In the long run, I haven’t found it productive to place the blame and point fingers at others as a result of my day-to-day activities. We always have responsibility for what is going on in our world.

Albeit, it’s much easier to shirk that responsibility and direct our – and others’-attention somewhere else while pointing out the numerous flaws with ‘them.’

It’s much more challenging to sift through the ruble and identify our place in the situation and claim it as our own.

When we’re willing to take 100% responsibility for everything that goes on in our lives, we can become the catalyst for the change we intend to see.

Lord knows my routine, habits – good and bad, daily activities and even my perception of the world can use a re-boot every so often.

We can get caught up in our own world to the point where we’ve lost touch with the grand view of things and our part in it.

For me, I have a tendency to shut the rest of the world out in order to accomplish my goals. That’s fine and all, but I can isolate myself a bit too much. I’ve always felt I make the most impact in the world when connecting with others. I know this can take many different shapes and forms, but keeping your nose to the grindstone and not coming up for a break every so often to see what is going on around us and checking in with others we care about, isn’t so healthy either.

And all it takes is hitting the refresh button to make our adjustments so we can find balance in our lives once again while prioritizing what’s most important to us and then implementing a strategy.

There’s always time to refresh ourselves.

Who doesn’t like a do-over?

In the most popular story ever told, a man was tortured, humiliated and eventually murdered in front of his family, friends and strangers – the whole town. Yet, in the last moments of his life, was able to look his killers in the eyes and forgive them. He wasn’t even dead yet and he was already able to pardon them for what they were doing and for what would eventually be done.

If that doesn’t put things into perspective, I’m not sure what will.

I know I certainly have a ways to go.

I’ll probably reconsider getting upset the next time someone cuts me off in traffic next time.

I said ‘probably.’

When my birthday rolls around I do my best to look at it – rather than celebrating a birthday, which is another year on this earth – but an opportunity to be grateful for everything I have around me.

I’m able to break it down into digestible, individual acts and/or people that make my life so wonderful. In doing so, I feel like I’m being showered with gifts and Love. beyond my imagination.

There’s no doubt we must acknowledge how many years we’ve been fortunate enough to walk this journey called life, but let’s keep it in perspective and focus on what makes this time special; the Loved ones we are surrounded by and get to share this unique experience.

Leave it to Seth Godin’s blog “Holding On For Dear Life” to hit the nail on the head once again with where my head is at right now and then delivering the perfect remedy to eloquently sum it all up.

As he said, we tend to take the meaning of “holding on for dear life” as an exercise to display our sheer will and physical strength – hanging on to the edge of a cliff so as not to plummet to our death.

When what we really need to do is to let go in order to live our lives fully.

Let go of our old ideas. Letting go of our fears. Let go of our resentment towards ourselves and others. Letting go of the stories and excuses we tell ourselves over and over. Letting go of our old selves in order to embrace a new version of ourselves – even though we’re not sure who that person is.

In letting go, we decide to move forward into the unknown where anything can be the gateway to everything.