BRING INNER STRENGTH UNDER CONTROL
A healthy baby is gifted with incredible inner strength. This internal power is vividly displayed when the baby screams to the point of exhaustion. Try screaming as hard as you can like a baby enraged. The end result will be exhaustion, fatigue and no breath.
Exhaustible baby screaming is vital for survival. It also develops lung power and muscle growth. For a baby, screaming is like an adult workout at the fitness center. Exhaustible adult screaming is evidence of the same inner strength of a baby. However, it is shameful for an adult to justify acting like a baby.
Many years ago, one very warm Saturday morning our father decided to cut the neglected family lawn. This was a dreaded chore. The lawn mower was old, unreliable and seldom used. Starting such a dysfunctional small engine with a pull cord was one of the ultimate tests of inner strength under control.
That day, the Crowell boys were like kids at a good movie. With delight, we silently watched the performers. Here are the scenes of the “Starting a Lawn Mower” movie with Dad Crowell and the lawn mower.
Scene 1: Relentless pulling the pull cord while dripping with the sweat of perspiration.
Scene 2: Relentless and now frantic pulling the cord with colorful name-calling obscenities like the mower was a real human being.
Scene 3: Relentless, frantic pulling the cord, followed by kicking the machine and hobbling on a painful foot, and many more colorful obscenities shouted.
Scene 4: Still relentless, pulling the cord while kicking the machine, screaming obscenities, and now adding the star performer of a hammer = machine beating vs. lawn mower disobedience. Nothing changes!
Are you ready for the final scene?
Scene 5: Dad leaves home in his car. Dad returns home with a new lawnmower. The machine starts on the first pull of the pull cord. Dad smiles.
Role credits.
Does this remind you all too dramatically of a time your inner strength was out of control? Developing control of the inner soul is life’s most difficult and most rewarding challenge.
Based on this real-life experience, here are three ways to build inner strength control:
- Decide to take control; start doing what you know you should do, and stop doing what you know you should not do.
- Become an avid life learner and viewer of inner strength control.
- Be diligent to engage in a bimonthly meeting with a life mentor coach (at least a one-hour session).
