Dr Cliff Robertson, Jr

Your Life Matters – The Book Excerpt #1

I have been writing Your Life Matters, for the last year or more and it is nearing its completion. I am excited and a little apprehensive about how it will be received. So, I am going to start releasing bits and pieces of it here, to get your feedback. See what you think – When you get done, let me know if you would like to read more.

Hi, my name is Cliff Robertson, Jr. I have a number of titles, some good and some that are not so pleasant. But the truth is, none of them seem to matter when I am hit with tragedy or depression. I’ve struggled with my life in more ways than you can imagine. Even though my name is on the cover of this book, there are times when I have just wanted to quit—on my work and on my life.

There have even been times when I have made plans to end my life, but something has always stopped me.

The times I have battled with depression and anxiety, I felt my worth amounted to “zero.” I couldn’t get out of bed or off the couch. It was like an 800-pound gorilla took up residence on my chest. I didn’t know what to do.

Many times, someone would call needing my help. Or I’d force myself to go out of the house and before I knew it, I’d be busy and forget about the gorilla, at least for the moment.

Other times people would “divinely intervene” and get me going again. You’ll read about some of those times in the book.

Let me tell you a story about today in my life as I was writing this book.

Today, I struggled with “is this message, this book, enough?  Maybe I am missing something that is even more important.”

So. I brainstormed and I asked myself, “what am I passionate about? What moves me? What do people need to hear that is going to make a difference for them?”

But then I had to stop and take a counseling call. As I was talking with this young man, he shared his battle with depression. He couldn’t see any purpose to his life.

While he unloaded his emotional pain of depression and hopelessness, I empathized with him, because I too have battled with depression.

I asked him, “What do you do to help others?”

He said, “Well, I set up chairs at the church I go to every Sunday. A little over a hundred and fifty of them.”

I replied, “So you touch, through service, about three hundred people a month?”

He agreed. “Then I asked him about his job. “How many people do you work with as an insurance adjuster each month, on average?”

He told me.  “Between sixty to a hundred and twenty.”

“So all in all, you impact between three hundred-sixty to four hundred-twenty people each month in a positive way?”

He said, “I guess so.”

Then I said, “Okay. Let’s do something here. In church, those numbers are pretty static. You are also coming into contact with another twenty or more people a day like store clerks, other employees, and friends and family. So if we did the math on sixty people through work, that’s seven hundred twenty each year. If we use two months of the church numbers, that’s six hundred people. Then we add the twenty per day for five days a week for fifty-two weeks. That’s five thousand, two hundred people.”

“So between the three numbers you have a positive impact on sixty-four hundred people or more per year. That’s a life that matters. But let’s put this into another perspective. In four years that would equal over twenty-four thousand people, enough to fill the Staples Center in Los Angeles to overflowing or Madison Square Gardens. If we look at it over eleven years, you could fill almost every major football stadium in the United States.”

“Imagine for a moment an arena like the Staples Center or a stadium the size of Soldier Field, Arrowhead or NRG filled to capacity with people that were cheering for you because of the positive impact that you had on them? Close your eyes and think about that for just a moment. It is overwhelming.”

When I shared this with my client, he was brought to tears.

He told me that this was the best he had felt in years. He began to dream again and see beyond his current circumstances and it changed his life. There is more to this story that I will share later.

Now back to you. If you are honest, you have probably thought, at some point in your life, and maybe that day is today, that it was all over for you. Done. Maybe you even planned your “exit from this world.” Heck, you may be doing it now, I don’t know.

But I do know this, you are reading this book in this moment, for a purpose.

Your life is not over.

Your life has a purpose and a mission. I am here to tell you that,

This book was written for you.

I don’t care if anyone else reads it but you.

If this book makes a difference in your life, then all the work has been worth it. On the pages that follow, you will read numerous stories of how individuals—regardless of their circumstances and the odds against them—have changed their world and in turn made the world a better place for us all.

I believe that you can do this as well.

Are you ready?

I think you are.

#YourLifeMatters!

____________________________________

Again, let me know what you think. If you want to read more, let me know. If you would like to provide me with a review prior to release, email me @ cliffrobertsonjr@gmail.com. Thanks!