Mind Your Thinking

I am lucky enough to live near the beach at Mount Maunganui in New Zealand.  There is a fabulous walk which goes up “The Mount”, a dormant volcano, and I try and do this walk on a reasonably regular basis.  With summer on its way and daylight saving, there will be more opportunity to do this in the months to come.

As it’s been a while since I did much walking, the last couple of times I have been over to the Mount with my husband, he had done the steep climb up to the top, while I have taken the gentler route, meeting him about two thirds of the way up to the summit as he makes his way down from the top. 

Last weekend he didn’t appear at the point at which we usually meet up, and I had made it to the summit before there was any sign of him.  Sorry, he said when he finally appeared, I’ve been talking (what a surprise!).  It transpired that he had met up with an old friend of his who was on his way up to the top too.  I was amazed  Amazed because recently this guy had had his leg amputated above the knee after an accident.  His response to this tragic situation has been very courageous from the start.  He decided to make the best of it and not let it hold him back.  At the first possible opportunity he was driving his car, researching artificial limbs and working out ways he could continue to pursue his favourite outdoor activities, as well as going back to work part-time.  Trust me, it was no mean feat to be climbing up to the top of this steep hill.

This friend has responded in this way because the life story he lives by is one in which he faces challenges head on and makes the best of every situation.   He is determined, persistent and courageous.  The story of his life is one in which everything is possible and nothing, not a mountain to climb or even a missing limb, is an obstacle for very long.

What life story are you living out? If you are the hero, what qualities do you possess?  And how do you respond to the mountains you are facing in your life?  Do you find lots of reasons why you can’t climb them?  Do you stand at the bottom wishing someone else would carry you to the top or hoping a helicopter would come past and whisk you up?  Or do you just get on and keep putting one foot in front of the other regardless of the obstacles that are getting in your way.  Do yourself a favour – when you write the rest of your life story, leave out the limitations that keep you at the base.  Just remember that the view from the top is fabulous.

My son recently left school and home to take up a job on a TV series starting in Australia.  It was a great opportunity for him but one which required huge sacrifice and a great deal of determination to keep his focus on his dream of becoming a film actor.  I was surprised at the comments of some of our friends, who seemed to focus only on the reasons why he should not got and not the reasons why he should.

Are you the kind of person to likes to shatter other people’s dreams?  Is it because you envy them, because you think you’re being a “realist”, or are you simply in the habit of seeing what is wrong with things rather than what is right?  If you throwing objections in the path of other people with ambition, are you doing the same to yourself?  When did you last stop yourself doing something you really wanted to by your self-talk which found lots of reasons why you shouldn’t?

How much better the world could be if we supported each other in our dreams for the future and for the world itself.  Less complaining, bitterness, jealousy, more support, encouragement, celebration, admiration, applause.

Thought-leading Internet entrepreneur Mark Joyner asks about the power of twitter to change the world in his recent blog post Twitter: The Social Influence Tool.   Is it too ridiculous to believe that a web tool like Twitter could change the world for the better?  How would you use Twitter to be a change agent for good?  Perhaps we could start a “some I am grateful for in my life” Twitter campaign.