Wake up

Wake up…

I wake up with the sound of a strange voice in my ear, but I notice very quickly I am still alone.

Can you guess where? Typical me – the bottom of a well! In my defense, it was a very well hidden well…

We are – family and me – at a friend’s farm, a beautiful place quite far from the horrors of a city clogged during a time that should be for celebrations, Christmas… Did I tell you today is Christmas day?

At least, I think so… You know, yesterday I was running around after a, well, a little fight with my cousin, Michael, who thinks of himself as the next multimillionaire. His wife thinks of herself as the next celebrity… Yeah, not that easy to talk with them and he started with the old you are a failure. He is that blunt! After much yelling and moderation from dad and mum, I decided to just leave the place.

I have been to this place before, we all have been but little Cassidy, so it was with pleasure I realized there was a full area of land to explore – and I did that exactly. Brilliant idea, right?

Wake up…

Hey, I am awakened! Who is there by the way?

It was the 24^th morning and as I started to feel hungry and decided to go back to the farm for lunch and maybe another fight…

Wake up…

I AM AWAKENED!

Short story: I feel into this well. This has been by far my worse Christmas Eve, passing down here. Something is broken and I can’t stand, I don’t see how to climb it and I am sick of shouting and yelling, I even called for my cousin to help me…

Wake up…

Another day passed by, it should 26^th today, or maybe I’ve missed one day, not sure. Someone has to find me, right? I mean, dad, mum…

Wake up…

Hey, what is it that you want? I am here, alone and the only thing you say is wake up?

Why don’t you wake up?

Ooops, it responded to me!! Hallucinations… well, at least I have someone with whom to talk.

‘Why do you say I am not awakened, Mr… Voice?’

You are living in the darkness of your own life. You are not valuing what you have got…

‘I am perfectly happy with whom I am, thank you very much! Has Michael put you to this?’

If you are that happy, why is there the sadness in your heart, masqueraded by the feeling of being insulted? And that was there much before your cousin started to poke you.

In fact, deep down, I can see you agree with your cousin, after all you expected to be a space engineer by this time, have a wonderful family and a beautiful house… A house on the beach, from where you could see the waves breaking on the shore…

I can’t speak… For some reason, I don’t have a witty response.

But think about how much you have conquered! Look at your health, the way you work, the friends you have got. Why do you prefer ignoring the good things and focus on those bad things? It is time you wake up…

My vision is blurred, if it is because of being two days with no water or food – I don’t count gums as food – or just because… just because…

Yes, I have been always in the wrong side of the road. Everything I have got in life was not even enough, it was not right. It is not right. I think I’ve missed the chance with studying, with people, with myself.

‘How… how do I wake up then?’

Silence on the other side, my hallucination is probably thinking.

‘I cannot set any record straight, but I can value more the job, the place I am living, the people around me and every single thing that is present. Would be that… adequate?’

It will be a first step. First, appreciate your own success and as soon as you leave from here, just make peace with your cousin and appreciate his success too.

First, let me appreciate my own success: I value my life story, the incredible path that has taken me to this point in life and I kind of hug myself, in tears…

I am about to tell to my hallucination that he has been badly informed, as Michael left by lunch time the day before, when I hear his booming voice… It is like music for me, I never cried so much! I start to shout and soon the guys are all there. A team of paramedics (I think) helps me coming out of the well, and we just embrace as if it would last forever!

But I don’t move. I come close to the well and I feel others behind me, waiting. I feel respect from their side. I close my eyes and silently speak to that mysterious voice.

Thank you…

How to create an opportunity?

Normal belief is that opportunities just happen. During the 60’s, people start to get their lives into their own hands and a whole generation started to believe they could create an opportunity, but decades and many crises later, the old normal belief is probably ruling the world and people are feeling in general they don’t have other ways to overcome their situations.

It is true that marches are not working as they used to work before and most attempts to create something – a company, a new life, a new marriage – end in failure. Leaders are scarce and life is being lived on a day-to-day basis. But there is hope.

Yes, there is.

You probably have heard about SWOT Analysis. A little outdated, it is still crucial to get results in a fast way by identifying the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

From that perspective, you usually consider an opportunity as a situation or circumstance that may happen in your favor. But, by working on SWOT on a personal level, I have found out that an opportunity is (a situation to which you need) a strength that is still potential. In other words, you can create an opportunity by investing more time on some of your potentials.

It makes sense: instead of just focusing in your strengths, struggling with your weaknesses or fighting with possible threats, focus on that potential you know you have: maybe it is a skill you seldom use, or perhaps it is a quality others appreciate in you, but you normally don’t use it in a productive way.

Reflect.

Understand that potential, hidden behind many layers of other beliefs.

Invest time and energy to make the potential a reality and use it in life, turning an opportunity as part of your strengths, in a way.