020: What Are Your Options?

Remember MacGyver?

He was that original 80's television character that could improvise at a second's notice and get himself out of the worst jams.

He was the epitome of resourcefulness.

No, you might not be able to go-MacGyver and craft a detonator from your own earwax or pick a lock with a toenail clipping...but how cool would it be to have the skills?

Resourcefulness gets you out of those tight-spots you find yourself in for whatever reason.

Being resourceful is also awareness about what you have...instead of what you don't have.

Without it, you'll risk settling for the place or predicament you're in - emotionally, physically, or spiritually.

Longevity favors resourcefulness

Being resourceful gives you incredible power and the willingness to accept the challenges you face.

I'm not talking about a victim-mindset.

Instead...

Resourcefulness is owning the spot you're in while searching for every conceivable and available option for a solution to change your circumstances.

• Making an honest assessment of your current situation is better than denying it.
• Discovering the availability of a single option is one step closer to a possible solution.
• Realizing that something is better than nothing - even if your something isn't perfect.

Tell me what you have - not what you don't have!

When assessing a situation or talking to someone about a problem you're confronting, it's common to lead with all that's broken, wrong, unavailable, or isn't working.

Scarcity and abundance duke it out most days in our minds.

On the one hand is the reality of what you lack. That could apply to your health, your financial portfolio, seeking understanding in a relationship, etc.

On the other hand is the reality that you're still breathing, you have available savings or cash in your pocket, and the lines of communication are still open.

You get to choose every day whether you see your available resources through the lens of scarcity or the lens of abundance.

Why not choose abundance!?

• Do a daily inventory of your available resources - think health, wealth, and wisdom.
• What opportunities do you have to improve, grow, and multiply your available resources? Personal growth doesn't really have a finish line - you're in the game (until you're not)...so keep playing!
• Fuel abundance with gratitude. Each day list or keep front-of-mind at least three things you're grateful for.

Choose abundance - or scarcity will make the choice for you!

More opportunity is available to you than you realize!

One option could be all you need

As longevity favors the resourceful, action favors a single option.

A solitary option gives you the opportunity to move forward in the direction of a solution.

Why is it so easy to entirely miss or flippantly dismiss the options in front of you when you're facing a challenge?

It's because an option forces you to take action. And sometimes it's easier to just sit and whine in your predicament.

Social media has trained this into us. It's why we overshare in hopes that our situation will deliver enough "follower" sympathy that we can actually end up feeling rewarded or validated in our uncomfortable circumstance. (Read that again!!)

In this instance, validation is all the reward you'll receive.

Resourcefulness will elude you until you see any good and available option as the first step towards a solution.

Solutions arrived at via resourcefulness do not wait for validation from the "crowd."

Look for a single option...and if you choose...seek validation from others only while you're taking action to test the option as a legitimate solution.

Something is better than nothing (even if your "something" isn't perfect)

Being resourceful will empower you to overlook perfectionism.

In most challenging circumstances, you don't have the luxury of waiting for the perfect solution.

It's best to go with what you have.

• Talk it out (even if you don't know where the conversation will lead).
• Share your ideas (even if they sound a bit out-there or untested).
• Launch the new business (even if you don't see others your age doing it).

None of those have the vibe of perfection in them.

That's why they're the stuff resourcefulness is made of.

Do something!

Try something!

Fail at something!

Finish something!

Repeat this often: "I have what I need...and what I don't have doesn't matter...as long as I can choose to be resourceful."

• That's the honest assessment that keeps you from denying reality without risking a solution.
• That's the power to seek a single option instead of seeking validation over taking action.
• That's the ability to do something instead of waiting for perfection and ending up with nothing.

Come on, MacGyver...you got this!

Press on...

Eddie