Facing Obstacles and Creating Opportunities

Michael, a friend and client, has responded to the challenges caused by an April 2010 auto accident by speaking to Chicago youth groups about facing obstacles and creating opportunities. He lost an arm in the accident, but eventually, he gained a powerful new perspective for his life. Here’s an excerpt from a February speech that inspired kids. I hope these words inspire you, too. Feel free to share your story in which you faced obstacles and created opportunities.

You all may have heard that the only true constant in life is CHANGE! You choose how you want to deal with the change – either to roll with it like a river that runs into a rock and finds a way around it, or to oppose it and, as a result, you will feel pain. Yes, feeling pain, as I learned, is also a choice to some extent.  In other words, by me choosing to allow the pain to control me was giving the pain the authority to rule my life.  I am not saying that the pain was not and is not very real for me, but rather that in my mind, I built the pain up to an almost insurmountable obstacle that I chose to give up and stop fighting rather than face the pain head on. Many of you have heard the corny expression that “Attitude isn’t everything, it is the ONLY thing!” Well, I am here to tell you that the expression is 100% right!!  Life is not only about choices, but also about perspective. Each and every one of you here has the ability to perceive life in any way that you so choose. Your perspective becomes your reality! You can choose to paint your perspective in a positive light or a negative light – the choice is yours to make!  If you choose positive, which I hope you all will, more likely than not, you will be part of a positive outcome. On the other hand, if you choose the negative route, you are virtually guaranteed a negative outcome.  I tell you this from my very own personal experiences. Until the time came that I started looking at life’s obstacles in terms of what I could do with one arm, not in terms of what I could NOT do, the results were negative, 99% of the time! When I finally woke up to the simple truth that WITH FAITH I had the power to shape my own reality, my entire outlook morphed into a positive state of sheer gratitude for being alive and able to watch my boys grow up!