I have told “The ChopSaver Story” literally thousands of times. it always starts off with some something like this.
“Years ago, one of my students told me how he treated a lip injury from a marching band accident with the herb Arnica!”
Depending on how much time I have and how interested the other people seem to be, I may go into more detail. But then I go on to say something like, “I became so obsessed with the idea of creating a better lip balm, with arnica, that I took over the kitchen. For the next six weeks I was like a mad scientist trying to come up with this formula that was in my head!” At that point, like a comedian who is done his best routine countless times, I ALWAYS say, “My wife thought it was midlife crisis!”
I do it, not just because it always gets a laugh, chuckle, or smile almost 99.9% of the time, but because it suddenly makes the story more relatable. We can all understand and relate to a feeling of crisis or frustration or a pivot point in our life, or in the life of someone we love. The time when a “crazy idea” took hold and wouldn’t let go. Sometimes we’re concerned for the other person, that their Eureka Moment was not born of inspiration, but of crisis or avoiding reality.
Here’s one of the photos my wife took when she assumed we would look back on that time and have a laugh over the crazy idea I had and later gave up on. Except my midlife crisis turned into a midlife calling.
Are there events in your life, maybe even one that you took a photo of, that you can look back on with pride? Or maybe you look at old photos and you notice you were not as happy then, or you seemed to be struggling with something. But now you’re doing better. Life coach and author Dan Sullivan talks about a psychological concept called “The Gap and The Gain.” When we look at the “gap” between where we are and where we want to be, we can become frustrated. But we when we look back at the “gain” – how far we’ve come, we continue to be inspired.
Whatever you’re pursuing, crazy or logical, I encourage you to always be looking at your gains and not be so focused on the gap.