Embracing Our Challenges

There is something I say from time to time. I honestly don’t remember where I first heard it: “Well, I bought that pony. Might as well ride it home.”

This is often said in a John Wayne drawl, and what it means is simple: whatever negative circumstances I have in life, what is inarguable is that it happened. I have to deal with it. So I can either grouse about it, or see what there is to learn. Whatever pain I feel is my mind trying to tell me DON’T DO THIS AGAIN. The fear, disgust, aversion, anger…all of that is trying to keep it from repeating, anchoring negative emotions to something damaging. If our minds and bodies didn’t do that, children would saw their own fingers off just out of curiosity. Pain and fear are there for a reason.

The secret is that if you learn the lesson, you can release the fear. Does that make sense? Fear is there to get your attention. YOU DON’T NEED FEAR. YOU DON’T NEED ANGER. What you NEED is to deal with the problem, and those emotions CAN help you focus and raise your energy. But the truth is that there are other and healthier ways.

Years ago I was horribly unhappy to be in Atlanta. I felt so angry and hurt that it was almost paralyzing. Then I got back to basics: started reading the kinds of self-help books that had created my life and career in the first place. One of them was THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH by Wallace D. Wattles. Research suggested that it was a key source for THE SECRET and other texts. A very short book (you can read it in an hour or so), I tore through it.