Photo credit: Dr. Paul Jenkins
I had the pleasure of being featured on Live on Purpose Radio. Thank you to Dr. Paul Jenkins for having me on his radio show, Live on Purpose Radio. I visited his studio in Orem, Utah, after we attended the National Speakers Association meeting in Salt Lake City.
Listen to the radio broadcast here:
https://liveonpurposeradio.com/antarctic-tears/
Dr. Paul’s philosophy of live on purpose radio is very similar to what I talk about in my motivational speaches. His book, Pathological Positivity, available on Amazon, provides readers with tools to change their life. I found it an entertaining and educational read. His focus is on looking at things in a positive manner, even when things go terribly wrong.
How Dr. Paul changes your perspective at Live on Purpose Radio
One of Dr. Paul’s patients even sent a video after a car wreck in Mexico. Normally, one would be terribly traumatized and negative about the situation. Not Dr. Paul’s patients! This guy was on a stretcher board with a neck collar, rather banged up. He sent a video smiling, almost laughing, at his luck that he wasn’t killed or mangled. Sure, he was injured, but the focus was things could have been so much worse.
When I think of all the things that went wrong on my expedition across Antarctica, I think positively about them. How’s that, you say? Why would things going wrong make me smile when I look back on them. Because they were growing and learning experiences. I survived the experience, didn’t have any serious frostbite, and had the absolute time of my life. In the worst place in the world.
Why would I want to go to the worst place in the world? Wouldn’t one have the worst experience imaginable there? Not in the least! In fact, if I have the chance to go back, I will. Antarctica was at once magical and dangerous, beautiful and ugly. The best weather there makes even the worst weather in the US look like picnic material.
Go to the worst place to have the most fun
Walking partially if not fully blind to the landscape for 20% of the time, over the 80 days of the expedition, made me think about life differently. It was impossible to see to the horizon. In fact, on those days, all I could see were my skis, sleds, any myself. It was as though I was floating in a pond of milk.
Experience the worst, have the best time
The experience was metaphorical about life. Really, when you try and look into the future, you can’t see anything. It’s impossible. If we could see into the future, just think what the world would be like. Because we can’t, we can only focus on the here and now. You have to plan for the future, but it’s impossible to actually see it. You just work with what you’ve got and try to move forward. I wrote a lot about that in Antarctic Tears.
Dr. Paul’s radio show and book talk about just that. Focusing on the invisible, impossible to see just wastes energy. It brings you down. You fall into the negativity spiral doing it. Instead, add energy to your life and think about the experience you’ve gained. Not the things you’ve lost.