"I took off on a wave, went down the side, popped out the other end, and went, shit, I'm still alive!" Greg Noll (on surfing Waimea Bay for the 1st time) Have you had those times in life when you had built up such a big deal around this one thing that you wanted to do, to accomplish? What started out as another experience, another day became ever more larger and important.
It may even have occupied your waking thoughts and even given you cause for sleepless nights.
I mean it happens to all of us right? As a child it may have been getting so excited about a toy or the thought of going to somewhere like Disneyland.
This one thing takes on an ever greater and bigger significance to the point where it's like everything depended upon it.
The emotions, the imaginations and the expectations grow so intense it's like the most important thing that could ever happen to you.
Nothing can go wrong, everything must be perfect, it has to be the greatest thing to ever happen, ever.
And when the actual day comes the experience can be encapsulated in two very different poles.
One is the wasn't that the most amazing day ever feeling.
Everything about it was incredible and I'm so excited at all that happened and want to relive the day again and again.
The other extreme to this is being disappointed, hurt and betrayed at friends and relatives who have ruined their day.
And in this instance it is very likely that the child will judge themselves and the people in that day in a distorted and negative manner.
It is like there is such a thin line between triumph and disaster.
The two become so tightly intertwined over the years that they are like inseparable.
We condition ourselves to see things that we want in such a light, that if we get it then it's a triumph and that if we don't then it is to be perceived as a disaster.
And not only that we say to ourselves that anything less than a resounding success is equivalent to a failure.
How can we win with such a mindset? It's like we unconsciously have been setting ourselves up for hurt and disappointment.
You must have all heard before the saying that we are our own hardest critic? I have seen this happen time and time again to people as they beat themselves up whether it be a speech, a sales presentation, or a performance.
It seems that this belief that they are not good enough, this belief is a universal trait that people have.
And the thing is it has the effect of stopping people in their tracks, it holds them back, it limits them in their own minds, it robs people of the belief to put themselves on the line and take risks.
The fear of being not enough, of being a disaster yet again leads to people choosing to play safe, to play small and to stick with what they know.
So the message today is to have the fortitude to look disaster in the eye and smile, smile with kindness and acceptance, smile with the knowledge that you will figure out a way to handle whatever happens.
Know that It'll be alright, the universe is supporting you, it's gotten you to where you are today and it'll be here as you write the next chapter in your life.
One thing is guaranteed, the exhilaration of the wave, of doing it, of going for it, and of making it somehow.