This story was just sent to me by a friend and I would like to share it with you. Enjoy!

I Am Amazing
by Tom Cunningham

If the next stranger you spoke to on the phone, or met in person, answered AMAZING to the question “How are you doing?” what would you think? What would you say?

I have answered AMAZING to everyone for 25+ years. I have said it to 2000+ company Presidents on the phone and to nurses after my many surgeries. Most of the time when I say it, I mean it. The rest of the time it is to remind myself I’m AMAZING.

I have had rheumatoid arthritis since the age of 5. I’m 47 now. It affects every joint in my body from my jaw to my toes. I have had 4 hips replaced, 4 knees replaced, 2 shoulders replaced. I have been in hospital about 40 times. Every day, I have 2-4 joints bothering me enough that would cause most people to stay home from work.

You may be wondering how I can say AMAZING, and mean it, all the time. I’ll let you know because you can do it also. Through either great genes and parents, or the grace of God, or both, I have always had a positive attitude. When I started needing hospitalization at the age of 5, I would always answer ‘fine’ when asked how I was doing. I would be in tremendous pain and discomfort in the hospital and my grandmother would phone me and I would tell her when she asked how I was doing I would say, “ I’m fine.”

When I started reading Napoleon Hill in my early 20’s, his principles about PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) practically jumped off the pages at me. He writes that our mind is the only thing that God has given man 100% control over. The idea that we must focus our minds in a positive direction, or be drowned by the stresses and negativity that life can throw at us was how my brain had been working since a young age. You and I get to choose to be AMAZING!

Here is what I focus on to put myself in an AMAZING state. First, I was born and raised and still live in Canada. We have universal health care in Canada which means that the only thing I pay for when leaving the hospital is the bedside television I had the choice of renting while I was there. Doctors’ visits cost me nothing. If I had been born in the U.S. and most other countries, my parents would not have been able to afford my health care and no insurance company would have covered me. People born in third world countries have little to no health care. Second, people in third world countries don’t get to eat every day. I eat 3 or more times daily. Third, people in third world countries have no or substandard housing. I live in a beautiful condo. Fourth, people in third world countries have never used a phone or a car and I use both every day. I am no nicer, kinder or more deserving of the blessings I have than people born in poverty are and yet I get to enjoy blessings most of the world does not experience.

People tend to compare themselves to the wealthy and famous and they forget that just being born in a developed country instead of a third world country is a global blessing. People forget that getting to eat every day is a blessing most of the world does not experience. Our society, especially the media, focuses our attention on the newest and greatest everything so that we soon become discontent with what most of the world would treasure.

When I think of complaining, I picture myself speaking to someone from a third world country. I wonder what the person would think of my “problem” or source of discontent. You can imagine what they would think.

I challenge you, for the next 7 days, to answer AMAZING every time someone asks you how you are doing. Notice the reaction you get. Notice how it makes you feel. Be prepared for the conversations it will start.

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Namaste!

Donna

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