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Meet Adversity with Desire!For every action there is an equal and opposing reaction… As an author, speaker and consultant, I fly around the country on a regular basis. Our greatest fears and frustrations in life can parallel the "flying" experience. Every time we take to the airways, we are literally putting the goal of our determined destination in the hands of many people we don't even know! When I've been speaking and traveling for a week and Friday rolls around, I want you to know, I really, really want to get home to my family. One such Friday four years ago, I was extremely exhausted and yet excited about arriving home, because my son was going to play his first football game in little league where the pads were almost bigger than the players' bodies! My motherly heart went out to him and the fears he would face the next day as he began his passage into… well, let's just say, I was scared stiff that my kid was going to get trampled out there! OK?! I really wanted to get home… my baby needed me, and after all, I was his mother. I was flying from Dallas and had three flights to catch to make it home that evening. When you have that many connections, if you miss one, the whole deal is off until the following day. The first leg of the trip went perfectly. I made my connection into Phoenix and had boarded my second flight. We were all buckled in and ready to go when the pilot came on over the speaker and said, "There will be a little delay… we are having Now, I ask you… when you are sitting on an airplane, and a message like this is announced, what's your first thought? "We are all going to die!".....or "We can still make it if we try!" Well, I began as the optimist who thought, We can still make it if we try! However, as time continued to pass my "realistic" mind wanted me to ACCEPT Plan B. Plan B as I knew it, would mean deplaning, schlepping my luggage down the long corridors of the airport, going to whatever hotel the airlines would choose and then more schlepping to the room (which would probably be on the top floor and farthest possible from the elevator)! The next morning, rise at 4:00am - more schlepping - to catch a 5:00am flight! Needless to say, I really didn't like Plan B. I began to feel discouraged, depressed and fearful…
Many in today's society abdicate responsibility for Success to some entity, to a company, to the "appearance" of impossible people and/or situations. We have been taught a form of compliance that says we have little or no control over our ability to really get out there and Make Things Happen! Mind Power is recognizing Adversity for what it is: an opposing reaction to the greater Desire! Mind Power for a Successful Journey means Recognizing when you've collapsed into the "appearance" of impossibility and yanking yourself out of it with Power Thoughts like: It's not over until I win! Or as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz said as she clicked her ruby slippers together, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home...!"
An hour had nervously ticked away and now there was little if any time left to make my connecting flight. REALITY SETS IN! A flight attendant announced that we'd missed our connecting flights. We could deplane and make new arrangements or stay onboard as the plane would take off within the hour for Salt Lake City. Almost everyone deplaned, and I sat there waiting to know what my next move should be. Because I'm a speaker, consultant and author I often get to "replay" the day's speaking engagements in my mind. I had just done a presentation on becoming a TurnAround Specialist. A TurnAround Specialist is a person who determines that no matter what the REALITY or how impossible a situation looks, they are going to FIND A WAY to turn-it-around. TurnAround Specialists get in touch with DESIRE and rather than decreasing it, they INCREASE it. In doing this, they are willing to take the emotional risk that's necessary to initiate change instantaneously.
It's been said… all limitations in our lives would vanish, if only we would love more. Generally, at the very point that many "give up"… is the very exact moment that more energy and desire is necessary to push through ADVERSITY to make it to the other side. Which brings me to another saying… don't stop 5 seconds before the Miracle. In those moments of getting my head back on straight, I realized that I was afraid to increase my desire. I was afraid that I'd just build up all that desire and then be… DISAPPOINTED if it didn't work out. I cannot move forward into this next year Ah yes, the Treasures of Painful Experiences. How often we cling to past experiences as the only possible reality.
Be willing to be wrong! There's Plan A… which was now down the tubes, there's Plan B… which is really only about trying to make yourself Settle for 2nd Best and then there's Plan C… the Uncharted Territory, The Road Less Traveled, The Adventure, The Desired End Result! Understand that there are infinite possibilities as to how something can play itself out. So now is NOT the time to give up. Now is the time to HOLD FIRM to the vision and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP! And above all else… MENTALLY REFUSE to Settle for 2nd Best … or it will come back and nip you! (And you know exactly where I mean!)
As I thought through Plans A, B & C, I DECIDED that I would give Plan C my all. I DECIDED that I DESIRED getting home to my family… my husband, son and daughters THAT NIGHT and nothing else would do. It was decided because I DECIDED… and in those few moments I DELIBERATELY INCREASED MY DESIRE. To increase DESIRE, you increase your capacity to experience life from your heart, which equates to LOVE in action. Plan C… Now I felt the urgency to deplane. There was a long line at our gates' ticketing counter. I didn't really know where to go, or what to do, but I continued to feel my desire; love for my family and getting home. I looked over to the counter next to ours and no one was standing there, so I went over to the counter and showed the agent my ticket and asked if he could get me home. He typed several things into his computer and finally said, "Well yes, we can get you home. We have a plane leaving right now to Salt Lake City and it looks like you would just make the last flight of the evening to Portland." A man standing nearby overheard, and asked if I was getting home to Portland. I said yes and we both ran back to get our things. Two other women overheard our conversation and also raced back to collect their belongings. The four of us returned to the ticketing counter but now there was a woman at the computer. As she looked at flight schedules, she said she didn't see any way to get us to Portland! In that moment, several things began to happen. First, the man next to me made an about-face, threw his hands up in the air and said, "I KNEW I couldn't make it home!" and walked away. The other two women and myself stood there… pausing, thinking, desiring. I began looking for the first ticket agent, the MAN who had found me a way home. As he returned from another counter I yelled, "Sir…. PLEASE, find us a way to Portland again!" He typed a few things back into the computer, confirmed that they had enough seats for us, and for the first time announced…. "WE HONOR UNITED'S TICKETS"!
What a profound and powerful internal action to take. Desire had caused the Reticular Activating System (RAS) of my mind to "police out" anything unlike what I was focused on. I didn't know anything about one airline honoring the ticket of another. Not knowing that this kind of thing was "possible" and knowing myself the way I do, I can tell you I would NEVER have presented a United ticket at a Delta ticket counter. Because I turned up my desire, my mind became a finely tuned laser and literally all I could see, was getting home to my family. What about the man who walked away? Well...it's really all about choice, isn't?
When we approach our work and relationships with: "I knew it wouldn't work!" we are expressing indifference to the outcome. If you are stonewalling, running away or sticking your head in the sand pretending what's happening isn't happening or what's happening is out of your control… then you have chosen indifference and powerlessness. Indifference will lead to failure in long term relationships or career goals. To move out of this state of powerlessness we must choose to face Adversity… plain and simple. Where does Adversity come from? First it comes simply from the increased desire for what you want to be your experience: for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction. Secondly, adversity sometimes comes from the people within your current circle of influence. Napoleon Hill said it best in his book, Think And Grow Rich, "We become who we associate with." The question is, "Are you associating with whiners, complainers and people who consistently see the glass half empty rather than almost full?" Think about it. Listen to the conversations that go on. Are they on Plan A: go down with the plane, Plan B: settle for 2nd best, or Plan C: let's look for another way? The greatest adversity we will ever meet in life is in the moment we go for Plan C… because in that moment we will be moving away from old choices and limited thinking to moving toward the new choices into Uncharted Territory. The fight for freedom from limitation is ultimately an internal battle, but if you persist you will eventually experience new external rewards. The rest of the story… We made it into Salt Lake City airport just in time to catch the last flight home. As we ran toward the gate, the attendants were waiting for us with our tickets. We boarded and then looked at our seating assignment… the available seats they had found for us were in FIRST CLASS! So for the rest of 2002, each and every time you begin to succumb to the "appearance" of adversity and/or defeat, remember how it all really works in this incredible world we live in, and know that in the face of Adversity… you must simply loosen up your FEAR GRIP… but then HOLD ON… HOLD ON FIRMLY TO THE VISION OF THE FUTURE THAT YOU MOST DESIRE TO HAVE AS YOUR EXPERIENCE. AND CHOOSE TO ASSOCIATE WITH POSITIVE, UPLIFTING, "PLAN C" PEOPLE. YOU MAY END UP IN FIRST CLASS! I WISH YOU CONTINUED SUCCESS IN 2002! And Please Know-YOU ARE A SUCCESS!
©2002 Mary Robinson Reynolds, Heart Productions & Publishing
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Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S., Educational Psychologist, Author and Producer of the world renowned Internet videos,