My friend and fellow blogger Phil Gerbyshak wrote a great article outlining his passions, causing me to revisit the timeless topic. I encourage you to check it out here and see if this helps you think a little more deeply about the things you are passionate about.

Previous articles/stories on the subject of having a passion can be seen at the following:

a. How Having a Passion Can Save Your Life
b. Motivation – Where Does it Come From?
c. Trust in Being Brave – The Merrill Lynch Story
d. Trust that Your Passions Will be Supported by the Universe
e. Passion at Southwest Airlines
f. Entertain the Possibilities – Swimming Championships

Food for thought: What is your passion?

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H: Have a passion
E: Entertain the possibilities
A: Act NOW
R: Remember who helped you along the way

Speaking about the H.E.A.R. Principle

Meeting people from the audience afterwards

Me and Kathryn Troutman, expert on creating resumes for Federal Government Jobs (see her website here).

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Whether or not we realize it, many of these topics are closely aligned with how we grow as spiritual beings having a human experience. When we learn how to harness universal principles, we are better able to deal with adversity that comes our way. We are in effect reprogramming our minds to think outside the box and creating the life we envision for ourselves. Some examples include my achievements in aviation, Wall Street as well as in professional speaking.

Today I wish to share with you an email I got from someone who I’ve been corresponding with over the last few years but have not yet met. Her name is Kathyrn Troutman, who specializes in creating powerful resumes for federal government employees and applicants. She is known as the “Federal Career Coach.” Here’s a synoposis of what she wrote to me:

That’s how I started. One workshop at the Justice Dept. on Federal Resume Writing. WE thought 30 people would come to the Great Hall of Justice for a noon-hour “brown bag lunch”. 650 people came! That was the day my government training career began.The reason this happened so easily and effortlessly for her is because she didn’t have any attachment to the outcome. Kathryn simply submitted a proposal, it was eventually accepted and then she went with the intention of providing for the highest good of all and look at the turn out! It was that simple!

I used to be one of those people who would put a “disclaimer” on my dreams saying things like “Well, I hope it will happen.” When someone makes a firm decision, it’s amazing how the universe just lines things up for you because making a decision as opposed to be “muddy” with your line of thinking clears the way for things to come your way. I’m starting to do this with my financial affairs and for the first time in my life, I actually feel like I am well on my way to becoming truly financially independent – it’s no joke. I will be writing about that too.

Consider this. I was browsing through a great “Personal Development for Smart People” blog the other day when I stumbled onto some writings by Steve Pavlina about the power of intention. Something just clicked in me and I feel like a changed person. It’s strange, I can’t explain it but I really felt an internal shift take place. All I know is when I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, I was looking at myself in the mirror and suddenly saw the image of a millionaire. That has never happened before. It’s quite amazing, really. Stay tuned for that as well……

Food for thought: Think about the last time you made a firm declaration or decision and how ideas or opportunities flowed to you after that. Have you ever experienced this? That is the power of intention at work in your life!

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The last part of the HEAR Principle is something Colleen Barrett, president of Southwest, is famous for. According to the book NUTS! by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, Colleen is fanatical about remembering those who helped make it possible for Southwest to enjoy stupendous success.

She does this by sending birthday cards to all the members of the Texas legislature. Through a special network in place at Southwest, Colleen is notified of noteworthy circumstances affecting one or many of the thousands of employees upon which a personalized note or gift is sent, often surprising the receipient.

On top of that, Southwest sends 75,000 greeting cards a year to customers, employees and friends to recognize their birthdays, anniversaries, losses, new babies and other significant events. Imagine that!

Do you think sending 75,000 cards a year is overkill? I don’t.

Southwest knows something you and I already know through the application of the HEAR Principle. When we remember those who helped us along the way, not only are we giving them recognition for what they did but we are also reminding ourselves that we are not alone. That we cannot exist in a vacuum. Successful people and organizations cannot slosh their way through adversity without some kind of assistance. It’s impossible!

