This week’s Thanksgiving 2-Minute Monday Mindset is about thanks for something that may surprise you.
Give thanks for two lives
Did you know that we each have two lives?
Let me explain turning to a movie I love.
I recently watched again The Natural, where Robert Redford plays
a gifted baseball player whose dreams were derailed by a tragic incident.
After years of struggle, he gets one last shot at greatness only to be haunted by his past.
The day before the biggest game of his career, he’s overwhelmed with regret,
wondering what could have been if his past had been different.
In a key moment, his childhood sweetheart, played by Glenn Close, tells him something profound:
“We live two lives – the life we learn with, and the life we live with after that.”
She explains that, even without the records he missed out on, he still made a difference to others –
especially the young fans who saw him as a hero.
She helps him realize that his past, though painful, was just that—the past.
It shaped him, but it didn’t define him.
And Redford the ballplayer went out the next day and hit the game-winning home run.
We watched the baseball fly into the lights in Center field, shattering them,
and showing everyone with sparks of magic the glory of realized potential.
We all can choose to learn the lessons and still live a life that realizes our enhanced potential.
That potential never leaves.
It just transforms based upon the lessons we learn through life and enhances that potential.
So realize and give thanks that we all have two lives: the one we learn with, and the one we live with.
How we choose to live our present and future life is just that … our choice.
The question for you this week is, how will you live your life?
With regret about your past, or realizing your new potential shaped by the lessons you’ve learned?
Give thanks to both lives.
Give thanks for everything you’ve got, including everything life has made you learn.
And I’ll see YOU at the next 2MMM!
