Last week I was visiting hanging with my niece and she was showing me how to make Avitars on this computer program she has at school. She said she would make one for me. We picked the face shape, hair colour, eye colour, etc. When it came time to pick facial features, she picked this ‘crinkle’ that is on your forehead. She said I had one on my forehead. I was mortified. I can’t possible have that line? Or can I?

Cross your arms, yes, right now stop and cross your arms. What message would you be sending to someone that you may be sitting with right now? Are you bored? Angry? Frustrated? Think about that for a minute.

Now look down at your legs. Are they crossed? Are you shaking your leg because you are restless and bored? Nervous?

Internally, you know how you are feeling, but how are other seeing and perceiving your actions? A lot of the time, I am sure that the people around you get it wrong.

Now, think about your face. You can’t “see” your face. Everyone else can see your face except for you. That is why it is very important to know how you are feeling on the inside because it will most likely be your image on your face.

When was the last time you rolled your eyes? You probably can’t remember even doing that, but I am sure the person you are walking with can. I am sure that you both saw the same person in line at Starbucks, walking through the mall, talking very loudly on their cell phone in a public place. You can’t see your face, but everyone else can see your expressions good or bad.

I worked in several different call centres over the years. I have worked in a cubicle, at home alone, and in a store front location. I have attended countless sales seminars and do you know what almost all the trainers say it is a must for a call centre employee to have at their desk? One word – a MIRROR. They tell you to look in the mirror and smile back at yourself as you are talking to clients on the phone. People can hear you smiling. Trust me they can.

And they can also hear when you are not smiling. When you have not had your morning coffee yet. When you have had a fight with a friend, spouse, parent, child and are still carrying around your anger. When you are worried about sick family member, friend or pet.

All of these emotions, thoughts, feelings are all expressed on our faces. I am sure there is some scientific experiment that has calculated how many different facial expressions we do on a daily basis.

The message tonight is simple. This evening I came face to face with someone that I was not expecting to see. For a brief moment I am sure if I could see my face it would have been white and mortified. After the interaction I am sure I was smiling. Smiling because I knew that I took the higher ground and was proud for doing so.

Tonight when you are brushing your teeth before bed, look at your face in the mirror. What will others see in your face? What do you see? Make an effort tomorrow to think about what your face looks like a couple of times during the day. If you think it isn’t the way you think you want it to be, change it. You have control over it. Total control.

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror.
I’m asking him to change his ways.
No message could have been any clearer.
If you wanna make the world a better place,
Take A Look At Yourself, and then make a change.”

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you know I enjoy my TV shows. People actually message me about shows and if they are new episodes or in the summer when the new show season will be starting. I have written about my love of my PVR.

So, with that I will tell you that I record some ‘trash’ tv, like the Kardashians, The Real Housewives (only NYC and Bev Hills) and anything with Tori Spelling. I can’t help it. I hate to use the analogy but she is the car accident you don’t want to look at as you drive past.

Okay, so now that I have made my confession here comes the interesting part. This week’s episode was about her seeing her ex husband to apologize for the way their break up went down eight or so years ago. She had a very emotional meeting with him and came home and Dean wanted to talk to you and she didn’t really want to talk to him, but did.

He asked her if she had regrets about being with him. She actually replied, “sometimes, but then I wouldn’t have my babies”.

How do you handle the regrets that you may have in your life and then realize that the outcome may not have happened if you had done something different. This is an underlying theme that plays in my head. Would I have done anything differently if I knew what the outcome would have been?

There is a movie that starred Gwyenth Paltrow. It is called Sliding Doors. Didn’t win any awards, but the message in the movie is very profound. The lead character loses her job and leaves the office….she is running to catch the train. The movie ‘splits’ in two – one story where she catches the train, and the second story where she misses the train.

And there we have the plot line. If it were only that way in real life. For every path you take, there is at least one (or more) paths not taken. Maybe you would have gotten to the same end result on another path, or maybe not. If you haven’t seen this movie, I suggest you figure out how to get a copy and watch it.

I have referred to it like jumping off the cliff. You could spend years standing on the edge of the cliff not knowing what could be at the bottom. Maybe it is the pot of gold? How do you know if you never jump. And then you are pushed. You will land, and you will find out what is at the bottom.

When you land you could be landing right in the pot of gold. Wonderful. And it if turns out not to be the pot of gold (maybe it is a pot of s**t), you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep moving, because there is another cliff right around the corner.