Challenges vs. Obstacles

The picture here is one of my favorites. I found it somewhere on the internet* and, to me, it represents a classic "obstacle".

In life, we are all given obstacles. (I like to call them challenges.) And our response to these obstacles defines what we get out of life.

If you are faced with a challenge, you can do one of three things...

1. You can overcome it
2. You can try to overcome it, fail and learn from it, or,
3. You can give up and go back to something easier.

My philosophy is that life gives you challenges to see how capable you are.

The challenge of ... women

For example, I was challenged by my ex-wife to figure out a way to salvage our relationship... and, unfortunately for both of us, we got divorced. As part of that experience, I learned alot about myself and how I relate to people ... and I'm still learning. (I'm not sure that anyone fully understands women ... but they definitely are worth it.)

The "Shrinking" challenge

Another challenge I am currently working on is my diet and exercise habits. Yesterday I went for a short run prior to going to Marist College for the Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) event that I was organizing. The weather was not great. The forecast was for rain but I got in a short run just the same. I also packed up my car, throwing a folding table on the roof rack and hit the shower. It felt good to stick to my exercise plan and overcome the challenge of "laziness" (or "snooze-bar-itis".

Organizationally Challenged

The day before had been stressful as I scrambled to get all the loose ends wrapped up for the TLI event so I was probably not as organized I could have been. I realized this when I was halfway to the event (about 1 hr. from home) and I noticed that I had forgotten my laptop (with presentation files for 3 other presenters). I had also forgotten the player for the lead-in music. It was too late to go back so I figured ... Toastmasters are good at adapting to changing conditions.

And I was right. The TLI event went off much better than I expected and even though there were fewer attendees than we had last year, they all seemed to enjoy themselves and they definitely took home lots of great information.

Driveway challenged...

Speaking of "going home", the picture to the right is what I saw when I arrived home. The small creek that goes under my driveway had overflowed due to a sudden, heavy downpour and I would later find out (after the water had receded a little) that a number of fallen trees had washed downstream and clogged the pipes that go under my driveway.

I still had the folding table on top of my car (and it was getting wetter by the minute) so I called a nearby friend ... but his yard was flooded along with his garage. Eventually the water slowed down and I was able to assess the damage to my driveway. (See videos below.)

What am I going to do?

As I said, my philosophy is that life gives us challenges to see how capable we are. I was overcoming some challenges (exercise, organization) and now I have a new challenge... a driveway project.

The big question is ...

What is the opportunity here?

Answer(s): I will figure out a way to rebuild it so that this does not happen again... which will increase the value to the property. I will certainly make some contacts with contractors ... which should benefit my real estate investment business. I may even involve the local government since they built the bridge structure and the water (and dead trees that clogged the pipes) came from town property.

What challenges are you facing? How well are you doing?

d.Mark "Dave" Wheeler

* (I would love to give credit to the photographer of the first picture... just let me know by sending a link to theshot92[at] gmail.com)