372 I’m Prepared For What’s Ahead | January 2018 Sunday Week 2

Smiling Sundays - #363 January 7th The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast I’m Prepared For What’s Ahead “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~Mark Twain Have you ever thought about the possibilities in a moment? And not the possibilities you want to happen, but the number of possibilities that are in each moment. It’s mind numbing to fathom what an infinite amount of possibilities could be. I was thinking about this myself and just for context, I looked up how much space a billion pennies would take up. And on a site, I found that if you stack each penny to the size of one of those long yellow school buses 9 of them would equate a billion pennies. It also said that “if you stack all those pennies one on top of another, that the stack would reach nearly one thousand miles high. For comparison, the space shuttle typically only orbits 225 miles above the earth’s surface.” I’ll include the link to those stats as they have more information on that…but it doesn’t matter how many pennies you could stack…it still wouldn’t amount up to the number of possibilities in every moment. And the reason I bring this up is that no matter how much you prepare for things, you will never be fully prepared. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use common sense, or not prepare, or that we should be petrified of everything that could happen. I believe it just means we should be preparing our whole life for things. It was a cold Friday night in Tennessee. The temperature was somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit…and as I was driving home and I wanted to stop at my favorite healthy restaurant…Little Caesar’s Pizza. I had to get me one of those $5 hot and ready deals; you know where you just pop in without having to wait and pick up the pizza and leave the store in a matter of minutes. Ok maybe it wasn’t the healthiest choice, it was the fastest choice. It was cold, and I wanted something quick and easy..and I do love me some Little Caesar’s. I stopped in and got in line, and there was a mother and daughter in front of me that had shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals on with no socks. Now I normally wouldn’t have a judging eye to people who have a death wish in this cold weather, but living in Colorado I learned how preparation can be the bridge to life or the pathway to death. I was in elementary school, and my father was driving the whole family which consisted of my mom, my bro, and myself. We were in our big suburban. And this thing was a beast, my dad still owns it, and it still runs even as it’s 34 years old at the moment. It was a snowy cold night in Colorado, and the temperature was somewhere in the teens that night. That’s a Colorado heat wave during the winter. During our trip, the Suburban broke down and we had to walk to find help. I wasn’t prepared. I only had a sweatshirt on and no gloves or jacket to protect me from the cold. We walked over a mile to get to a gas station to use a payphone. I felt like my fingers were going to fall off from the pain of the cold as I was worried I might have frostbite. Luckily we found a place to get warm and call us a tow truck to get the suburban to a repair shop, and then get us home as well. Before this incident, I would’ve never thought about dressing appropriately for the weather. Granted this incident happened before most people have cell phones…but if it would’ve never happened I would’ve thought things like; I have my car to keep me warm, I have a cell phone in case something happens, or I’m in a populated place where someone could help me. And yes that all can be fine and nothing bad ever happens to you, but you never know your circumstances. Maybe your car could die and you can’t turn it back on to get heat from it, maybe it could be at a time during the day when no stores are open and you’re not close to a 24 hour gas station, maybe your phone could be low on its charge and die or maybe you can’t get a signal where you are. We could go over a million possibilities of what could happen that might be a bad situation for you. The only reason I think about this now is because I was unprepared in a bad situation that seemed normal for me. We don’t think about those small things about being prepared for the situations we’re in. We don’t think about if our car breaks down in the cold and if we can’t reach anyone. We don’t think that maybe we should be dressed for the occasion until it’s too late. We don’t think about if our house would catch on fire if we have an emergency box at the door that has our must haves such as critical medicines we need to take, maybe an emergency credit card and some cash, contact numbers, and our keys and cell phone. We don’t think about the tragedies that could happen, and so if something does happen we aren’t ready…and that could be the difference between life or death. It could be the difference between surviving with all your limbs intact or having to pay the consequences for not being aware of your surroundings and doing the right thing at the time. Now this podcast isn’t to scare you and be afraid of every little disaster that can happen. A tragedy can happen at any time…but also a miracle can too. I just want you to be aware of your surroundings. I want you to not rely on everything going perfectly as it has before and you not being prepared for the situation. Now with a fire, a tornado, or some other event that can happen instantaneously…that’s one thing. But like my Little Ceaser’s story of the mother and daughter in front of me, those are things in our control. Those are things that we take for granted and make silly choices saying I’m safe because I have always been safe…my car will continue to run fine, my phone will be charged and ready to call for help, or that stores or people will be there to help me when misfortune happens. We make assumptions that things will always be fine, and then when something bad happens, we aren’t prepared for it. And when we aren’t prepared for a bad situation, it’s a recipe for more bad choices. But if we take the time to be aware of the conditions around us, then we not only increase our chances of making better choices, but we might change our outcome from a matter of possible death to a matter of imminent survival. I was reading a book called The Survivor's Club. And every chapter talked about how to survive a different disaster. It talked about how to think before the accident and what to do during the event. Such as one chapter talked about surviving a plane crash. In the book it said most people who die in a plane crash that survived the impact of the crash…actually perish from smoke inhalation. Those first 90 seconds are the most critical in getting off the plane. The book said you should know where the closest emergency exit is to you. You should count the number of seat rows to the nearest emergency exit to you in case you can’t see anything if the smoke is limiting your vision. You can then feel your way to an exit if need be. And it also talked about remaining calm during the situation as people panic and make mistakes…but by being prepared and knowing and doing certain things when you board a plane…you’re helping yourself not to panic because you have prepared yourself. Now while I took a darker route of surviving disastrous events for this podcast, it was to illustrate my point better. In every instance of your life, the more aware you can be of your surroundings, of where you’re going or wanting to go (whether that be physically or even mentally), then the more prepared you can be. Preparation doesn’t always ensure success, but it raises your level of prevention. And maybe that’s why I’m always teaching my life coaching students about pivoting their negative thoughts from the bad into finding the good in the situation. It’s not that I’m teaching them to ignore what’s going on…but I am preparing them…I’m getting their mind primed to find a better solution in every instance. You won’t know every problem that can occur, but if you prime your mind to think differently, to become aware of your surroundings, to see things and take action on the better choice than just doing what’s easier at the moment…then you’ll find your life will be smoother. You’ll find that you’ve made it a habit to continually prepare…not for disaster but for success. I think of the Boy Scouts motto, and in Robert Baden-Powell’s book Scouting For Boys he defines what being prepared means: “The Scout Motto is: BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY. -Be Prepared in Mindby having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it. -Be Prepared in Bodyby making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.” So, are you aligning yourself up properly? Are you preparing your mind and body to not only survive this life…but to become more aware by aligning yourself up with success instead of tragedy. Sometimes the easiest thing is not to take the easier road, but to do what common sense would require. So it’s my hope that it’s not true as people say nowadays, that common sense isn’t as common anymore. Today’s Personal Commitment:Do you have a life motto? What is it? And if you don’t, what would be a good motto for your life? My motto has to do with the life values I’ve set for myself. When I publish my book I’ll teach you how to find your values as well…but for now let’s keep it simple as I’ll share my motto with you: I Live Within My Values In Every Moment. This motto helps to remind me of what my values are and ask myself if I’m residing in them constantly. I work to be aware and present, but I do get very forgetful at times…so I have my values pinned in a place where I’ll see them constantly. So figure out your motto, write it down, and then place it in a spot that you’ll see it consistently to remind you—to always be prepared in mind and body for your life. I’m Prepared For What’s Ahead Website for the billions of pennies: https://holykaw.alltop.com/what-does-a-billion-pennies-look-like   Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together, Personal Development Life Coach- Chris O'Hearn Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247     Music by: - Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. - I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide