It was the end of a long tiring day and I got news that the Coaching Really Works website was not working on the Internet Explorer platform. I was frustrated to say the least.
I went on with my evening with my family and tried to relax and enjoy the dinner and fun and games after dinner. But there was this feeling in my chest. This together with other pressures of business were giving me a nagging, emotionally depressing feeling. I kept trying to shake it off. It wasn’t working. It just stayed.
I couldn’t go tackle it at the moment. I had other priorities I was engaged in, my family is very important to me. I knew I couldn’t keep feeling that way or it would affect the rest of my evening. So, I simply took a stand.
I can’t explain the any sequence or logic in the process but I simply reminded myself this is something I have a choice over. I’ve been very excited about this realization in the past, but it seemed that this time I couldn’t just choose.
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
– Napoleon Hill
I kept at it and at one point I realized that my mind was being very creative with a barrage of images of potential failure, the work, and long hours that would be consumed in trying to get this thing fixed. Not only that but memories of past situations were I got stuck on a technical problem we being propped up as evidence that this was going to be the same. The thoughts were depressing me even more.
Somehow in the middle of all of that I realized that these thoughts were only in my imagination. The facts were simple, there was a glitch and in need to be fixed, but the pictures and emotions they conjured up were almost overwhelming.
I decided in a moment to not lend any strong emotional attention to the problem, let go of the depressing feelings and go on with my evening.
I was amazed at how different things felt. Yes, it was only a feeling, but I had let go of the other feelings of pressure and overwhelm and it all felt fine. The situation was not all that bad. I’m sure you’ve been there. We have all had those experiences or situations that just send us on a spiral of emotions, then with one event, a smile from a friend or good news from work and all our emotions change and we feel hopeful.
The good news is we don’t have to wait for an event outside ourselves to change how we feel. I chose to let go and think positive thoughts. The incredible thing was that, some time later, I got a flash of where I could find the solution. I sat down and found it and implemented it in less that 5 minutes.
Now, I could be tempted to look at my story and say that it was easy to see that it was such a simple thing, but I believe I had to choose just how easy it would be and it came at a time when I was feeling emotional, tired and vulnerable. Yes, the circumstances were influencing me and I was falling into a pattern of defeat, yet in those moments there was always a choice.
Napoleon Hill once said,
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
I would borrow this thought and say, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand solutions and peace of mind, that is required to accept overwhelm and stress.
