2025 August 13 When life gets too full!

You can find the original Facebook LIVE here.

When Life Gets Too Full: Finding Grace in Missed Opportunities

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website about reimagining your life. Thanks for joining me today to talk about losing track of time—even when it's important. So let's get started. If you like what you hear today, please leave a like, subscribe, tell your friends, and send a message.

This is another quick catch-up episode since yesterday didn't go quite as expected. I woke up during the night and realized that between work, travel, time zones—all those sorts of things—I'd lost track of which day of the week it was and totally missed it. It was Tuesday night, which of course is Facebook Live night, but fatigue and time zone changes caught up with me.

On top of that, I was at an event, speaking with a number of really interesting people, and simply got mistaken about what day it was. The travel and the event were all for the podcast, and I already have some interviews from people I spoke with, so it was time well spent. But still, I was extremely disappointed that I had missed it.

I could have gotten super negative on myself—because Facebook Lives and connecting with you all is actually really important to me—but instead, I decided to look at why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Yes, I'll set a calendar event to remind me when it's Tuesday night while I'm traveling.

But sometimes life really does get far outside our normal routine. Remember, about 90% of what we do every day is controlled by memorized sets of actions, and only 10% requires active thinking. So when everything changes all at once, there's a lot more active thinking going on, and sometimes things get missed. Even when you disappoint yourself, show yourself some grace, review what happened, learn from it, and carry on with enthusiasm—and with a bit more knowledge about what went wrong.

While I was traveling, I found myself intrigued by the different regions I've visited in the US over the past few weeks, as well as the foreign countries I've been to recently. I was struck by what a cultural bubble some parts of the US can be. This isn't a criticism—it's just easy to forget how different things are outside of the bubble you happen to be in at the moment.

That difference shows up in wealth, access to opportunities, customs, and more—and it goes in both directions. Some people view the world as very negative because they have limited opportunities. Others see it as very positive because they have many. And this difference isn't just about wealth—it crosses all sorts of boundaries.

Coming back from Mexico, which I spoke about earlier, and then traveling to some poorer areas of the US, as well as wealthier ones, I realized that even within North America, there's a huge range of living conditions, opportunities, and perceptions. We often forget that. It's worth keeping in mind—especially when you hear the news or when someone in a position of power says, "Why doesn't someone just do this or that?" The answer may be: because they simply don't have that as an option in any real sense.

Last night, while talking to some other creators, I was reminded again of the power of words. We've talked about this before—whether it's negative or positive—self-talk has a huge influence on us at many different levels. This time, the target of negative self-talk wasn't older adults, but women as young as 25 being made to feel that they're "so old" as to essentially be useless for most things, all due to peer pressure and words.

That's right—25 years old, in some circles, is now considered the new old age. This one really stunned me. We'll be covering this and other topics more in depth in the coming months, so stay tuned. But again, it's super important—when I messed up last night on the schedule, I could have talked down to myself, but those words stick in your mind. Every time something else happens, your brain will interpret it through the lens of those negative words.

Similarly, if you say positive things to yourself or to others, you—and they—will interpret events in a more positive light. This is something we've talked about before, and we'll talk about again. It'll be part of the course, but for now, I just wanted everyone to know that all is well—except for lack of sleep and being day-challenged.

The biggest message, as always, is that even when things don't go as planned—even important things—step back, find the lesson, give yourself grace to be human, and then keep working toward your vision with more enthusiasm than ever.

So that's it. Thank you so much for joining me. Your homework tonight is to remember: when life gets too full, things get missed. Back up, calm down, don't get negative. Give yourself some grace. Learn from it. Smile. And continue moving forward enthusiastically toward your life vision.

I also want to highlight a couple of important sites that support the people of Ukraine. World Central Kitchen operates throughout the world, showing up in disaster areas to get food and basic supplies to people. UKR7.com is a list of links to organizations helping Ukraine. WCK.org goes directly to World Central Kitchen.

But as we've always talked about, there are a lot of things going on right in your own neighborhood, in your own backyard. Look around—if there's something you feel called to be involved in, please help. People can always use money, time, publicity—whatever you can give. And if time and money just aren't available right now, that's completely understandable.

Remember, one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. Something as simple as smiling at someone and saying, "Hi, have a good day," can change their whole day. If they've been having a rough half-hour where everyone's cutting them off, and then you walk by, smile, and say, "Good morning," it reminds them that not everything in life is horrible. Little things can make huge differences.

Have a great week. Remember to live the life that you dream of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com. Thank you.