Don’t Be Like My Cat.
I’ll explain later.
Don’t worry, I have every intention of picking up where I left off last week, where I’ll continue to share stories, experiences, and ultimately, lessons, from a dark time in my life.
Okay, you might be thinking. Why the pause?
The answer is two-fold:
- It’s too good not to share, and…
- It’s something everyone can benefit from, not just those to whom my story resonates with.
With that being said, lemme ask you a question: what is the number one reason why people don’t take action?
Fear.
Yep. Good ‘ole fear.
It’s paralyzing, isn’t it? Crippling, even. So much so, the fear of not taking action can—and will—kill us, (don’t believe me? Fair enough. I sell Life Insurance for fuck’s sake, overcoming objections is my job).
Consider this: we’ve all heard this story in some way, shape, or form…
Woman spends her entire life working in a cubicle in a job she loathes, and why is this? Because she’s scared to death, that’s why.
Scared of what? Scared of pursuing her passion. Her purpose. The singular reason why God put her here.
Then, one day on the job, Woman feels a pain in her chest. At first, it’s nothing but an annoyance.
After several weeks, it becomes an affliction, and so Woman goes to Doctor. Doctor finds cancer. It’s terminal. Woman has six-months to live, if that.
Knowing she has little time left, Woman quits her job. She catches the next flight to Tulum and dumps her entire 401(k) into starting a beachfront yoga practice—a lifelong passion of hers, but had been deathly afraid of pursuing until death started pursuing her.
After a month or so—when she “should” be on her deathbed—Woman is over the fucking moon. She looks as healthy as a horse.
Woman is happy.
There’s a postscript: woman’s cancer goes into remission.
Is that what it’s going to take for you to do the one thing God put you here to do? Do you need to feel the cold steel of the The Grim Reaper’s scythe on your shoulder before you take action on your assignment? On God’s aim for your life?
And speaking of Life Insurance, I’ll share another story with you. This one from just two-days ago…
I was visiting a friend and client of mine this weekend. Great guy. Successful guy. Someone who’d do anything for anyone—except himself.
“I know this is something I need to do, and this process (of getting insured) is going to make me do it,” he said, folding himself in half as he pistoned an arm out to the ash tray on the coffee table between us, flicking the delicate tube of ash off the end of his Montecristo. “I’m just scared to fucking death to go to the doctor.”
“I understand,” I said, staring down the brown barrel of my cigar. The orangish-red tip produced lazy tendrils of smoke climbing slowly toward the ceiling vent. “But lemme ask you a question—”
“Go ahead,” he said.
I shrugged, plucked the cigar from my mouth and said: “Have you ever thought going to the doctor might be a good thing?”
Crows feet formed near his temples as his eyebrows knit together. “How do you mean?”
“Before I left this afternoon,” I said, crossing one leg over the other. “I usually go out the front door because Tiffany and Sam are home. But since they’re in Cincinnati, I locked it and went out the garage. Now, we usually keep the door leading to the garage in the breezeway open because our cats like hanging out in there.”
“Yeah,” he said, the cigar bobbing between his lips.
“Here’s the thing about our cats—especially Clarence—these little bastards would do anything to be outside. In fact, if Clarence got out, we ain’t ever seeing that motherfucker again. So I go out into the garage and Clare is napping in the corner by the studs and pink insulation. Now, whenever we open the garage door, it scares the shit out of him and he sprints inside the house.”
He nodded his acknowledgment, but it was obvious my point had yet to be made.
“Why am I telling you this?” I said, perching my elbows on my knees as I leaned toward him. “Because if Clare faced his fear and ran toward the garage door instead of away from it, he would literally have the one thing he wants more than anything—freedom,” (Our cats live great lives, so don’t think for one second they aren’t free when they’re pampered like goddamn royalty twenty-four seven. I could have said “outside” but that wouldn’t have had the mmph! that “freedom” has).
My friends eyes went glassy like a doll’s as he didn’t blink once during that short story. “Wow,” he said, cocking his head like a dog might and laughing under his breath.
“Moral of the story?” I said, then parked the cigar between my lips. “Don’t be like my cat. Run toward your fear. Everything you want is on the other side of it. Fear is the signal for you to do the thing.”
- Hunter Michael Charneski
PS-If this blog benefited you in anyway, I just ask that you share it so others may be experience the benefits as well. God bless.
