I AM WILLING TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES
Positive change isn’t a matter of the will. Rather, it’s a matter of being willing to do whatever it takes.
When I am not willing, no matter how much I say I want to change, it will not happen. I am only playing a word game, and everyone understands what I am saying.
The difference between the will and being willing is great.
Making my dreams come true doesn’t require an iron will.
I don’t need an indomitable spirit before I start the journey. I don’t need to spend years pumping myself up in preparation for the moment that will takes over, sweeps me off my feet, and carries me to total victory. That is a fairy tale of the will. No one has a mountain of will that sweeps away all opposition.
I don’t need a massive will to succeed.
I do need a willingness to do whatever is required to make my dreams happen.
Although I don’t have an iron will, I do have a willingness to work around, go through, over, or under whatever obstacles get in the way.
This is a quiet willingness. Eloquent speeches of dramatic resolve aren’t part of the script. I simply get on with the business of living my dreams.
Every day I focus on my purpose and act on my plan, because I am willing to do whatever it takes to make my dreams come true.
You start out life with nothing, and you end it the same way. But between the start and the finish, you can have an awesome adventure.
If you are going to live, you may as well live as if you are a great person. That means, you live as if your dreams are possible and work each day to make them happen. You travel far, travel light, and make your life into what you want it to be. You never forget that life isn't about stuff; instead, it's about living your dreams.
As you face problems each day, ask yourself, "How would I handle this challenge if I was a great person?" After you answer that question, go ahead and do what a great person would do.
Don't tiptoe through life trying to just get by. Instead, make your life into something memorable, something great.
You only get one life, and you may as well make it into a great one. You have little to lose and much to gain, so go ahead and live as if you are great.
No matter what happens, I choose to think positive.
When I lived in Arabia, I spent my free time driving in the sand dunes south of Riyadh.
In this picture, my Defender sits high and dry in the Bakra dunes. I am high-sided, and I'm not going anywhere until I recover the vehicle by digging out the sand from under the chassis (the hard way) or by having someone pull me off the top of the dune using a snatch strap (the easy way).
Getting high-sided on the top of a sand dune isn't a problem; it's only an embarrassment. It simply means I miscalculated my speed as I was going over the dune, and at the last minute, I slowed down too much, and I didn't have enough momentum to make it over the top.
If you want to enjoy driving in the sand, you must learn to think positive.
It's inevitable that you are going to get stuck many times when you drive in soft dunes. It doesn't matter whether you are high-sided or sunk to the chassis in soft sand, a positive attitude turns this inconvenience into a real adventure.
A few minutes of work with your shovel and sand ladders free you from your sandy prison.
There's no need for panic, recriminations, or berating yourself for getting stuck. It goes with the territory. If you drive in soft sand, you will get stuck, so get over it and keep on trucking.
The goal isn't to never get stuck. Instead, the goal is to have an adventure and to live your sand dreams.
Driving in the sand dunes is a lot like life.
You frequently find that you are up to your axles in problems and are high-sided by the challenges of life. That's to be expected, because you are living your dreams.
If you don't panic, and instead, maintain a positive attitude, it won't be long before you escape the sand trap and start moving in a positive direction.
Everybody gets stuck at many points in their life, but not everyone thinks positive.
Negative thinkers bog down in their problems, and they may stay stuck for years at a time.
Positive thinkers know that getting stuck is only a temporary inconvenience.
No matter what happens in their life, they choose to think positive. For them, positive thinking is a choice they make dozens of time each day.
They know that if they want to be positive, nothing and no one can stop them.
Think positive.
WHEN YOU ARE IN A HOLE, STOP DIGGING
One of the first rules you learn about driving in sand is when you are in a hole, stop digging.
When I started driving in dunes, I frequently got stuck in patches of soft sand.
As a novice, when I bogged down, I spun my tires which made me sink progressively deeper until the chassis rested solidly on the ground. Only then did my Defender stop sinking.
Eventually I discovered if you don't spin your wheels when you first get stuck, you don't sink down nearly as far. It's much easier to recover a bogged vehicle when it's not buried all the way up to the chassis.
We developed a damage control rule for everyone who drove with us in the sand. When the forward motion of the vehicle ceases, you immediately stop spinning your tires so vehicle recovery will be easier.
When we did it that way, we could usually go in reverse and back out of the sand trap if a couple of people got out and gave the vehicle a push with their hands. Only occasionally was it necessary to use sand ladders, winches, or snatch straps.
This rule is applicable to life in general.
When you find your self stuck, when forward motion ceases, it's time to stop digging. If you continue to spin your mental wheels, you will only sink deeper into the muck and mire.
Whatever it was that you were doing before you got into trouble, you must immediately cease and desist. If you don't stop, you will only sink deeper making it more difficult to get your life back on track.
You might want to write that rule on paper and look at it several times a day when you are having problems.
If you stop digging and start doing something constructive, it won't be long before you are back to living your dreams.
GETTING STUCK IS GOOD. IT MEANS YOU ARE LIVING YOUR DREAMS.
