So the pseudo-intellectual subject line should give a clue to my mindset as I write this.
I’m sitting alone in my office after a long day of celebrating Christmas with my closest friends and family. After this day I had to share some things I learned about myself.
Of course I’m sure you all get the same emails I get this time of year. Optimism runs rampant and you get tons of well-wishing holiday emails.
That’s not a bad thing obviously but I really think a bit of it is fake. Some of it feels like what marketers think they are “supposed” to do.
So this year I had set my mind to not even email you guys because I didn’t want to come across as “fake” or doing what I’m “supposed” to do during the holidays.
I told myself I’d just be quiet and let the holidays gracefully pass by. Until exactly 4 minutes ago…
So what happened? I’m not sure exactly.
All I know was that I was having a really great conversation with my very close friends Amish Shah from the Magic Bullet and TheAppCode.com and Larry Ostrovsky from BeWellBuzz.com.
It’s 4:10 AM in San Diego and those guys just left my house after a very nice Christmas dinner celebration with all our wives and a few family members.
We had a great day and ended up having a deep conversation about life, love, happiness, family etc. A few things those guys said made me realize some things and I wanted to share it publicly.
So, this is my holiday email to all of you.
I actually do really care that anyone reading my messy prose will have the best year of their lives and I want to be a huge part of making that happen.
I’m launching a few projects soon that will show how serious I am but first I wanted to let you know how thankful I am that you are still listening to me and giving me your attention.
It really does mean a lot that you think I have something interesting enough to say that you stay on my list.
Thank you.
So what did I learn that spurred me to write this email?
It all started when I was slinging some wine-induced insults at someone that was not around to defend themselves. Both Amish and Larry defended the person I was insulting and it forced me to pause and examine what I was actually saying.
In the end I finally figured out that had no right to say the things I did. It also made me understand on a deep level that we all have a dark side. We all hide deep dark secrets we hope that no one finds out.
I have them too of course. What I realized was that I was lashing out at that person because I was sensing that they have similar dark secrets as I do. So I was really lashing out at MYSELF!
It was a very cathartic moment. Thus the subject line.
It really nailed me hard. Hard enough to do a reset in my brain and sit down and write this email.
So in the end, we all have faults. We shouldn’t be so quick to slam others when most likely we are really lashing out at things we see in ourselves.
None of us are perfect and we are all striving to work this thing called life as best we can.
So please take time to reflect this week on what you really have in life and how blessed we all are. I don’t care what your situation is, you have a million things to be grateful for.
Life is awesome and I’m so happy to share a small piece with you. Be kind. Be grateful. Be patient. Be caring.
We get one shot. Might as well do it in peace.
Happy holidays to all of you.
Thanks for riding along with me even with all my flaws.
Matt
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