Life Is Short, Choose To Be Happy
Everything went down on Monday: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the Raiders! Did you catch me on Monday Night Football? Bolt up, baby!
Monday Night was epic. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this one might be worth two thousand. Let me introduce you to Hope. We've been friends since middle school. She's a good luck charm. She's actually a 49er fan but supports the Chargers by proxy for me. True friend, amirite?
She's always down for football, so she was all in when I invited her to join me for Monday Night Football. She even bought this jersey for the occasion. Fun fact: It was $3.90. Another fun fact: Almost all of my friends own some piece of Chargers merch because of me.
When we arrived at SoFi, there was a sea of black and silver. This isn't uncommon for it to look like an away game even when we're playing at home. We weren't bothered by this. As we enjoyed our hard seltzers before entering the stadium, Raiders fans chanted, "Let's go, Raiders!" and one even stopped to let us know he felt bad for us being Chargers fans.
He obviously doesn't know I'm well versed about what comes with being a Chargers fan. You have to have to thick skin. You are heckled all the time. You have to be confident in your team no matter how many missed field goals and extra points we seem to goof up. And you remain loyal, win, lose, or draw. I'm not a fairweather fan; I'm a lifelong fan. It's a choice.
Not all moments captured at games look like this: bright smiles, pure joy running through my veins. There are plenty of moments that resemble heartbreak. There should be no crying in football, but I've done it. See, when you're passionate about something, it shows.
Life can sometimes resemble being a Chargers fan. You're cruising along with a 21-point lead and blow it, only to lose the game like we've done several times in past seasons. But then I remember, life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I respond to it. I could have allowed myself to stay on the sidelines after getting divorced or losing my corporate job, but I didn't. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, "Put me in, Coach." I decided to claim happiness.
I learned a crucial lesson in the process, and I'm still in discovery mode. I realized happiness is a choice, not a destination or result of a circumstance. The best part, I can claim it, strive for it every single day. This is how I choose to live now. Don't get me wrong, we're human. We're going to encounter adversity, loss, disappointment, and several other challenges throughout our lifetime. That's a given. But I've found a way to continually work toward an overall happier existence by implementing five things into my life. Tune into this week's episode, I Claim Happiness, to learn what those five things are and how you can adopt them into your everyday routine.
I care about you! One of the top five regrets of the dying is, "I wish that I had let myself be happier." We're going to make sure we take action today, so we never have to speak those words.
