Wind, Like Life, is Subject to Change Without Notice.
Where I live, the Neuse River is a little over four miles wide. That is if I am standing on my beach and looking straight across. If I look to the northeast on the river, it’s closer to seven or eight miles of open water before the next shoreline, and if I look due east it’s over twenty miles until the next shore.
This amount of open water gives the wind a lot of space to blow freely. Now I’m a simple guy, so all I use to go fishing when it’s just me, is a little 12-foot flat bottomed john boat and two oars. I love to row. It’s great exercise, and it allows me to quietly move through the water and see what is going on around me. Many times, I catch fish because I see them stir the surface as I row, and I stop and cast to what I just saw.
Anyway, everyday I look at my weather app to see which way the wind is blowing. If it’s a strong wind from the east or northeast, I won’t be taking the boat out that day, because those directions make it almost impossible to navigate. You see when the wind has a long way to blow uninhibited, you don’t just have to deal with the resistance of the wind, but you have the waves that build over long stretches of water. Strong winds from either of those directions lead to 3 foot waves and that is no time for someone to be in a flat bottomed little boat!
Any other wind direction is fishable for me from the john boat (in nice weather, I still fish in the NE and E winds, I simple wade in the water to do it). What I do first when I go fishing is check the wind direction on my weather app and then look at the river to see if what I see jives with what the app says. Then I will row directly into the wind and get to the farthest point I’m going to go, and then fish my way back to the house. The stretch of shoreline I fish is about 5 and ½ to 6 miles, with my house not quite in the middle of it. Many days I’ll row between two and three miles before I start to fish.
I choose to do the hard things in life first. Mark Twain supposedly said, “eat a live frog first thing in the morning.” That was his way of saying do the hard things first. I believe whole-heartedly in this philosophy. This is why I row into the wind first. It’s hard, but then in theory, the rest of the rowing will be pretty easy since the wind should be with me. Here’s the challenge. Many days the wind changes and I end up having to row both ways against the wind. This is sort of like, the old story of having to “walk both ways up hill in the snow to go to school” that was our grandparent’s way of telling us they had it harder than we do. While I don’t think it’s a geographical possibility to walk uphill both ways, I can tell you with quite a bit of experience, you can absolutely row both ways against the wind!
What’s the Point of the Wind Story?
Life is full of winds. You could even say it’s like the wind. Unpredictable, uncertain, things coming at you unseen, things being harder than you thought they would be. The wind in life is typically adversity. They are certainly times when we are given a break, and the wind seems at our back. But those times are rare. And just like it’s very rare to have a completely calm day here at my river paradise, it’s rare to have a calm day in life. And if you do, especially if you have a lot of calm days in a row, watch out, a storm is likely brewing.
It’s my purpose to serve you in achieving your richest life possible. In order for that to be possible, you have to become very good at dealing with the wind, or simply put, the adversities in life.
The proverb says, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” You can’t have small strength and build an awesome life.
The winds come from many things. Inside your head (like your limiting beliefs, fears, worries, etc.), outside of you (like the marketplace you work in, the people you deal with, the economic forces, problems, etc.), and the worst kind of wind, which comes from the neglect of things that are incredibly important.
What I Want for You is to Be a Rock in the Face of the Wind.
The good news about wind in general, is that the more of it you face the better you are at navigating it. After all, smooth seas do not make a good sailor. Everyone has the winds in life to deal with. In general, the difference between those that do well in life and those that don’t, is not less wind, but becoming better at setting the sail, or in my case, handling the oars. The other good news is that if you are committed to creating the best life you can for yourself and the people you love, you’ll eventually reach a point where you will seek ways to reduce the amount of wind you face.
The absolute best way to build your life (which includes your career) is to follow the principles of Life Management. I lay this out entirely in my first book “Live Full, Live Well.” When you operate with a daily life management plan, that is centered around the right priorities (this is from my book 3 Circles Living), you accomplish three major things relative to the wind. Simply put, life management is about planning on a daily basis to include everything in your life where you play an important role, which will include your health (physical and mental), your relationships in all categories, your career, and your pursuits, and any other area that is key, and all the corresponding responsibilities associated with each. It takes little time or effort to do and returns you time because of the efficiencies of executing the plan. I do this every day and have for 30 plus years. Anyway, here are the three things it does for you relative to the winds of life.
The first, is that you eliminate the storms of neglect. Neglect is a nasty thing, because it is only an issue if something is important. Anything that matters, like your health or an important relationship, that is neglected, will eventually blow up in your face. When it does, not only will you be in the throes of a storm that will rock your world for a long time, but you will suffer the deep regret that comes with knowing you did this to yourself. Without a life management plan that you execute on consistently, you will be blown about in general in life, and will ultimately end up in a neglect storm.
The second, is you calm the winds inside of you because you develop yourself and your unique blend of abilities, talents, affinities, personality, etc. such that you become a better and better version of yourself. You are perfectly you. It’s the only place any of us achieves perfection. The more you embrace who you are, learn to use your uniqueness to make your way in the world and make the impact in the world that only you can make, while at the same time taking care of yourself, the less resistance you’ll feel from yourself and the better you’ll be in serving all the relationships in your life.
The third, and final for this article, is that you will be prepared to be the rock in the wind that comes at you from outside. You’ll be stronger in the face of anything the market can throw at you. You’ll be able to calmly navigate the problems, challenges, changes that are inevitable because you live in an interdependent world where you have little control of many of the winds you encounter.
Everything I’ve given you here is doable. It’s also incomplete. There is much more I could have addressed, and plenty I wouldn’t even think of, but you probably will. It doesn’t matter really, where the wind is coming from. The bottom line is that it’s always coming from somewhere, and it’s not an excuse for living a lesser life or being less than you can be.
If you consistently follow the platforms and guidelines in Live Full, Live Well and 3 Circle Living, over time you will be a rock. You cannot microwave this. If you have spent a long time being blown about, and neglecting, it’s going to take some time to right the ship. But you can. And you will. Just commit to making it happen.
I hope this had been helpful for you and it serves as some wind beneath your wings.
Many Blessings, Todd
P.S. If you are in need of coaching or training for your organization, reach out to me.
P.S.S. It is now raging allergy season where I live, and likely where you live too, or it will be soon. I’m allergic to all grass, dust, and a variety of other things that are blooming throughout the year. For the first 35 years of my life, I had a constant stuffed head, frequent sinus infections, often couldn’t taste food very well, and dealt with the fatigue of all that. Then I discovered a nutrient (by accident) that helped my body so much that I haven’t had to deal with it since. My health philosophy is based on Cancer and Heart Disease risk management first (family history). When I learned of this specific pure super-antioxidant in 1996, I began using it for the purpose of prevention (It’s 20x stronger than vitamin C and 50x stronger than vitamin E). I had no idea it might help with my allergies or help me with some of the joint issues I had from years of sports, but it did big time. If you deal with allergies or some of the other things I mentioned, you might consider giving it a try. No guarantees, because every one’s body is different, but if you give it a try and it doesn’t seem to help you, you can return for a refund. You can purchase it at wholesale (same price I pay) direct from my online shop. This link will take you directly to it. Lifeplus – Proanthenols® 100mg. If you do choose to give it a try, let me know and I am happy to share some tips for best use.
