Inspired Responses To The WakeUp Call

WakeUp Calls have affected many people’s lives. For some, surviving the storms they’ve faced turned out to be some of the most important events of their lives.

Recent Responses:

"Hi Mike. I talked to you ohhhhh about 18 months ago. I do go to your site and think you are doing remarkable work. You are in part responsible for me going to work for a new non profit that is recycling gently used hotel amenities to help save lives. Here is my wee video. Yes, I know I need more practice in front of a camera.
;-)

Life is too short. I would rather make a difference than make a profit and my kids LOVE what I do for the first time ever.

http://web.me.com/cleantheworld/CTW_Media/Meeting_Planner.html

60 days after check out your soap is helping save a life. Feel free to pass it along."

- Calum Maclean, Director Planner Program, Clean the World, Inc.

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Calum - What can I say? I think you are doing such important and meaningful work! To think I had any part at all in helping guide you there is a blessing to me. Thanks for sharing this ‘gift’ with me.

- Mike

"My wake up came when my wife became very ill and hospitalized. The doctors first diagnosed the problems as ovarian cancer. For 24 hours I thought the worst and wondered what my daughter and I would do without her mommy. The physicians at the hospital then advised they were wrong and diagnosed the issues as Fibromyalgia and Lupus, not good but better than cancer! It was an eye opening experience.

I understood almost immediately how ungrateful I had been for the things and people in my life. I was determined to change. It has not been an easy paradigm shift, but by using some common sense techniques and setting realistic expectations, I have progressed nicely. I decided to enjoy what I had and if I was not happy with something, change it. If the maid biz was what I had to do for now, I may as well do it the best I could.

Looking back, I am happy to have learned the great lesson of gratitude. My wife is doing better and my daughter is growing like a weed!"

Name Withheld

“…Today (07/26) I mark five years since the death of my former husband and the birth of my new life with my now 7 yr. old daughter, Emma. Sometimes we are given gifts that we do not want, and like you did, embrace those gifts, unwrap those gifts and own those gifts. As I unwrapped my unwanted gift, I found that there were actually things i did want...like courage, strength, love, friendship, a future, a blank page, PAINTS!, choices...and even a new family with Jeff and Sam added in!...”

“Mike, your message… is inspiring and uplifting, but also rocks ones core. It really made me think about the struggles we deal with day to day, and then the surprise bumps in the road that we didn't plan for. I too have experienced some real "storms" in my life - as we all have. And for each of us, our own personal storms are difficult, are often devastating, and to others they may not seem that bad, but being on the outside looking in you can never really understand another’s feelings. What we all do have in common is hurt, and pain, and fear – but what we don’t seem to all have in common is what to do with those raw emotions.

Everyone reacts in their own way to difficult times, and no matter how each of us are different in that reaction, what is important is that we react. I agree with you 100% that even though our difficult times aren’t usually pleasant, everything that happens has a message and you just have to be open and receptive to what that message is. Every day we are given a chance to “do good” and to “be happy”, and every day is a new day to make a difference, either in your own life or in the lives of others. Every day is so very precious and without the struggles we have all had to face, we would not be the strong, confident, empathetic person we woke up as yesterday, today, and tomorrow morning. Our self, our being is an ever evolving mix of experiences, and while none of us want the “storms”, when we really see the root of the experience we are able to better appreciate what we do have and who we really are. Your post is incredible and helped to remind me today that it’s a good day, it’s a great day to be here.

“...I put my beloved cat Mini to rest this early evening. Compared to the tragedies some people face, the loss of a pet can sound trivial, but in reality, her loss was as close and as deep to me as the loss of a person. She was my baby, and her loss symbolizes the loss and letting go of so much in my life up until this point.

