Word of the Day: Unbelievable

Sitting under a 70 year old Catalpa tree on my grandparents 9 acre homestead, next to my cousin and aunt, talking about life and entrepreneurship, my cousin answered one of my questions with an enthusiastic, “I’m Unbelievable.” Really interested in his positive response, I said to him, “You are – how come?” To which he replied, “I’m not really sure but I was told once if you used that expression when others asked how you felt, the word ‘unbelievable’ would leave them wondering.” If you knew my cousin you would consider this a typical wise-ass response but I was fascinated by it.

I bought into the answer and said, “I suppose an optimistic person would think ‘unbelievable’ meant amazing, positively fantastic, or perhaps even wonder if that person hit the jackpot!” or I said, “I imagine a pessimistic person might construe unbelievable to be devastating, shocking or something horrific happened.” My cousin said, “Exactly!” As I sat in the old wooden chair with the most beautiful light breeze surrounding me as I gazed at the backyard pool, I thought I would use that answer in the future to see what others thought when I expressed it.

My reaction to ‘Unbelievable’ was extremely positive envisioning he sold one of his breathtaking paintings to Sotheby’s; but instead he felt wonderful being home, cooking lunch and seeing the family. He asked me how my business was going since my health issues. I paused for a moment to think if I could use the same word to describe my company status. I paused, as a beautiful leaf fell into my wine glass, reminiscing back to the fewer than normal but quality regional events I’ve hosted since being on new medicine including a white water rafting event with daring women in our athletic network and finishing a book and speech about alopecia, “I would say ‘Unbelievable.'”

Sure there have been unbelievably bad days in between the unfathomable good days, but overall I believe life gives us what we choose to feel, see and hear and for me that is positive notes or moments in between the unfortunate ones. I could have told my cousin about my struggle with my diagnosis and how losing my identity as a female has diminished my perspective of self but instead I choose to embrace the golden moments and share them with him. There are times to share pain and times to share joy. The choice is always ours in the making of the conversation.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you to think of saying the word ‘Unbelievable’ the next week to everyone who asks how your feeling to see if the word makes you feel better about yourself, business or circumstance. Perhaps thinking about using it as a negative connotation won’t sit right with your scenario or heart realizing things aren’t as bad as they could be. Perspective is a powerful point of view and one that should emphasize the goodness in one’s life. Focusing on the positive rather than the negative will always bring more hope for today and tomorrow.