When people are recognized by you or your company, it makes them want to be there for you again becuase it was brought to their attention that they really do matter. Even if they thought they didn’t “do anything much” to help you – simply by remembering and recognizing them, you are bringing the light of recognition into their lives. You’ll recall a post I wrote in so many words how people “crave recognition.” It’s so true.

They feel their efforts in helping you was worth their time and as a result, feel inspired to lift you to even greater heights all becuase you chose to take a few minutes of your time to remember them in some way form or shape.

There you have it. If Southwest can unknowingly apply each and every part of the HEAR Principle, so can you. Why not give it a try?

In the very near future, I will be posting a “call for stories” from you out there to share with me your experiences in overcoming adversity. Be on the lookout for it!

Food for thought: Is there anyone you’d like to remember for helping you through major turning points in your life? Give it some thought – you’d be surprised at the number of names that pop up!

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Another word for intuition is that “gut” feeling you get from time to time. It’s that little voice in your head urging you to act on an idea, thought or something you saw or heard. Often times it calls for you to act in the face of the unknown. In other words, your intuition is telling you to do something when there’s no evidence that it’ll work out in the end.

Using the experience of my favorite airline, countless of employees have listened to their intuition and made judgment calls that caused them to go above the call of duty to help their fellow workers and customers. I pulled one example out of NUTS! by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg for this post.

My favorite story of how intuition was used was the time a flight attendant from Phoenix named Debra Undhjem stepped in to help an elderly (87 years old) passenger.

Although the elderly woman missed her plane in Oakland, she did make it to Phoenix only to miss her connecting flight to Tulsa. Since there were no more flights to Tulsa after the missed flight, the customer had no choice but to stay overnight and catch the next available flight the following morning.

In light of her situation, customer service supervisors decided to put her up in a local hotel at the airline’s expense. That’s when Debra got personally involved.

She decided to go beyond the call of duty and invite the elderly customer to her home for the night instead of putting her in a hotel room all by herself. Debra made ecessary phone calls to relatives in Tulsa informing them the elderly lady would be arriving on the first flight the next day. The following morning Debra brought this customer back to the airport and waited with her until she was aboard the first flight to Tulsa.

Isn’t that great customer service or what? Now, I can’t imagine they do this very often (it would be impossible to with the volume of passengers they fly everyday) but there was a special reason for it.

When asked why she followed her intuition, she said it was because the elderly woman was diabetic and she did not feel it was right to put her up in a hotel by herself. She felt called to go beyond what was expected of her in the name of doing what felt right. It’s amazing how the Southwest culture encourages their employees to think for themselves. You’d be hard pressed to find a corporation like Southwest these days!

In any case, who knows what might have happened had the woman been left alone that evening? Even though it didn’t happen, you never know if she would have suffered a massive stroke with no one around to help her.

Food for thought: Can you name one or two incidents where you had an overwhelming feeling about something that you couldn’t put your finger on but you went ahead and acted on it? Did your “hunch” prove to be correct?

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Having a passion allows one to be in a state of mind to entertain the possibilities. The energy of passion creates a space by which you become receptive to ideas and thoughts leading you to the achievement of what you’re passionate about.

In the early seventies, Lamar Muse, president of Southwest at the time, decided to add a fourth plane in anticipation of providing out-of-state charters as well as flying more daily flights. However, a federal district court shot the airline down by ruling they couldn’t fly charters outside Texas (more adversity!).

What’s a man to do in this situation? Muse ended up selling the unproductive plane at a profit and went into creative mode. He got together with Bill Franklin, a man he hired to manage ground operations and together they entertained the possibilities of utilizing 3 (instead of 4) airplanes without cutting back on the new flight schedule.

Franklin felt this could be achieved if they were able to reduce the turnaround time down to ten minutes – the length of time it takes for a plane to arrive, deplane and board passengers, check and change the oil (as well as the tires), clean up the cabin and a multitude of other things.

