Are You Planting Seeds of Success?

Did 2018 start out on a good note for you?  I hope it did. It sure did for me!

After living in Southern California for over ten years and always watching the Rose Parade on the TV, I finally attended the parade in person this year. Oh, what a wonderful choice to do so!

Coincidentally, a friend in Hollywood Hills had invited me to her New Year’s Eve party so, after we all rang in the new year, I stayed overnight and was able to get more sleep there than if I drove to Pasadena from Orange County.

My early morning drive to Pasadena at 5:30 this morning was a mere 20 minutes vs hours. After pulling into a gas station in Pasadena before 6am which was only a couple blocks from Colorado Ave (the street on which the parade travels), my first day of this new year started off great because of a simple little W.G.A.C.A experience. BTW, I should explain W.G.A.C.A. You’ve heard of Karma, I trust. Well, W.G.A.C.A. is the same as Karma. It stands for ‘What Goes Around Comes Around.’

While in the gas station, I noticed a LASD deputy trying to strategically carry out three, super tall hot coffees. I simply offered to carry one to his car so he wouldn’t spill all three. That’s all I did! Or ‘Chose to Do! Once back in the store, while getting my own coffee and sandwich, I struck up a conversation with a lady, mentioned that I needed to find a place to park my car and I wasn’t excited about paying the $30 stated on the parade’s website.

In less than a minute of chatting, she motioned to me to \”Follow Her\” and, in a hushed voice, gave me permission to park my car in her parking spot because she was an employee of that gas station and didn’t need her spot. Whee! She just saved me all parking costs! And it\’s only TWO blocks from Colorado Ave!

After parking my car and starting my walk towards Colorado Street, a homeless lady asked me for a dollar for her own cup of coffee. Feeling happy about my recent W.G.A.C.A. experience, I gave her All My Parking Money!

While some may argue that there was no link between my effort to simply help someone so he didn\’t spill all of his drinks to, LESS THAN A MINUTE LATER, receiving the kind of help I wanted but hadn’t even spoken out loud that I wanted it was, most definitely, a W.G.A.C.A experience. I went on to fully enjoy every morsel of every moment at my first Rose Parade from floats to marching bands to the honoring of local leaders. Coincidentally, I got an almost front row position so I had a perfect view of every float, etc.

Shifting the focus to you now: For you to have an abundance of W.G.A.C.A. experiences throughout this new year, please consider what I mentioned in my Christmas Day blog about using the colors of Christmas to have a balanced year: Green for giving and red for receiving! If you wonder which you should focus on first, look to the plant of our Christmas season, the poinsettia. It produces green leaves first and then red leaves!

Next, look to the five areas of your life and see how you can give before receiving. The five areas I’m referring to are:
1) caring for yourself… A great example of \’giving\’ to yourself and a full night of sleep vs half and expecting your body to act as if you had gotten eight hours.
2) helping others in your workplace before expecting something from them,
3) helping those in your family or a friend however s/he needs help,
4) helping a neighbor or someone else in your community that is not necessarily a loved one but they need your help such as the 3-yr-old boy who just ‘helped his elderly neighbor, Mr. Jones, cry’ after losing his wife of 63 years.
5) helping a total stranger by being a spontaneous Good Samaritan such as I had the opportunity to do so this morning… all based on my choice to help vs not.

When you begin your day by thinking of a spirit-based question of ‘What choices can I make today to give?’ vs ‘What can I get?’, that kind of attitude is like planting seeds of success for yourself and turning opportunities to help others to receiving an abundance of gifts back for you to enjoy. Again, it\’s called W.G.A.C.A. Try it for a day, a week, a month and let me know of your W.G.A.C.A. experiences.  Blessings to you and all your choices!