Burn Your Crocs

When I was a kid, Care Bears was just a cute cartoon.

Colorful bears lived above the clouds, traveled on rainbows, and whenever negativity threatened their world, they joined together and used the Care Bear Stare.

But watching it through adult eyes makes me wonder:

What if the Care Bears were teaching us something about how to move through the world?

Not only about believing in possibilities we can’t see yet, but about deciding what we radiate into the world instead of constantly absorbing what the world gives us.

The Care Bear Stare

Think about what the Care Bears actually did.

When they encountered anger, sadness, fear, or negativity, they didn’t become negative themselves.

They radiated something else.

Love. Care. Friendship. Hope. Joy.

The negativity was coming toward them, but they didn’t simply absorb it and send more of the same back.

They changed the energy of the situation by deciding what they were going to contribute to it.

That’s a surprisingly useful lesson for a children’s cartoon.

Because how often do we allow other people’s energy to determine ours?

Someone is rude, so we’re rude.

Someone doesn’t like us, so we start questioning ourselves.

Someone is miserable, and suddenly we’re carrying their misery home.

Someone tells us our dream is unrealistic, and now we’re questioning something we were excited about five minutes ago.

We absorb.

But what if we learned to radiate instead?

Radiate, Don’t Absorb

Radiating love doesn’t mean allowing people to mistreat you.

It doesn’t mean pretending everything is wonderful.

And it certainly doesn’t mean you can’t have boundaries.

Sometimes love looks like kindness.

Sometimes love looks like walking away.

Sometimes love looks like saying no.

The point is that someone else’s negativity doesn’t automatically get to become yours.

You get to decide what comes from you.

That’s your Care Bear Stare.

What If You Can See It Before You Live It?

The Care Bears also made me think about possibility.

They lived in Care-a-Lot, somewhere above the clouds.

The humans below couldn’t normally see that world. But within the story, their inability to see it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

And maybe there’s a lesson in that too.

Think about something you’ve imagined for yourself.

Maybe you’ve pictured yourself speaking in front of thousands of people.

Maybe you’ve imagined writing a book, building a business, traveling the world, falling in love, becoming wealthy, or living a completely different life.

Then you look around.

But this is my job.

This is my bank account.

I have no audience.

This is my life.

And suddenly what you can physically see becomes the limit of what you believe is possible.

But what if your current reality isn’t the entire picture?

Think About a Prism

White light looks like one thing.

Then it passes through a prism and suddenly you see a rainbow.

The prism didn’t create those colors.

The colors were already there.

They simply weren’t visible to you.

Maybe possibility works a little like that.

Your current circumstances are real. Your job is real. Your bank account is real. Your relationships are real.

But they may not represent the entire spectrum of what your life can become.

They’re simply what is visible right now.

The Rainbow Was the Clue

And of course the Care Bears were surrounded by rainbows.

A rainbow is light revealing what was already inside of it.

Maybe becoming works similarly.

Perhaps there are parts of ourselves we haven’t been able to see yet.

The writer.

The speaker.

The entrepreneur.

The artist.

The lover.

The leader.

The person who lives completely differently from the person we are today.

We don’t necessarily create that person from nothing.

Sometimes we slowly reveal them.

Maybe the Care Bears Had It Right

I don’t believe every dream predicts the future.

I don’t believe everything we visualize is destined to happen.

And radiating love doesn’t mean negativity magically disappears.

But maybe there was something beautiful hidden inside that silly little cartoon.

Don’t assume that what you can see is all that exists.

Don’t let someone else’s negativity decide what lives inside of you.

And don’t underestimate what happens when you consistently radiate something different into the world.

Maybe that’s the real Care Bear Stare.

You don’t absorb everything the world throws at you.

You decide what comes back out.

Love instead of bitterness.

Possibility instead of limitation.

Hope instead of fear.

And when the world gives you every reason to become hardened, cynical, or small?

Radiate anyway.