I Have It Easy, And So Do You. Stop Complaining.

So I am attending Podcamp Toronto this weekend.  It has been great to finally meet some other people who are interested in podcasting and social media, in person.  The learning sessions have been interesting for the most part, but it has been the interaction with other like-minded people, face to face, that I have enjoyed most.  It’s also great to meet some people I chat with on Twitter in person.  That’s not what this is about though.

During Chris Brogan‘s presentation (which was hilarious by the way) he mentioned a woman named Glenda Watson Hyatt. Glenda has Cerebral Palsy.  She calls herself the left thumbed blogger, because the only thing she can use to type is her left thumb.  I looked her up and started following her on twitter.  She has over 5700 updates (messages she has sent) which makes her an extremely active twitterer.  So this woman with Cerebral Palsy, that keeps her in a wheel chair, and limits her to typing with her left thumb, which is her chosen way of communicating because her speech is so impaired, can manage to actively message people, write a blog with a page rank of 5 (which is awesome by the way) and a BOOK!  Yes, she wrote a book.  With her left thumb.

Chris held up her book and asked if anyone was inspired by this.  Uh, yeah.  I raised my hand (as did most of the people in the room) and he handed me the book. I opened it, and there on the title page, written in pen, was GWH.  It was signed!  Can you imagine?  She can only type with her left thumb, and she signed the copy Chris had.  How many of these books had she placed her initials on? I imagine, hundreds.  It’s called, I’ll Do It Myself and she sells it at her website.  I’m looking forward to reading it.

How many of us complain about the things in our lives that are hard, or annoying?  I sure do.  My wife and I haven’t had a good, uninterrupted night sleep in a year and a half, so I can be kind of cranky sometimes.  I’m a wimp.  I have it easy.  And so do you.  It’s easy to find excuses NOT to do the things we know we need to do to be successful.  I don’t have the time, I’m not a good writer, I don’t know how to build a website, I hate sales, I’m not a good speaker.  Shut up.

I hope you get some inspiration from Glenda’s story.  There are hundreds or thousands of Glenda’s out there though.  People, that despite some thing that would stop most of us in our tracks, achieve great things.  I’m not saying don’t feel sorry for yourself sometimes.  We’re human.  Of course we’re going to do that.  I’m saying treat that like the indulgence that it is.  A sometimes food. Like ice cream.

We all have a thing or a story.  I am going to try to remember that there is always someone with a bigger thing, a worse story.  I am going to try to feel my pain, my self-pity, then get over it.  I am going to try to stop complaining and do something.  People are drawn to positive do-ers.  I’m going to try harder to be one them.  You?