Life Is What We Make It!

By Coach Bay

Towards the end of October, I was in Shanghai delivering a workshop for a large American company. One of my contacts at the company has followed this blog and my work with young people. She believed that Chinese students would benefit from listening to some of the messages.


As a result, she had arranged for me to speak at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is not one of the famous universities in Shanghai, and according to the organizer at the university, no other foreigner has spoken there since he joined, which was 2 1/2 years ago. So this was indeed a rare opportunity, and I was very much looking forward to the 2 hours lecture, which I was to give.

“We all have two choices: We can make a living, or we can design a life.” – Jim Rohn

The students came early, and we ended up having 200 students in the room with 50 of them standing as we ran out of seats. They were interested and ready!


I talked about the importance of taking personal responsibility for your life. I talked about following your dreams and being successful through doing what you enjoy and keeping you engaged while you work on something meaningful. Exactly what we have explored in this blog earlier.

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” – Jim Rohn

The students were very engaged throughout the lecture, and we did not finish on time as they had many questions. It was very gratifying, and it was obvious that they are eager and curious about life.

Towards the end of the session, I introduced the Appreciative Eye, and the focus on what is working rather than focusing on what is not working. I explained that in any situation, there is something to appreciate and be grateful for. I then asked them a question.....

"What was great about the Sichuan Earthquake?"


Many students were taken by surprise by my question. After a period of silence, a student volunteered and said "We collected money to help the victims."

Other students then came forward and shared:

"We came together as a country."
"We showed that we cared."
"China showed that we did take it seriously and wanted to help the victims."
"Our country leaders were directly involved. They were role models."
"We proved that we can handle a crisis situation."
“We communicated more openly with the media, and the world got a better view of China.”

The students realized that out of something bad, came something good. They realized:

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." - Charles R. Swindoll

This is very true for the current financial crisis. People react in different ways, and if you watch the news, it is all extremely dramatic, and it is obvious why some people become very anxious and start to panic. I am not saying that the situation is not serious but the media is definitely not helping to make it any better. They use phrases such as "Financial Tsunami", "Stock market bloodbath" and "Global meltdown" while they constantly have breaking news announcing more bad news happening.


There is a lot of uncertainty in the world, and many people are looking for more certainty. It is time to reflect and appreciate what we have rather than what we don’t have. Focus on the things that move us forward and create a better tomorrow. We can change our focus by asking powerful questions and being resourceful. Questions such as:

• What is great about my life?
• What really inspires me?
• What are my most important goals?
• Who are my closest friends and allies? How can we support each other?
• Where and who can I help right now?
• How can I make today a better day than yesterday?

“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you only drown if you stay there.” – Zig Ziglar

I will be returning to Shanghai in 2009 to continue to work with the students. We will be working on designing their lives and achieving their dreams.

Despite the many challenges in this world, there is hope, and as we have seen this week in the USA, change for the better is possible.


Keep Inspiring!

Happy Days!
Coach Bay