41 Promises - Make Your Life Better Than Ever No Matter What Happens to You

by Doug Allen, Lexy Allen

Pittsburgh, January 16, 2013 "Please, just come over..."The night before my daughter, 19-year old daughter, Alexis, and I spent the evening having dinner at a Chinese buffet. That night we sat and talked, and committed to following through with some major plans. We were more excited than ever to start Alexis' Blue Lion Foundation, and to take what we were doing to a new level.I stayed up all night that night working on a business and goal setting. I was creating in advance the future I wanted for myself, my family, and my business.Finally at 9:45 am I left my office to let the dogs outside. Our small dog, Lucy, wouldn't go out. She was frantic, and kept running from the back door towards the front door. I followed her to see if somebody was outside.At 9:46 am on Jan. 16 I had an experience that changed my life. It's not necessary to go into the details to understand the consequences of that experiences. At that moment I knew that my life would never be the same again. Even though I take pride in my ability to manage my own state, nothing prepared me for that experience.I immediately called Alexis on the phone. I could barely speak. All I remember saying was, "Please, just come over..."This experience was something that affected everybody in our family. It was something that none of us were prepared for. I knew I had to leave Pittsburgh right away. At 11:45 am Alexis and I got in my Ford Expedition and headed to Hershey, PA. I somehow knew I needed to be with my friend, Jim. Alexis and I got to Hershey around 6 pm. We went out to dinner with Jim, but we were still in a state of shock. It wasn't until the next day when Jim sat down with me and said,"Let's go through the 10 Steps..." that I got out of that shock. Within an hour I was feeling close to normal.The next day, while still staying at The Hershey Lodge, Alexis got out some poster boards and markers she bought that morning at Target. She sat down at the desk in our room, got out some stencils, and wrote at the top of a poster, "41 Promises."In that moment she knew that there was nothing we could do about what happened. Our lives would never be the same again. But she knew that we had total control over what we could do that day, and every day moving forward.Alexis began writing down promises that she was making to herself. They were promises from the heart to her mind, not the other way around. As he wrote down each promise she became more and more grounded, more and more certain that if we lived by these promises we would go forward in life being happy, being fulfilled, and contributing to others.My friend, Anandagiri, a monk from India, says something about the stories we tell ourselves. If the stories we tell ourselves serve us, serve others, and serve the greater good, they are good stories to tell.Every one of the 41 Promises Alexis wrote that day fit that description. Living by these promises to ourselves will serve us, serve others, and serve the greater good.Almost two months later, on my birthday, March 13, my friends Jim and Suresh drove from Toronto to visit me. Suresh saw Alexis' poster and wanted to write down the promises. He was very moved by the words on that poster, and said we should write a book about them. He thought they were valuable and could help other people.So we did.It's called 41 Promises - Make Your Life Better Than Ever No Matter What Happens to You.The reason we called it that is because most of us never take the time to create a code of conduct for ourselves that will serve us at the highest level, serve others, and serve the greater g

283 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2013