We've all heard the cup adage. Is yours half empty or half full? Listening to Joe Cross speak in person confirmed for me the part of his personality that I found most attractive: his optimism. In the movie when he talks about people who try to juice for 10 days and only get to 8 days, he doesn't consider them a failure, he says "good on you for trying". Similarly he spoke eloquently about his journey of health and the critical moment when he put his wealth before his health. He was a successful entrepreneur and was spending 15, 16 hours a day working. He started to order in Pizza and consume larger amounts of fast food because his priority was work. He gained an average of 10 pounds a year until he was 310 pounds.
His expectation of doctors, like most American's was, your the doctor fix me. He handed his health over to someone else. When he took ownership of his problem and made the movie, I loved that he didn't want it to be another movie that talked about the problems. He wanted to focus on solutions. How important is this attitude, and can it really make a difference to your health?
We've been entrepreneurs for many years and one of the most motivational speeches I heard was from one man who told about a childish experience that shaped his view for the rest of his life. He was too young to pour his own milk but was trying to do it anyway when he spilled the pitcher of milk all over the kitchen floor. His mother walked in and he looked up, scared, worried about the mess he made. His mom said "it's quite a mess you've made there isn't it?" He stopped being so worried and nodded his head. She said "well we have to clean it up, would you like to use a sponge, a cloth or a mop?" Now he started to get excited about fixing the mess and started to consider how best to do it. After he decided how to clean it up, his mom said "would you like to play in it before we clean it up?" He said that lesson affected his whole outlook on life. Every time a problem came up in his business, he was excited. He knew he could fix the problem but he viewed it as an opportunity to learn something he wasn't planning for.
Joe Cross didn't think that his disease that affected him so severely that he couldn't touch anyone was a blessing at first. Now though, he says it was probably the best thing that happened to him because it made him think of his life and his choices. He's now in excellent health and has been for the last five years since he made the movie. People in the audience brought up problems like Monsanto genetically modifying our food but Joe said that he viewed the future positively. He believes that he's going to live to be 140 years old or so. He believes that future generations are going to look at the way we are eating and feeding our kids and they won't believe that we actually ate this way. We are headed towards positive change. People are realizing that they need to make health changes. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on health care in the last six months of their lives, children are realizing that they need to eat differently so they don't have the ailments their parents do.
He said he asks people all the time what the most important thing in their life is, my immediate thought was "my health", he said most people say their kids. When I became pregnant with my fifth child, I realized that I would be retired by the time he was grown and I didn't want him growing up worried about whether his mom was going to die. In order to take care of my two young babies, I put my health ahead of our successful printing business so I could be around to take care of them. Although I'm now a broke, organic farmer, I'm in the best health of my life.
I believe that it's not our problems that who define who we are but how we rise to the challenge of meeting them. Although the health of Fresno residents is below that of the average California resident, my cup is not half empty, it is half full. Fresno came together as a community to listen to and support Joe Cross as he gave his talk yesterday. Today, I had at least four customers who have been inspired by him to start juicing. I have six healthy children, a daughter in law and son in law that love me as much as I love them. I have a grandson on the way. I have customers that make me happy to be at work although I haven't had a day off in 40 days. I was raised by the best parents in the world and I love all my siblings despite the distance between us. I love my God who gave us the perfect food that brings us awesome health.
Instead of recounting all my challenges, I make it a point to count my blessings. I know my cup is half full, how about yours? Let me correct that, my cup is not half full, my cup runneth over.
May your cup runneth over with health and love, because you can't take wealth with you when you go. Invest the time and money in reaching good health now so you'll live long enough to see later.
Yours in health, love and hope
I remain inspired
Ta-raw Hamilton
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