I was getting transferred to my second hospital, which was seven hours away, and I was told that the transport vehicle was going to be a luxury RV, which sounded great considering I was on a rotation of twenty-two pain medications, off life support for a week, and it was 122 degrees outside. Upon being told that transport arrived, I was injected with a generous dose of dilaudid, Valium, and an assortment of other drugs before being rushed out to a beaten down 1989 Toyota Previia, not the picture of “Luxury RV that I was led to believe. To make matters worse, after the transporters got me on a stretcher and my mom in in the back, the air conditioner broke. I was already heated, pun intended about the retired soccer mom van with no AC in the desert summer situation, however, I completely lost my cool when I heard the driver on the phone. “Yeah boss, the van became disabled, the engine over heated, it’s completely shutdown… We need a second transport vehicle.” This time I was promised a Mercedes however, I knew better then to believe these people, again. With that said, when the pain medication wore off, my catheter broke, and found myself in so much agony that I began violently puking and urinating on myself, while my head is wrapped and I am still bleeding from my skull, I reminded myself that if I cannot control my circumstances, I can always control my attitude and how I react to them.
Colin Powell said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Everybody has unfortunate circumstances, problems, and when my turn came I accepted it, because hardship is part of life. With that being said, it is not your problems that matter, it is how your problems positively impact your life that counts. At the end of the day, our present circumstances are only temporary and will become empty and meaningless as we evolve. Ryuho Ho said, “No matter how tough our lives become, in the final analysis, we all pass on from this world and all our problems die with us. We are here to spend the time we have in accepting the problems this life gives us and using them to cultivate growth in our souls.” In every problem there are opportunities and solutions. Nobody should succumb to negative self talk, discouragement, or fear, that will only stunt your growth. With the bottom line is, when life goes unplanned you cannot complain, you can never lose hope, and you can leverage adversity to find unique opportunities to grow from your challenges and problems. Having an attitude that you cannot achieve success because your life is hard is bull-crap because to some degree, life is hard for everybody. On that note, the people who are moving forward in this world are looking for circumstances they want, or, they create them for themselves.
When I arrived at this Skilled Nursing Facility there was a physical therapist, it was supposed to be on vacation but cancelled her trip at the last minute, and she came running up to me excited yelling, “You’re the one, I’m going to get you walking again. You are my next project, I just got done working with a client in your position and she walked out of here.” While staying at this Hospital , it was actually a skilled nursing facility, I had a lot of learning experiences, I meant a lot of interesting people, and made some lifelong friends. My most memorable encounter was when I had blind racist as a roommate who wanted me killed for my skin color, when another roommate tried smoking a blunt in our room by telling the staff that he, “Was just taking his medicine,” and my roommate Chad who killed someone and proceeded t sleep coffin style.
Ryuho Okawa said, “There are any number of exams that people may use to judge you, but people change over time. I learned through my own experiences that what really matters is the attitude of mine that you will cultivate.“ Many individuals complain more than they acknowledge what they are grateful for, gracefully find solutions, or think beautiful thoughts that brings them joy. When you complain and become fixated on a negative mind frame you become stuck, because your problematic energy becomes part of the problem. Additionally, dwelling on negativity only brings that matters back into existence by you breathing life on it. Furthermore, you cannot find positive outcomes in negative places, so it is best to remove your pessimistic attitude from your mind. Zach Cutler said, “Life is filled with difficulties. How we confront our challenges is precisely what makes us great.” Your attitude towards adversity and challenges is nothing more than a filter that separates you from the rest of the crowd. For example, Iit is easy to become jealous, speak negatively, and cast other individuals in a negative light. However, When you begin to look at other people, and life circumstances, from a perspective of gratitude add acknowledge the abilities, attributes, efforts, and achievements, this alone is a very strong indicator that we have grown beyond barriers of our own. With that said, the art of embracing yourself as you are in the present moment is one of the greatest keys to finding happiness, and this is speaking about life in general.
Six months after being shot I was essentially paralyzed, I could only move my right thumb, and as I was lying helplessly my father looked at me and said, “I am not going to help you, get a job.” Being incapable of holding a urinal, feeding, or dressing myself, I found myself at a turning point. If I could not take care of myself, and my father abandoned me and laughed on his way out of the hospital room, then I could use my negative circumstance for a positive purpose. Feeling so small and helpless I realized how big the world is and how much help it needs. I remember reading a quote, while I was in college that read, “However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” Introverting would be suicide as there are no other life forms there, I had to expand outward. This was a turning point where I could choose to shrink or, take responsibility and move onward. Although my journey is ongoing I have learned about the power of turning points, discovering untapped potential, and aiming high.
Rhonda Byrne said, “There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstances of your life can change.” When you lose hope you are forfeiting your independence, purpose, and potential. Life will move on with or without you and when you give up on yourself you will become a pawn for someone who kept their dreams alive. For example, during the recession, I had a construction company going and I was starving, had to return tools so I could eat, sometimes I had to sell tools for gas money so I could get to a job site. After spending my last dollar on marketing, finding my car to be repossessed, getting served with a court order to pay my residential lease in full and move out, I felt like the whole world was against me and I wanted to give up. Feeling defeated somebody told me, “Don’t give up. Right now is the time to establish yourself, when everybody else is closing down. People will see value in somebody who never quit when everybody else did.” Shortly after that conversation I was called to give an estimate for two projects totaling $60,000. If I gave up I would not have found financial independence and life would have continued without me, leaving me in a rut behind. With that said, you can never lose hope because there is no such thing as a hopeless situation and you can always develop success from failures.
Dale Canagie said, “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” The face of discouragement is a call to adventure, a transformative journey to become larger than your obstacle. By succumbing to discouragement, you are refusing to evolve. For example, Abraham Lincoln lost eight political races for various offices, however, despite these setbacks, Lincoln never gave up because he was committed to leaving an impact on this country. With that said, Lincoln overcame eight previous failures by becoming one of the most well-respected and successful presidents in United States history. Henry Ford said, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.“ Discouragement is not a time to quit, it is merely a moment when you should reassess, regroup, and approach the matter in an effective way with intent and determination.
Nolan McDonnell 