This time of year separates the men from the boys.
When I got to the barn yesterday I found the key and opened the door. I could see my breath when I opened the door but the sweet smell of horses and the nickers and whinnies made me smile. I unpacked my truck and lit my forge and felt the warmth immediately start to rise around me. I walked past the horses and pet a few anxious noses and found Tommy. He was slow getting out of his stall but loosened up quickly. Once I got him in the cross ties and cleaned the mud off his feet I pulled the nails one by one and then started to inspect the hoof. I started paring with my knife and was surprised and pleased at how easy it was to use my knife since the hoof had so much moisture in it from the rain/snow the night before. Just then a shaft of sunlight came through the barn door and illuminated everything around me and made me feel a familiar warmth. I stood up, took a deep breath, and it was then that it dawned on me that..................
On my way to the barn, traffic was terrible and I had to fight it all the way. Although I was told someone would have the barn opened I had to locate the hidden key and get in the back door. The horses hadn't been fed so they were noisy and unruly. I had forgotten to put my tools in the front of the truck so when I unpacked everything was ice cold and to make matters worse I was running a bit low on propane and could only run my forge for a while to warm up. I had to walk all the way to the other end of the barn to get Tommy, a chronically lame horse who was slow getting up and down and it took forever for him to get into the cross ties. His foot was covered with mud and it took a good while to clean it up so that I wouldn't be covered with mud when I finished. Once I got all of the mud out of the foot I had to pull each nail individually so that I wouldn't break up the foot since it was so soft. There was only a small bit of sunshine that came through the barn doors that morning and it wasn't clear that would last for long by the looks of the sky.
I think you get the picture. Every day we make the choice to have a good day or a bad day. Are we chronically reactive in our orientation to life's events, or are we responsibly proactive? Steven Covey said this. "You are not the product of your circumstances. You are the product of your choices." Here is a great 5 minute video from the late Steven Covey about the power of the proactive mindset. I hope you enjoy and choose to have the best day of your life.