I have learned a lot about myself through this. Someone told me today that out of everyone he knows, I have a quiet strength that comes into play just at the right moments, and can't be matched. I know this to be true now, because I experienced it in a profound way today.
There are times when I'd take having everything the way I want it easily over learning what I'm made of, but not today. I had tried to make Mini well, but some things are beyond our control. That's a big lesson to learn. I'm beginning to understand that there are times to fight to the finish for something I believe in, and that shows strength, and then there are times to accept and let go, and that is strength too.

I smiled at the doctor when he said, "She's gone"...I felt light, as though both Mini and my spirit lifted up at the same time. I would have never guessed that just when I thought I couldn't bear another inch of pain, God would step in and give me peace about this. I want to carry this peace in my life and see where it takes me. It's a new chapter, and there are a million opportunities for me, if I want to see them.

Just do it! The popular Nike ad hit it on the head, right?

So many times I just talk myself right out of something before I even begin.

THE VOICE...it's so powerful!

What has helped me recently is to personify "the voice". When the voice says, "go ahead, have that cookie, you deserve it" I just picture a face of an ugly, mean, smelly guy with rotten teeth (someone I normally wouldn't take advice from) and look him straight in the face and laugh.

When the voice says, "aw, come on, what makes you think you can do that?" I do what I usually do to people who think they can tell me what I can or cannot do...I defy them and do whatever the **** I want.

So I wanted to share my personification of the voice...so maybe it can help others. Our own voices are our own worst enemies!!! I know the voice will never go away, I just have to put it in its place so it doesn't have control.

“…I had a wake up call 3 years ago. I was commuting over 3 hours/day and completely missed the first 8 months of my daughter's life. So, with a new daughter and a new house and less than 2 months of living expenses in the bank, I quit my job and started my own business. It was completely insane, and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.”

“It took me 60 years to wake up, re design my life, and tap into my childhood memories of Italy to write my book called Rainbows in the Fountain.” (Nick Mancini, Author of “Rainbows in the Fountain”)

“Sept 11 2001 definitely a life-changing experience for me and for my family. That day, we learned many things and began to value things in life differently. It is interesting to me how my experience affected many people in my family - everyone has a story from their point of view and that story - of me personally through their eyes - shaped not just my life but others as well.

My story is similar to many others who worked in WTC at that time. It was a Tuesday and I was at the end of a really difficult project - implementation of Oracle ERP. We had an 8:30 am meeting every Tuesday on the 99th floor. Early meetings were a pain for me because I commute from LI. I could only take 7:32 train to make the meeting - earlier trains are way too early and the next one would make me late. My daughter just started at junior high school and she had an assignment to create a mobile.

That morning, my daughter was fussing with that mobile - a ribbon came off and needed to be glued. I'm a working mother, my family always recognized that certain things can't be expected - I don't glue ribbons on a mobile for a 13 year old right before I have to catch a train. But on Tuesday 9/11/2001, I stopped my run, patiently glued the ribbon for my daughter, and when I arrived to the train station - the train was still there.

As I parked my car, I probably could have run after the train – it would not be the first time, conductors sometime see us running and hold the doors for another few seconds. But I did not run that day. For some inconceivable reason, I said to myself that it would be OK to be late that day.

By the time I made it downtown, my office on the 96th floor was already on fire. The team from the conference room on the 99th floor was still alive and sending messages via Blackberries and phones about the evacuation that was trying to take place. They did not know - neither did we...

I stood around the building on Rector St., hoping to see anyone I knew - anyone that was able to get out. When the 2nd building fell, I started to run away and eventually made my way by foot back to midtown, to Penn Station and home on LI. Riding on the train back that day, I was observing various types of people - those, like me, that were lost somehow and did not know how to move on; and those who thought it was great they got an early dismissal day and a day off - but that is another story.

My only thought that day was to let my family know that I was OK. My daughters did not expect me to survive - their stories seem to be scarier than mine. Only around 11:00 AM was I able to pass the word to my youngest – there was no way to get through to her at school.

I learned that 2 minutes could change everything. That gluing a little red ribbon for my kid could be more important than any big event. I do not run after the trains anymore - there is always another one, in many meanings than one.”