Could it be done?

Apparently they thought so because employees were given directives to do so. They were told in no uncertain terms that if they thought it couldn’t be done, they’d be fired until the right people with the right attitude could be found.

Now, I know how this sounds – employees were faced with the prospect of losing their jobs if they didn’t find a way to reduce the time of turnaround. You might think they did not have a choice. This may further lead you to conclude that they did it out of fear rather than passion.

I beg to differ.

Because Lamar and Franklin had a passion for the survival of the airline, they passed it down to the people working the front lines. Those who caught on with passion and enthuasism were able to find a way of meeting Lamar’s directives. They were able to entertain the possibilities. Those who were unable or unwilling were let go. It was as simple as that.

Granted, according to the book, Lamar was a strong disciplarian type of leader which was what they needed at the time. Today, there’s no need for Southwest employees to be threatened with the loss of a job – in fact, they are encouraged to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them without the fear of losing their shirts.

What’s interesting is that many of these front line people had no airline experience so they had no idea whether or not they could turn around an airplane in ten minutes – but they did it.

By God, did they ever!

That was years ago. Now that Southwest is a much bigger airline with larger planes, more carry on luggage, more cargo and increased congestion at busier airports, their turnaround time is now 20 minutes, still a record in today’s airline industry. In fact, it’s half of the industry standard!

Think about this for a moment. If they all hated their jobs, do you think they would have been able to turn around a plane that quickly? It takes an army of people (i.e. pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, fuelers, gate attendant and countless other bodies) to defy the odds and make this seeimingly impossible task work.

Based on my own experiences, we are sometimes presented with a set of adverse circumstances that force us to reconsider the options at hand and discover our true potential in the process. Lamar’s directives took on that appearance and those who were ready to expand the envelope of their potential did so. Those who were not simply fell by the wayside.

This makes for an interesting argument, wouldn’t you say? I welcome your thoughts.

Food for thought: Are you following your passion and entertaining the possibilities? If not, what’s holding you back?

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If you’re new to this blog, I am a professional speaker who teaches people how to turn adversity into a university of possibilities through the application of the HEAR Principal:

Having a Passion
Entertaining the Possibilities
Acting on Your Intuition (I sometimes substitute “Authenticity” in here)
Remembering Those Who Helped You Along the Way

The idea behind this concept is while there are a multitude of ways to overcome adversity, I’ve found that by consistently applying the HEAR Principle, I’ve been able to not only face obstacles but also achieve what so-called “experts” said would be impossible.

For the next four or five posts, I will be using examples out of the national bestselling book NUTS! by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg. The book tells a remarkable story of how Southwest took Corporate America by storm in the creation of a unique workforce where thousands of employees are allowed to take risks, have fun and be true to their spirits. In an environment like that, it’s easy to see how the components of the HEAR Principle was used over and over again at Southwest. In fact, it fits them to a “T” – you’ll see……

Today’s post is about the passion of three men who got the airline started. They were Rollin King, a San Antonio entrepreneur, John Parker (his banker) and Herb Kelleher (his attorney). One day, Parker was complaining how expensive and inconvenient it was to fly between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio and suggested that a new airline be started up. Rollin shared this concept with Herb who at first thought the idea was crazy but ended up talking about it over cocktails.

In the final analysis, Herb famous words were: “Rollin, you’re crazy. Let’s do it!”

From the moment Herb filed incorporation papers, the odds were heavily stacked against them. Here are some what they had to endure for their crazy idea:

a. Raise a half-a-million for in seed money for capital and legal expenses
b. Fight a restraining order by Braniff, Trans Con and Continential to stop Southwest from obtaining a certificate to fly
c. Fight behind-the-scenes political bickering in Texas (Washington, DC too)
d. Reverse a decision by the trial court which ruled that the three cities in Texas were “already being served” [just fine thank you very much] by existing airlines (italics are my input)

Because Herb had such passion for the birth of Southwest, when the trial court rendered the unfavorable decision, he basically went to the Southwest board and said, “Gentlemen, let’s go one more round with them.” Some of the board members felt they should cut their losses short (the seed money was being eaten alive by legal fees). But Herb’s passion, dedication and belief won them over.

