A calm sea never makes a Columbus..

Try to figure it out.

You have joined your first Company. You are fresh from a College and have been raised by your parents with love and care. They have tried their best to keep you away from all the adversities of life. You have rarely seen them struggling to figure out how to pay the bills of your costly education. They have never let you know but their struggle is as real as the constant rotation of Earth on its axis. Now, you are in the big bad world for the first time and you are looking at every stranger with a confused smile even as they are staring at you with that ‘battle hardened’ look which comes from years of being battle bound, its life through a new lens.

As the years pass by, you come across brutal realities of competition, jealousy, sarcasm, high handedness, politics…

You trust your talent, gut and virtues and keep moving. Every tough moment makes you tougher. You enjoy the battles and learn from each experience. (I never use the word ‘failure’ as to me every experience in life is a learning which makes the experience unique and valuable for our future life. It’s all a part of living a complete life after all).

Some wise man aptly said, “no accomplished sailor was ever made in the calm sea”.

If you want the world to remember you as Columbus, be ready to move perpendicular to the shore, deep inside the sea and brace yourself to sail against the most powerful storms, tallest and ferocious waves, darkest of nights without a trace of light and many days of hopelessness before you discover a new land and get registered in history books.

And you become a seasoned guy. You become stronger with every blow of life, you look back and thank the experience which made you a better human being with better value of life’s moments.

That’s the essence of life. Or else how can we explain the fact that the same child who was petrified at the mere thought of missing his parents' fingers in a crowded place, now raises and supports his own family after the old parents are gone! Or the little girl who once cried inconsolably to see her young parents dropping her on the first day of her kindergarten, grows up, has children of her own and becomes the rock solid support to her entire family!

There is no teacher as great as life itself. Every tough moment teaches us lessons worth remembering.

But, can you think of an astronomically successful person who gives the credit of all his success to the worst moments of his life?

------------------------------

Let me usher you into the life and story of Hal Elrod.

Hal is an interesting story of inspiration, positivity and grit. He is an acclaimed author, professional and life coach and motivational speaker par excellence. He is the founder of ‘Miracle Morning’ group whose members are around the world and his books have been endorsed by some of the best authors whom we know. You must be wondering, but there are more such personalities, Robin Sharma, Anthony Robbins….so what’s so special about Hal?

There is something unique. He, at the age of 20 years, met up with a massive road accident which left him clinically dead for 6 minutes when his heart stopped beating. Somehow he was recuperated by the team in the rescue helicopter. He had 9 severe fractures, a part of his brain permanently damaged and he woke up from a coma of 6 days to the bad news that he could never walk again. What else do you expect when his Mustang driving at 70 MPH crashed head on against a Chevrolet pick-up truck driving at 80 MPH on the wrong side on an American expressway. We all live once but he lived twice to tell his story.

And what a story teller he became. He has written 16 books and he is not even 40 years. He has become the proponent of waking up early in the morning and has created a whole community around the world. To cut a long story short, please visit www.miraclemorning.com. He thanks his life-threatening accident for changing his life and following are some of his thoughts:

• “I had to take responsibility for getting my life back. Instead of complaining about how things should be, I embraced how things were.”
• “As a result of choosing to be genuinely grateful for all that I had, unconditionally accepting of all that I didn’t and accepting total responsibility for creating all that I wanted, this potentially devastating car accident ultimately became one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
• “I believe that everything happens for a reason (reasons in fact). But it is our responsibility to choose the most empowering reasons for the challenges, events and circumstances of our lives – I used my accident to fuel a triumphant comeback.”
• “Despite not having a car, even less of short term memory, equipped with every excuse in the world to sit at home and feel sorry for myself, I returned to my sales position at Cutco (his company where he worked in Sales). I had the best year in my career and finished no 6 in the Company (amongst 60,000 active sales representatives). All this, while still recovering – physically, mentally, emotionally and financially – from my wreck.”
• “Having learned some invaluable lessons from my experience, it was time to turn my adversity into inspiration and empowerment for others. I started speaking and sharing my story at high schools, colleges, institutions and Organizations…”
• “No matter where you are in your life right now, or how difficult your challenges may be, if I could go from being found dead, told I would never walk again, going broke and feeling so depressed that I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning to creating the life I have always wanted, then there are no legitimate excuses for you not to overcome any limitations that have held you back from achieving everything you want from your life. None. Zip. Nada.”

Do spend a few minutes checking the formula he gave to the world to lead a successful life. Its known as ‘S-A-V-E-R-S’ which are the secret behind a ‘miracle morning’ and days full of unprecedented clarity and productivity. Check it out https://halelrod.com/6-minute-miracle-morning/

And coming back to our topic of today let's never forget...

“No accomplished sailor was ever made in the calm sea”.