We just lump them together and call them ‘Pilgrims’. They weren’t. They were a group of individual men and women who’d had enough of the way things were. Instead of wasting more time sitting in a big circle of self-pity, they chose to do something about it.
They were proactive before it was popular in self-help books.
Timid and less-strong people who watched those little wooden ships disappear over the horizon figured these ‘Pilgrims’ were nuts.
Following groups who finally recognized the first ‘Pilgrims’ might’ve had the best idea figured the first ones were loozers. Just seeing if you’re still with me.
This isn’t going where you think it will for several reasons. First, life never does, either. Why should I waste our time pretending it does? Next, you and I never go where we think we will. Check your back trail. Even remotely familiar according to The Great Plan you had in mind at 18? Then, too, the fact this isn’t going where you thought serves to exemplify the truth of this post.
In the daily email one day last week I received something I felt is important enough to take apart, work over and include. It’s a list of things mentally strong people avoid. As it came to me, it had been expanded slightly from its first appearance. That was okay, but I believe it worthy of a little more literary shiatsu.
Writer Louis L’Amour once said of a character in a story that he had no idea where he’d wind up or how he’d get where he needed to be; but he’d made up his mind that he was tired of others forever trying to control what he did and said and of himself trying to please all those other people–and that this was definitely the end of something or other.
Put another way, there’s no better time than now to begin being what you might have been.
So–this is the first of 13 things mentally strong people avoid. If it’s off-putting to consider this two days before Thanksgiving, you can do one of two things. Save and read it after the holiday; or think about the ‘Pilgrims’ before there was a Thanksgiving – either a raw, mutual observance or its officially bloated cousin. They knew there were things they needed to automatically stay away from if they were going to survive. And the first one they knew they absolutely needed to leave strictly alone was – is –
1. Waste time feeling sorry for themselves. Ever notice that pity gets punted whenever positive people are purposeful in promoting a passion for forward progress? Those men and women weren’t all rock-jawed, steely-eyed bigger-than-lifes who lawfed in the face of daynjah. They were just as conflicted, even conflated inside as we’d be given what laid before them.
They’d made a decision the world they knew wasn’t hacking it. They’d made a decision to go find a new one. They’d decided if they didn’t get with the program they’d chicken out. After all, they didn’t yet know what, exactly, a turkey was. Besides, turkeying out doesn’t carry quite the same picture. Ever try to tackle a turkey?
The ‘Pilgrims’ realized that
- if it was going to happen it was up to them to git ‘er done.
- life comes loaded with surprises and a lot of them aren’t fair.
- stuff happens. It’s never what happens to you but how you choose to respond that makes all the difference.
- what they tried that didn’t work out so well gave them a better grasp on what would.
- whining produces negative energy no one trying to accomplish anything needs more of.
They grabbed their stuff, got in the boats, and cast off. They were committed and weren’t going back.
See anything here you can use?
Yeah. Me, too. There’ll be 12 more of these great statements along with my inimitable musings. I hope they’re think-worthy for you. I hope you don’t wait until after Thanksgiving to start working on this one. Or after you’ve taken the dog out. Or let the cat and more leaves in. Or until the garbage dude comes. You get the picture.
Read it now. Think about it now. Stop wasting time feeling sorry for yourself.
Do that now. THEN be thankful!
© D. Dean Boone, November 2013