On Never Breathing a Sigh of Relief

Without even thinking about it, I did something that one of my favorite gurus suggested I never do, and that's "breathe a sigh of relief."

This past weekend was a very busy one for me - all good stuff, but busy.  Saturday morning, my wife and I took our kids to the Ohio Renaissance Festival and had a great time.  Saturday afternoon, I went to help set up for the Sunday morning Walk Now for Autism Speaks event.  Sunday was the event, and then Sunday afternoon I was a speaker on bike commuting at the 10/10/10 Work Party at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.  It was all great stuff and I got to share a lot of wonderful experiences with people all weekend.

Then Sunday night, before going to bed, I posted this on my Facebook page.

Wow...survived the weekend. Ohio Renaissance Festival, setting up and participating in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks, and speaking on Bike Commuting at the great 10/10/10 event in Reynoldsburg. I'm whooped, but I feel accomplished. Now to start a new week of accomplishments. Who will I help this week?

My intention was entirely to celebrate that I'd gotten so much done and been able to have so many great experiences over the weekend.  But the way it came out was as if I was exhausted and totally relieved I'd gotten it all done.  And I was tired, no doubt about that.  But I was only physically tired, not mentally or emotionally tired.

Paul Kyriazi advises in his Live the James Bond Lifestyle seminar to "never breathe a sigh of relief."  When you get through a stressful situation and come to the other side, the worst thing you can do is have an attitude of "Boy, I'm glad that's over with."  The message that you send to your always-listening subconscious mind is that the challenge you just got through was something to be avoided because of the stress it caused you.  And though you may have come through it all with flying colors, and actually grown a bit by overcoming the challenge, you then sabotage that success by giving the message that such things are to be avoided.

So let's look at what I said.  Though I didn't walk into the house on Sunday afternoon, flop onto the couch, and have an attitude of "Boy, glad that's over with;" I may as well have when I summed up my weekend on Sunday night with a "Wow...survived the weekend."  I survived?  What kind of an attitude is that?  Even though I later said "I feel accomplished," I've already set a negative tone with my initial statement.  J.B. Glossinger says that "words limit meanings."  Even though you may have meant something positively, the words you choose can change the tone and the experience.

My attitude could have been "Boy, what a great weekend - I achieved so much!" or "Man, I can't believe all the people I was able to help this weekend!"  But instead, my thought was of survival.  Sure, you can say that's a perfectly rational response to finishing a busy weekend.  But rational isn't what I want to be going for here.  I'm going for achievement, success, and growth.

So consider this blog post a literary equivalent of me snapping a rubber band on my wrist to snap myself out of such thoughts.  I did a lot of good this past weekend and I'm proud of it.  I'd do it again in a second.  And I enjoyed myself doing it all.