At your next stoplight look to your left and your right.

There’s a good chance you’ll see someone with their shoulders to their ears, and eyebrows pulled down over their nose.

In your next grocery line look in front of and behind you. There’s another good chance you’ll find the same.

And if you didn’t see one of these people, go look in the mirror because there’s a good chance it’s you.

1 in 3 American adults right now claim that “stress is completely overwhelming most days.”

Does that concern you as much as it does me?

Would you like to do something about it?

James A. Michener changed my life when he wrote the words:

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. ”

If you find the clarity and inspiration in these words as I have, let’s enter this Labor Day weekend with a mission:

1. Return to your work next week and make a game out of something.

It could be how many smiles you give someone. It could be how many tasks you try to get off your plate in one hour. It could be seeing how many days in a row you can call up one person and thank them for who they are.

Whatever you do, make a game. Have some fun. Find some gratitude.

2. Show some love to someone who doesn’t deserve it.

The hateful clerk. The anxious receptionist. The demanding boss.

Show them the higher power of love, and give them a noticeably generous gesture, or compliment, or “thank you,” at a noticeably undeserving time.

You will, in fact, create your own path to being a master in the art of living.

And you’ll create a path for them to be one too.

Happy Labor Day my friend.

Take it easy on yourself.

Cheers.

BW