The Reset Factor

In the early eighties, when the Atari game system was all the rage, a high school friend and I would do battle in the tank game. All would be fine unless I got too far ahead, then suddenly the screen would go blank. My friend had hit the reset button. In recent years, another friend suggested I hit the reset button whenever my day would become too overwhelming. When you choose to reset you give yourself a clean slate and an opportunity to succeed.

Tolstoy once wisely said, “Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change himself.” When you choose to keep your attitude the same, your actions will remain the same. The secret is to take the negative and turn it into a positive. Here are some examples from my own life.

It was sometime in 2005, when as an exterminator my wife called me to alert me of an unexpected large dental bill for my youngest daughter. I was frustrated, so I pulled into a convenience store to grab a cup of coffee and regroup. Then, I saw her. There she was a little girl, around the age of ten in a wheelchair. She was sitting at the bus stop smiling while she waited to be picked up. Immediately my anger was replaced with shame when I realized how foolish I had been. If this young girl could accept the circumstances in her life then I just needed to take a deep breath, reset my attitude and move on.

When I was young, around five or so, I had an annoying habit of speaking too quickly which caused my words to be slurred. For years, people believed my name was Andrew not Aaron Drew because of my sloppy speech habits as I threw the two names together. Then in second grade, I had to go to speech therapy classes with a wonderfully kind elderly gentleman named, Mr. Marconi. He taught me to slow down, take a deep breath and then pronounce my words clearly. It was an amazing transformation because I choose to reset and change my bad habits.

Choices; we make them every day and they shape us. Regardless of our situation or circumstances we make decisions. How you survive is based on you. Over 200 years ago, Samuel Johnson said, “Things don’t go wrong so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.”

Swavel

What 'Perhaps' Is...

Perhaps you are wondering where I am going with this blog. Here it is. This blog is an attempt to encourage you to make a change for the better. Look at perhaps as a positive maybe. Instead of allowing life to make you bitter and frustrated, choose to make the world a better place because you are here.

Have you ever had a moment when you didn’t know if you could go on? I have. In the early morning of May 4th, 2000, my daughter had just passed away and I was beyond sorrow. The world as I had known it no longer existed and I was devastated. Yet, in my darkest hour came a small glimmer of hope. After she had passed, the nurse came to me and hidden in the palm of her hand was my daughter’s tooth, the one I had been trying to pull for weeks with no success.

In my worst moment, I had received the most precious gift in the world. The pain wasn’t taken away, but in that instant I was given a push in the right direction on how I should handle the rest of my life. There would still be many difficult hurdles to overcome and choices to make. Perhaps the best decision would be to live my life in such a way as to honor my daughter’s life and memory. The alternative was not a viable option. So, everyday when I try to wake up with a ‘perhaps’ type of attitude I put myself in a position to succeed.

Perhaps, the difficulty isn't really the problem, but rather how we approach the difficulty.

Swavel

Man vs. quad: On the road to recovery as I exercise my quad.