I'm grateful for all the times I've been stuck over the years. That's what happens when I live my dreams
I've been up to my axles in sand too many times to count. That's terrific because it means I am living my sand dreams.
I been sailing offshore in forty five knots of wind and eighteen foot seas trailing warps behind my boat, and that's fantastic. That means I am sailing on the ocean of my dreams.
I've been stuck in front of a computer screen writing books on positive thinking for more than ten years. That's good because my writing is helping other people live their dreams.
I've been stuck for thousands of hours working on my websites, and that totally awesome, because I now have a Positive Web Ring that reaches people in 180 countries around the world.
If I'm lucky I'll get stuck somewhere in Africa when I drive from Cape Town to Cairo in my Land Rover.
I've been stuck too many times to count, and I hope my good fortune continues.
Sand driving teaches you about your limitations.
The first lesson you learn is that appearances are deceiving.
Traversing a sea of sand may look like a piece of cake, but fifteen seconds later you are monumentally stuck with sand up to your chassis.
At other times, you look at what appears to be difficult terrain, and you pass easily through it like you're driving in a mall parking lot.
You can't tell ahead of time how hard the slogging will become until you get into gear and start moving. Appearances truly are deceiving.
The second lesson you learn is that the only way to find out if limitations are real is to test them.
If you want to live your sand dreams, you have to test the sand all the time. You must allow yourself the luxury of testing your limitations many times each day. When you do that, you discover that you can do many things you previously considered impossible.
Take a look at the wheel tracks in this picture.
One pair of tracks leads to a Defender far off in the distance. When he went down the slip face into the valley of doom, he kept on trucking. You can see two patches of soft sand in his wheel tracks where he powered through without getting stuck.
The second set of tracks belongs to a Nissan Patrol. This vehicle went into the valley of doom and got stuck. His tracks show that he almost made it out the other side on his first attempt, but he had to back up and make another try. He made it out on his second go.
I'm standing on top of the dune surveying the landscape trying to figure out which way to head.
I had no clue as to whether I would get stuck in the valley of doom, but I also had no choice. If I wanted to test my limitations, I had to go down the slip face and see what happened.
I put the accelerator all the way to the floor in second gear when I hit the bottom of the slip face, and I easily powered out of the hole.
That's the way life works. There's hundreds of sand traps out there, and if you want to drive in the sand, it's inevitable that you will discover many pits of apparent despair. That's to be expected, because you are living your sand dreams.
If you want to live your dreams, you must test your limitations every day. There is no other way.
LIFE IS A LABORATORY FOR TESTING YOUR LIMITATIONS
God gave us a lifetime to TEST OUR LIMITATIONS and to LIVE HIS DREAM FOR OUR LIFE.
God's dream for our lives is better than anything we can imagine.
God created a beautiful world and populated it with life, and then He gave it to us for our enjoyment.
He also put an eternal spirit inside us, and we have the privilege of living as one of his children. That's why some of us call him Father. God is on our side and has our best interests at heart. He has a powerful and positive dream for our life, and if we get in agreement with him, that dream can come true.
But there's a catch. The only way for that dream to come true is for us to test our limitations.
God doesn't have any limitations - all of them belong to us. To the extent that we cling to our limitations, to that degree we limit the ability of God to work a miracle in our life.
It's incumbent on us to step up to the front and test every limitation found in our mind.
We must relentlessly look past our limitations and act as if we cannot fail. That's the only way we can break through to the awesome future that God has in store for us.
We have a choice, If we cling to our limitations, we miss out on God's best. If we test our limitations and break through them, God works a miracle in our life.
THE RED SEA CHRONICLES - A FIRST CLASS SAILING ADVENTURE
When Dr. Dave isn't working as a flying Doctor for the Indian Health Service, he is sailing around the world on his sailboat. Find out what it's like to sail on the ocean of your dreams by watching Dr. Dave's DVD - The Red Sea Chronicles. Put some positive adventure into your mind and push your life in a positive direction.
Captain Dave and his family spent eleven years sailing around the world on their Privilege 39 catamaran, Exit Only. During the trip, the crew of Exit Only shot 200 hours of video with professional cameras to show people what it's like to sail on a small boat around the world.
The Red Sea Chronicles is a one hour and twenty-two minute feature film showing their adventures as Exit Only sails through Pirate Alley in the Gulf of Aden and up the Red Sea. The professional footage documents their experiences in Oman, Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, and the Suez Canal. It chronicles the rigors of traveling in a remote section of the world rarely visited by cruisers. Exit Only dodges Yemeni pirates, fights a gale and sand storms in the Bab al Mandeb at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The crew explores deserted islands on the western shores of the Red Sea, and learns to check the cruising guides for land mines before venturing ashore.
The Red Sea Chronicles also has outstanding Special Features that include an Instructional Video on Storm Management that tells sailors how to deal with storms at sea.
And don't forget the two Music Videos: "The Red Sea Blues", and "Captain - Save Our Souls".
The Red Sea Chronicles is a first class adventure that stokes the sailing dreams of both experienced and wannabe sailors alike. Order your copy of the Red Sea Chronicles and experience the adventures of Exit Only as they sail around the world and up the Red Sea.
