Among the thousands of clients who have ‘darkened the door’ of my
office, there have been a significant number of folks who, I am
convinced, would not have walked from one wall to the other to discover
an answer to the dilemma which brought them to me in the first place.
And as scripture admonishes us,
“These things ought not to be.”
Of course, there are plenty enough excuses for why people behave the
way they do, and plenty of justification for their lack of momentum.
Childhood trauma. Poor role modeling. The lack of a personal mentor. A dearth of ambition. A series of 'unlucky breaks.’ Etc.
And while I never discount such variables in an individual’s life,
excuses cannot become reasons, and excuses have the potential to keep us
stuck throughout the course of an entire lifetime.
Following is a portion of an interview by Laura Hillenbrand; the author of the best-selling novel, “Seabiscuit.”
(As a bit of a preface, it might help you to know that Ms. Hillenbrand
experienced food poisoning in 1987 and, as a result, developed a rare
and life-long reaction to this illness; Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, with
additional symptoms of Vertigo).
She says,
“Writing this
book was immensely important to me, but my illness made it very hard. I
had to accept that there would be a large physical price to pay for
undertaking this project, and that I would have to pare away the rest of
my life to save my strength for what I wanted to do.
There were
days when it was almost impossible to move, but I usually found
something I still had strength to do. If I was too dizzy to write, I did
interviews. If I was too weak to sift through books, I sat still and
wrote. Sometimes I worked while in bed, lying on my back and scribbling
on a pad with my eyes closed.
Though it was hard to do this,
there was never a point at which I became discouraged. These subjects
were just too captivating for me to ever consider abandoning the
project. The price I paid was steep. Within hours of presenting the
manuscript to the publishers, my health collapsed completely.”
She concludes,
“As difficult as the illness made the writing and research process, I
think I also have it to thank for spurring me into the project. Being
sick has truncated my life dramatically, drastically narrowing the
possibilities for me. For fifteen years, I have had very little contact
with the world. The illness left me very few avenues for achievement, or
for connecting with people. Writing is my ‘salvation’; the one little
area of my life where I can still reach out into the world and create
something that will remain after I am gone. It enables me to define
myself as a writer instead of a sick person.”
I think Laura
Hillenbrand almost literally “wrestled with demons” …and won. I think
she has a great deal to teach us about the tenacity that we must possess
to overcome the tenaciousness of life itself.
I see people like
this brave lady, and I can only question how dare we make any excuses
for our willingness to live out mediocre, stagnant, unfulfilled lives on
the earth.
(to be continued)
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 25. Copyright pending
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