in the negative and turn away?

Which makes more sense to you? What is your choice going to be? The choice is yours to make, because no one can make it for you.