Your personal and professional transformation can start any time you want it to.
Warning: there is some profanity in the video.
Really liked this video.
What did you guys think about Tyler’s take on petty people, and their belief that they’ll live forever? Really true in many cases. I mean, if we thought we’d be dead at the end of the day, would we get mad at a loved one for forgetting to do the dishes, take out the trash, pick something up from the store. What about someone who cut in front of you in traffic? Would you carry that with you for the rest of the day, letting it kill your positive nature and focus?
Would it really matter?
I’ve experienced how being smack in the face of death erases petty thoughts and behaviors first hand.
I was driving to Mississauga, ON during a long weekend a few years back and soon found myself caught up in one of the middle lanes of a 4 lane highway — between a transport and a massive dump truck. I knew the dump truck was driving a little on the sketchy side, swerving just a little too much over the line. The transport on the other side of me left no room to move over. Sure enough, despite my best efforts to stay out of his way, the dump truck swerved over and I got sucked into, and under his back wheels…
Essentially, I was being pushed sideways down the 401, in holiday traffic, and the big tires on the dump truck were desperately trying to get traction on my driver’s side door to run over and crush the vehicle — all this was happening at 120kmh (74mph)! The truck’s rear tire was literally 4 inches from my left shoulder, with nothing more than a fragile window separating us. Somehow, by tapping the brakes and easing the steering wheel just the right way, I managed to get out from underneath the clutches of the truck without getting killed.
Now, if this guy had bumped into me in a mall parking lot, I would have been pissed — probably for days. But the fresh memory of a killer monster truck sized tire trying to end my life eliminated most every negative emotion I could have experienced as the driver approached me afterward. The front end of the car was destroyed, but I saw some desperation in the driver’s eyes that told me he was in big trouble (maybe the illegal type like driving without a license, or drinking and driving — I don’t know).
I told him to take off and focused on how happy I was to narrowly escape death instead.
I wouldn’t say that experience, or any others I’ve had led to a complete on-the-spot transformation. However, I certainly knew that day that I wouldn’t live forever, that it could be taken at any time. I truly believe those little experiences do cause subtle changes to take place, mostly on a subconscious level, and that how we use them shapes where we end up. They’re the sum parts of a much bigger end game.
Share a story of your own about the limitations of pettiness or inaction, and its impact on you or others.
