Keeping the Vision & Catching Ponies
Life often does not give us directly what we want. As we live our lives, sometimes the unexpected comes up and we need to adjust. Below is a short story I like to share. I find when I have setbacks of any kind in life that it is easy to want to give up. Having a clear vision of the goal, helps us to stay the course.
Catching Ponies….. When I was running a nonprofit for 7 years dealing with the economic collapse of 2008, I had hundreds of calls coming in each week with people desperately talking about giving up, killing themselves, bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions, divorce, losing their children, their retirement and much more. It sounds a bit like today.
Because of the stress and trauma, people could not hear logic at that point but could hang on to a story, so I would start with this story. It is of two sisters.
One was an optimist, everything was great. The other, a pessimist wherein nothing worked. The parents felt they needed to balance the girls out a bit, so they went shopping for Christmas. They bought hundreds of presents for the one little girl whom life seemed so grim.
On Christmas day the two came down to open their gifts. The little pessimist proceeded to rip off the wrappings to each gift and tossed them aside. The little optimist cheered with each gift savoring the joy her sister must be feeling. After many hours, when the gifts were all opened, the pessimist looked at her parents with sad eyes and said, “Is that all?”
At this point, the other sister noticed a brown paper bag under the tree, with her name on it. With great excitement, she opened it and then started running around the tree whooping and hollering with so much delight and gratitude. The parents looked at her and asked, “what are you so excited about?” With eyes sparkling and enthusiasm, she answered. “This bag is full of PONY POO! That must mean there is a Pony here for me.”
After the story, I would hear them chuckle and then proceed to an assignment on finding their new “pony job”, “pony house”, or “pony life”. Those who did the hard work and assignments found that magic could happen in their lives and they were able to reinvent who they were. what they did, and how they did it.
Today, I watch and see the resilience of people who make those changes and learn new skills. I have retired pals moving to Portugal, learning a new language and leaving their old life behind because the change will make their retirement dollars do so much more for them..
As we start with a new vision of what is possible and keep our eye on the pony, we can create better ways to live. Be willing to try new things and live life differently so you might experience the magic.