“Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
–Micheal Jordan.
The camping trip, that I wrote about last week, was a blast! It was definitely out of my comfort zone, but we made some amazing memories, which made the trip worth it. Last week I told you that my idea of camping was the Hilton, but I was determined to make this a great adventure. I knew that just spending time with my kids would make it fun.
We rented a pontoon boat for the sunset cruise the first night. The pontoon boat may have been there since the last time we camped there 25 years ago. It was pretty decrepit. My son thought it interesting that the battery was located right above the gas tank, exactly where the driver sat. The ladder to get on and off the boat was a joke. When a person stepped down on the ladder, the bottom steps would disappear beneath the boat, making it almost impossible to crawl back up onto the boat. It’s a good thing I lift weights. We danced and sang some karaoke to the Doobie Brothers and Tower of Power—my daughter said she learned the words in the womb.
Rafting the river was so much fun! Each part of the river held a different memory for my family from years ago. Such a hoot!!!
My daughter’s boyfriend is the gourmet camping cook. He had more pots and pans and sharper knives than I have in my kitchen. He created the most amazing Tri tip steak and BBQ corn on the cob one night. On July 4th, we had steak fajitas, which turned into breakfast burritos the next morning.
What was uncomfortable? Our air bed deflated the first night. I’m kind of a “princess-and-the-pea” sleeper, wrinkles in my sheets hamper my deep sleep. Yeah, I know, that’s crazy. But at my age, I need all the beauty rest I can get. We replaced that double airbed with twin airbeds, which both wouldn’t fit in the tent when fully inflated. Bless my husband, he let me sleep on a fully inflated one and he slept on the other which was inflated just enough to fit in the tent—which wasn’t much. Dennis could sleep on a bench in a bowling alley just fine.
I disliked the middle of the night walks to the bathroom, which was ½ mile away (okay, it seemed that far.) It was very dark and very quiet out there, which made it hard to see which trail led to someone’s campground and which led to the bathroom even with a flashlight. Flip flops are not the best walking shoes on bumpy trails, either. Oh yeah, and there were bats flying around…and poison oak.
BUT, AT&T has amazing service in the middle of nowhere, so I could stay connected if I wanted. The electric outlets in the restrooms had great power to charge my phone every morning when I showered and put on my make-up. Yes, I put on makeup…I had to do something while my phone was charging😊
We ended up laughing about most of the camping faux paus and there were many. We talked at length about memories that we created already at that campground when the kids were little. I found out that my son preferred the Hilton as well…up until now. We all decided that this should be a summer tradition. My husband and I are getting a bigger tent, in which to fit our new air beds. We’re still texting each other the funny stuff.
What does this have to do with personal growth and leadership skills? My personal experience has been that I place limits on myself in my own mind. I think I know exactly the way things are going to turn out, and they never turn out that way. If I have the right attitude, any circumstance will turn out way better than I imagined. I have learned to challenge my thoughts around limits. Are those limits real, or just my perception.
An event is neither bad nor good, it’s my perception of it. I may not be able to change the event, but I can make the event good or bad by the way I see it. I can limit the good by my thoughts about the event. I can control my thoughts—it’s the only thing that I can control.
So why not choose the joy and good or the lesson surrounding the event? Watch for your limiting beliefs this week and challenge them. You’ll enjoy the outcome.
Still smiling,
Jan
Jan McDonald
John Maxwell Team
(still CEO of Life Options)
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