Succeeding in any aspect of your life requires an internal dive. I am not just sharing crazy stories. I want to help you work on shifting your inner perspective in a way that will power up everything else in your life and drive success.
I was devastated . . .
I’ll never forget the day that I lost my perspective. I was in college and had made a really, truly, pathetically bad presentation in an honors class. I had taken a class intended for top seniors, and I was a mediocre sophomore. In this class, we each were required to deliver a paper one week early to provide everyone else with sufficient time to read and critique it. And, boy, did they do their jobs.
I was destroyed by a double thesis and grammatical errors. The most embarrassing moment was when a fellow student asked me about my phrase, Temperance of concretism. I had to admit that I wasn’t really sure what it meant. It had sounded downright James Joyce-like as I sat in the common room at 4:00 a.m., hunched over my light blue portable Smith Corona and sucking down my fifth cup of instant coffee.
After my presentation, the professor asked me if I would consider going back to Freshman English. Being an English major, this was like a blow to my solar plexus and I was left speechless, a state that usually takes an act of God.
And then I saw him . . .
I ran out of the classroom and burst into sobs, running towards Reynolda gardens, a beautiful park filled with everything except people from my honors class. I ended up on a path that wound through thousands of beautiful trees. It was usually filled with runners, but today it was quiet and devoid of any human other than me.
I was walking with my head down, telling God all about my incredible, life-ending problems, when I saw a huge wing fly down in front of me.
My heart stopped. This wing was gigantic. I considered the possibility that a pterodactyl still existed in our time, while staying oddly calm. I didn’t jump, and I didn’t run, which is weird because a cricket surprising me could send me into a physical spasm of epic proportions. Instead, I looked up. And there, sitting on a branch, was a huge owl staring directly at me.
There was total silence, yet everything was said. He looked at me, and I looked at him. And, in that moment, I felt oddly cared about and completely loved. Now, I’ve had people laugh at me at this point of my story while preparing butterfly nets with which to take me away, but my story is what it is.
In that moment, my problems melted into the absolute power and beauty of nature.
And I knew I was bigger than me . . .
Because I felt immensely loved in that moment, I believed in myself a little more. I realized that life is a web of connections and that I was backed by one thousand other heartbeats.
I ran back to my dorm, and started work on my next honors presentation with a renewed perspective.
I aced it.
Do you have a story to share about a time when your power was boosted by something or someone? Please send it to me at donna@donnahighfill.com. I’d love to share it – and will keep you anonymous if you prefer. I probably should have been anonymous on this one, but it’s my blog. 🙂