The Power of Positive Thought – Pt. 2

Within 75 years of Christ’s death, Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, observed:

“Nothing truly stops you.  Nothing truly holds you back.  For your own will is always within your control.  Sickness may challenge your body. But are you merely your body? Lameness may impede your legs. But you are not merely your legs. Your will is bigger than your legs. Your will needn’t be affected by an incident unless you let it.”

Walk the Talk

We have all heard and used the expression - ‘Talk the talk, and Walk the Walk’ [i] - and know it to mean that we need to back up, with action, what we say.  Did Epictetus ‘know whereof he spoke’?  Well, you be the Judge!

He was born in Phrygia, circa 55 A.D., yet we do not know the name his parents gave him. The Greek word ‘epíktetos’ simply means ‘acquired’.  He was so called because he spent his youth as a slave in Rome.   He somehow became crippled [ii] and early on acquired a passion for philosophy.

With the permission of his owner he studied Stoic philosophy, which allowed him to rise in respectability.  Epictetus obtained his freedom sometime in 68 A.D. and established an influential school of Stoic philosophy, stressing that:

"Human beings cannot control life, only their responses to it."

Among Epictetus’ most distinguished students was the young Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who went on to be Emperor of Rome.  Not bad for a crippled slave! Epictetus also counselled: 

“ Don’t consent to be hurt and you won’t be hurt – this is a choice over which you have control.”

Bold talk indeed, but what about shattering your neck and being left paralyzed – surely, that is not something we can control or overcome!  Most of us would give up.  For others, an old English expression has real meaning:

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” 

Famed hockey player, Doug Smith, is one of those rare individuals who twice bounced back from debilitating injuries because he chose not to accept the hand that fate had dealt him!

In Part 1 of this Post, I introduced you to Doug’s rise to fame in the NHL and alluded to not one, but two major accidents he suffered and still came back from to be a successful businessman, author, and motivational speaker. 

Here is more of his inspiring tale that led him to write The Trauma Code…    

Early Struggles

Doug is no stranger to trauma.  Starting at an early age, he was put in ankle to hip, leg braces to straighten legs; and, like Forrest Gump, he struggled to walk and eventually run.

 Back then, no one would have imagined he would go on to be skilled enough to be able to play four different sports professionally!  He chose hockey as a first round draft pick.

By the time he was 30 he had risen to hockey fame, suffered multiple broken bones, and over 30 concussions.   He was twice counted out!  The first time from ever playing hockey ever again. The second time from ever walking again!  

Doug is all too familiar with physical trauma and the emotional scars that comes with such a legacy!  He certainly ‘walks the walk’, but also ‘talks the talk’, and writes extremely well too! 

 Head On

By the late 80’s, ‘Doug Smith’ had become a household word for hockey fans across North America.  There was no doubt he was going to have a long and illustrious NHL career. That changed in blink of an eye on May 8th, 1988, when Doug’s ATV smashed head-on into a car that had drifted into his lane.  

He was crushed into the car’s rear quarter panel, then rebounded along the road into a ditch. Unconscious, but still breathing, he was taken by ambulance to hospital to try to repair the massive damage to his left shoulder blade, which had been broken in half and badly displaced, along with extensive nerve damage.

A 15-cm steel plate, six screws and a bone graft were used in the repair, requiring the surgeons to cut from the tip of his shoulder to his neck!  He was told it was highly unlikely he would ever play hockey again given the resultant damage to his nerves, muscles and tendons.  

With his hockey career hanging in the balance, Doug realized just how much he loved the sport and how it was a part of him.  On his journey of recovery, he worked out three hours a day for six weeks and packed on 27 pounds of muscle. 

Against all odds, he was cleared by his doctors to take part in training camp that fall.  Within a matter of weeks, he was signed by the Edmonton Oilers. Not only did he play pro hockey again, he played for another four years.

Hitting the Wall

Sadly, the 1988 head-on collision wasn’t to be his!  While  playing in the European Hockey League in 1992, he suffered a more devastating injury, one week after the birth of his second daughter.  As a result of a forecheck, he crushed into the boards at full speed, and shattered his neck in more than 100 places, leaving Doug paralyzed ‘for life’!  

Doug says that while recovering from his first collision, he never doubted he’d be back on the ice.  This  time round, he didn’t feel he had the strength to keep going , so relied on the strength of others to help pull him through.

“When I was so afraid I couldn’t go any further, my wife kicked me in the 'you-know-what'....It only takes one person to change the belief of the world. In my case, that person was my wife (Patti)… Everybody needs somebody to say, ‘It’s okay, you can do that.’

Doug has made a powerful Video about his experience and amazing recovery, which shows his head long crash into the boards that shattered his neck and life, but opened new doors for him.

A New Chapter

 With his family's support, Doug focused on what needed to be done, conquering one challenge at a time. Confined to a hospital for a full year, he focused on rebuilding his physical strength, while marshaling  his inner strength.  He spend a lot of time on his lap top, learning the basics of business and thinking about what he could do as his next ‘career’.

