Making Self Improvement Simple: Recognizing Everyday Miracles

"So, the challenging thing becomes, not to look for miracles, but finding where there isn't one." — Peter Mayer (songwriter)

That may initially sound like an overstatement. Most people think of miracles as things that happened in Biblical times. Because we don't take the time to look at the world around us. And, for some reason, when given a choice we look at life in a negative rather than a positive light.

We all go through challenging times. If we didn't, there wouldn't be much point to life. If you seize the moment, the greatest lessons come out of the biggest challenges. My response to hard times is to always give gratitude for what I have, where the alternative is to complain about what I don't have. But in a really difficult stretch, it becomes harder to find things to have gratitude for.

I often end up feeling grateful for these especially hard times. You realize how many things you simply take for granted during the times when you have to dig deep to find something to be grateful for. When you just pause for a moment, and look at the world around you, it becomes clear that nearly everything IS a miracle.

Or, if you're like me and you have a 4 year old, you get daily reminders of the fact that everything's a miracle. The only real answer I have for many of her constant questions lately is "it's a miracle."

I scraped my knee and she wants to know how your body heals itself. It's a miracle. We planted tiny little ugly brown seeds in an egg carton this spring. How do they grow into the beautiful flowers pictured on the seed package? It's a miracle. Why does the sun set? Miracle. Why does it snow in the spring? Miracle. Why does my 9 month old cry when I leave the room? Another miracle.

Of course there are complex scientific explanations for most of these things. Which doesn't make them any less a miracle.

With millions of people in the world, how do we meet the love of our life? How do we find a friend that knows just what to say at just the right time? How are we able to go on after the death of a parent, or worse yet, a child? How can a dog enable a blind man to live as though he were sighted? Why does chocolate taste SO good?

Well, I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. Because most people don't get the point. And if you're not "into" self improvement and personal growth, you may never stop long enough to realize the point. Life is so full and so challenging and so hectic, that it's frighteningly easy to miss the fact that miracles are everywhere and in everything.

It matters how you see the world and it matters how you tell the story. This is the key to self improvement without changing anything other than your perception of the world. Just open your eyes up to the miracles around you.

If someone asked me how my day was, for example, I could respond by telling them that it was a miserably cold and rainy day, and all my kids were tired from staying up too late, and getting everyone up and dressed to take my daughter to school was a real struggle.

Or I could tell them how much fun we had staying up late the night before roasting marshmallows over the fire, and how my daughter sang a beautiful rendition of twinkle, twinkle little star to my baby that morning to keep him from being fussy. And I could laugh about how my 2 year old ran around the house in my high heels that morning as I tried to chase him down and get his shoes on him. And I could share how much fun my daughter had at school stomping in the mud puddles and finding the post-rain worms wriggling on the sidewalk. I could marvel at the rainbow.

It's up to me. I can't control my kids' moods. I can't control the weather. But I do control how I view the world. And how I tell the story, even if only to myself in my own head. I can see life as a miracle or as a struggle.

Why does it matter? The short answer is that part of the goal of self improvement is to be happy. And being happy just for the sake of being happy is a good thing. But it goes deeper than that. Recognizing life's miracles is essential to your home business success. I'll share why in my next article.