Have You Ever Ran Out Of Gas?

November 28, 2017

Mind Set

The answer is more complicated…

I have once and it will never happen again. But honestly, that’s a different story, for a different day. As you probably know, I grew up in Brazil / Montana for most of my life. In both places, believe It or not, you can’t get gas easily. I’m talking, the next gas station is four to six hours away, sometimes more. As you can imagine, making sure you have enough gas to get from point A to point B is pretty important in these kinds of circumstances.

I just want you to have that in the back of your mind as I tell the rest of the story.

Once I graduated from college, I am move to South Korea and I taught English for one year. And no, I don’t speak Korean. While I lived in Korea, I used public transportation I didn’t have to worry about getting gas, much less running out of gas. It was actually pretty epic.

While I was in South Korea I met my lovely young wife Beth. Upon returning to the United States we lived in her home state of North Carolina, which is where we currently reside.

The first drive in over a year.

Once we got to the States and my bride and I got into her car…we had a quarter tank of gas. So, me being a mindful, protective, caring husband, I asked where the nearest gas station was. Implicating that we needed to stop and get gas.

Beth just looked at me like I was an alien from Mars and said, “We have a quarter tank of gas, will be fine.” Which is when I said, “But my love, we have a quarter tank of gas. I really think we should get gas before we go.” She looked at me, I touch flustered this time and said, “No, we have a quarter tank of gas, will be fine.”

As you can see, we are both speaking past each other. We were both using the same logic to justify our positions. We were having communication “issues.” If you are married, I am sure this has never happened to you :-). My logic was, “Hey, there’s only a quarter tank of gas we’re going to run out,” Beth’s logic was, “There’s a quarter tank of gas, why would we run out?”

So who was right?

As normal, I was…WRONG :-).

Apparently, in North Carolina there is a gas stations, if not three, about every half mile…at least. The chances of running out of gas in North Carolina because there isn’t a gas station is next to impossible. Granted, I somehow did it, even though I am obviously paranoid about running out of gas. My previous experiences in Brazil and Montana taught me to be on guard and fearful of running out of gas, because you never knew when you would see the next gas station. And trust me, you don’t want to get stranded in the middle of Montana or in the middle of Brazil without gas. You may be here for a long time and never see a soul.

This is how the story ends

I tell Beth about my previous experiences and why they validate the need to get gas. Yes, I bear my soul to her. And you know what she does? She laughs in my face, and calmly explains to me that in North Carolina there are gas stations literally everywhere. And as I stated earlier, she was correct.

So what does this have to do with you?

Do you let the fear of change, the fear of the unknown get in the way? Have you never hired trainer or tried an exercise program simply because you had never tried one before and the fear of doing something you have never done stopped you?

Do you just rely on your own previous experiences? Do you speak past your friends when they are encouraging you to try something new?

If so, stop! To truly know if something is not a good fit for you, you need to at least try it! Get out of your comfort zone and try new things.

I get it, I was like you in the story above about gas. I was so fearful of running out of gas I wouldn’t listen to my super smart wife (I am still working on that by the way).

What about you? Are you so ingrained in what you do, what you’ve always done, that you won’t even consider changing something get better results?

If that describes you then I would love to offer my expertise to you. Click the link to sign-up for a free session risk free https://winstonsalem.justyoufitness.com/