Sunday, August 7, 2011

Reminders of the Rocking Chair

One of the lessons I have learned from my former master was the rocking chair drill. He once told me to close my eyes and picture myself as an old man rocking in a rocking chair. He told me, as the old man to go back through my life reminiscing all the things I have done in my life and all the experiences I go out of my life. He said to picture all the good things, the things I could have done better, the things I wanted to do and never did, and imagine all of these thoughts at once.

Then after much visualizing in the rocking chair of my mind, he told me to open my eyes. And then he reminded me, I was NOT an old man in a rocking chair, and all those years I was looking back at, I was in the very beginning NOW! No time passed me by! So the best time to get a move on to all those things I want to accomplish is NOW.

I cannot begin to tell you about all the people I run into and they say oh I'm too old, or I can't do that, or it's too late to do that now etc. You are NEVER too old to do something, and it is NEVER too late to embark on a mission! I hate it when people make those excuses as to not to do them. Why? Because you didn't get to do it when you WANTED? What's wrong with now?

Many years ago, everyone might remember of the grandmother who picked up the car to save her grandchild. How the heck did she do it!? Well one peak performer tried to interview this grandma and she refused several times, until he finally went to her house. She was stunned at the persistence of this man, yet reluctantly invited him in. She offered him breakfast and every time he asked a question about "the incident," she avoided the question. he finally blurted out "Why won't you talk about it?"

She finally sighed and said "I don't like to talk about 'the incident' because at my age when you do something you thought was completely impossible at my age, you begin to question everything you ever did or didn't do in your life." This elderly woman did the impossible in her mind and was sulking at all the things that maybe she COULD have done when she said she couldn't.

So the interviewer asked her what it was she always wanted to do. She told him she always wanted to study rocks and get a degree in geology. He told her "Well why don't you?" She went on at how she was 60 years od and in five years when she finished she would be 65, etc etc. Then he said to her "I have bad news for you. Whether you go study geology or not, in five years you are STILL going to be 65. So why not start NOW?" She realized he had a point. So he remortgaged her house, figured a way for herself to go back to school at 60 years old and not only got her degree in geology but her masters degree and to this day is teaching at a University. Something she always wanted to do.

The best time to do something is NOW. Enough of the excuses. Now is the time to do what you really want. I bet you I can find a way for you to accomplish what you want. When you find the excuses, I can find the opportunity. Look for the opportunity, not the reason why not to do something, because then you're going backwards. So once in a while, do the rocking chair drill to remind you of all the time you still have, and not to waste it! There is always time to do something!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

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