He defied medical odds once again— by standing on his own two feet when he was released from hospital.  Doug immediately set to work.  Among his many ventures, he launched Arc Stainless Inc., a  garage-based business, which has grown into a highly profitable stainless steel medical and architectural products company.  

He also starting writing books about his experiences, hoping they would help others.  I am glad he did!

The Trauma Code

In Part 1, I highly recommended you read The Trauma Code - Doug’s latest book.  Let me elaborate why it, in tandem with a Book by Author, Ron Wiens - Building Organizations that Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound, provide a template for individuals and businesses to follow to ensure success, no matter what adversity they face!  

I had the pleasure of reading Doug’s and Ron’s books in August -September. They were very inspiring, leading me to have several dialogues with Doug since. Those discussions and 'In-messages' led to my desire to write these Posts, as I truly believe their positive message can help everyone, no matter where they are in life!

(photo of books taken in Crowe Dillon Robinson's reception area)

School of Hard Knocks

 The lessons I have learned from both books can’t be fully explored here; but, the key messages are worthy of note. 

The three most prominent ‘awakenings’, as Doug calls them (beside trauma being the single biggest inhibitor of performance), that can be applied to individuals, teams and organizations are: 

1. Where you are at in your life is not a reflection of your potential, as potential is unlimited and unpredictable. Where you are at in your life is a reflection of your mental conditioning - full stop!
2. The human brain cannot distinguish between recovery and performance. No matter where your brain is at ... it innately wants to get better or improve its performance, both in its manner and quality of functioning.
3. Awareness and measurement of Cumulative Emotional Trauma (‘CET’) is critically important so one can “unlock the mind from the disruptive patterns [caused by trauma] so that its power can be unleashed” (pg. 24).

Key to this, is understanding that we all suffer from trauma (and may not even be aware of the full extent of it), that disrupts the natural functioning of the subconscious mind. 

To overcome and recover we must be positive and committed to improving.  As Doug notes at pg. 32:

“Positive thinking is a key element of success when you seek to recover or to perform better.  The action of believing that you will reach a goal gets the subconscious mind working towards achieving it.”

Can it be that simple? Well yes - and Doug give lots of examples of experiments and scientific studies to back up his claims.  He introduces Ron’s work by quoting him at pg. 11:

 “We all know about trauma – when we get a physical injury or emotional shock. There is another kind – organizational trauma.  In many organizations, you will find employees whose vital signs most closely resemble a flickering candle!  Their work is uneven and spasmodic, they are unengaged with their work and they live for the weekends and their holidays.”

What Doug and Ron teach in their books and seminar “Power of 10”, comes back to something we all know intuitively, that can be summed by a saying I have used since my days at St. F. X:

"Positive energy breeds positive energy - Negative energy breeds negative energy"!

Doug and Ron’s book are well worth a read.   They, together with a companion Seminar and brochure “Power of 10”,  provide the Model, Metrics and KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators), that will help businesses and organizations unlock the full potential of their employees and succeed like never before!

Want to Dig Deeper?

For more information and insight, check out Doug and Ron on LinkedIn. You can contact them for an additional reading list; or, to enlist their unique services for your Team, Organization or Business.

They have counselled Fortune 500 companies, the Canadian Military and various Sports Teams to help improve performance, understating and positive results!

Postlogue

If you need more evidence of the power of positive thought, reflect on what American author, political activist, and lecturer, Helen Keller had to say.  She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.  

The story of how her teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through her mind numbing  isolation because of a near complete lack of language, allowing the Helen to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become well known because of the play and film The Miracle Worker:

“I have for many years endeavored to make this vital truth clear; and still people marvel when I tell them that I am happy. They imagine that my limitations weigh heavily upon my spirit, and chain me to the rock of despair. Yet, it seems to me, happiness has very little to do with the senses. If we make up our minds that this is a drab and purposeless universe, it will be that, and nothing else. On the other hand, if we believe that the earth is ours, and that the sun and moon hang in the sky for our delight, there will be joy upon the hills and gladness in the fields because the Artist in our souls glorifies creation. Surely, it gives dignity to life to believe that we are born into this world for noble ends, and that we have a higher destiny than can be accomplished within the narrow limits of this physical life.” - Helen Keller

The famed Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu taught us that:

“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” 

Here are two of the most positive ‘Nova Scotia Anthems’ I know; and, probably the most famous Hymn of all time (estimated  to be performed 10 million times each year.  

They  remind us of the power of remaining positive in the face of adversity and the joy that comes from overcoming huge odds stacked against you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-aEcPgkuA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkwj1hppsrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCp5LG_zNE

_______________________

End-notes:

[i] According to The Phrase Finder, Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have coined the proverbial saying: "Well done is better than well said".  The earliest usage of ‘Walk the Talk’, that can be actually verified is a citation from an Ohio newspaper, The Mansfield News, in June 1921:  "Although he has no gilded medals upon his bosom, Howard Herring of the North American Watch company,  walks the walk, and talks the talk, of a hero today."

[ii] Origen states that his leg was deliberately broken by his master; yet, Simplicius states that he had been lame from childhood.