The case was eventually retried before the Texas Supreme Court which overturned the lower court’s decision to deny Southwest a certificate to fly. They won!

But the fight was far from over. Over the years Southwest would continue to fight its legal (and political) battles, some of which would go all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, tell me that passion didn’t have anything to do with Herb’s determination to fight, fight, fight? If he and the others didn’t have genuine passion, do you think Southwest would still be here?

If I didn’t have a passion for aviation, do you think I would have been able to plow my way though, for example, FAA regulations that basically said you must be able to hear to be an instrument pilot? This was in black and white and a regulation, no less. Yet on February 26, 2006 the very same agency that wrote this rule gave me a license to fly as an instrument pilot! Impossible? Well, it happened. It really happened. Why you ask?

P-a-s-s-i-o-n.

Food for thought: Do you have a passion for something? Are you willing to fight your battles and believe you can achieve the “impossible”?

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Can you think of all the people in your life who helped you, especially when you were experiencing adversity or when you were at a crossroad of sorts?

Was it……

• a teacher like Mrs. Jordan who said the right thing at the right time?
• the person who wrote a glowing recommendation letter that won you a major scholarship or admission to your school of choice?
• mentors who appeared at just the right time to guide you personally and professionally?
• the gatekeeper who put your important phone call through to the company bigwig?
• a friend who consoled you through a painful time?
• a stranger who did you an extraordinary act of kindness?
• someone who opened the door for you, leading to incredible opportunities?
• the minister who listened to you for hours?
• family members who’ve supported you with love and encouragement?
• your boss who backed you up in the midst a major corporate crisis that threatened to put you out of a job?

Why not become extraordinary, stand out from the crowd and send these people handwritten notes, thanking them for something they did for you? It will cause a few raised eyebrows, guaranteed.

You say you already sent them an email thanking them? Well, that’s nice but it doesn’t really count.

I’m not saying email should never be used to thank people. In fact, we’ve all done it and we will continue to do it. It’s too easy not to.

Yes, you’re very busy. It takes time to write notes. In fact, it just might make your hand hurt since you’re probably so used to typing on a keyboard or dicating into a machine.

If you think about it a moment, the people who helped you were also busy; yet they found the time to guide you, listen to you, write a letter on your behalf, etc. Imagine the ripple effect your handwritten card would have on them. It would mean much more because they know you’re a busy person. Wouldn’t you agree?

Just a simple note will suffice:

“Joe, It’s been many years since I’ve seen you but I never forgot what you did for me when I was towards the end of my career at ABC company. You helped me get started with my new speaking career by hiring a professional speech coach and writing a recommendation letter. Thank you Joe. Warm regards, Carl.”

I’ll bet “Joe” was very surprised to hear from “Carl” since so many years went by. There are no statue of limitations on thank you notes. Hint: This actually happened to me several years ago and someone is about to get a surprise card from me this week!

Here are some rules I go by when I want my thank you’s to really count:

• substitute handwritten notes in place of email for significant deeds
• use blank cards (not the preprinted ones where you sign your name and be done with it)
• insert your business card (especially if it has a photo on it – they’ll love it!)
• send a card to each family member and watch their eyebrows go up-they’ll never expect it
• keep it short and sweet-don’t blubber your eyes out and cause the ink to run amok
• it’s never too late to send a thank you card (I just wrote one to my fifth grade teacher from over 30 years ago)

When you get into the habit of expressing gratitude in a heartfelt way, you subconsciously attract more of what you thanked them for. You bring into your life more people who will help you, especially in times of adversity. More importantly, you become more apt to give back and help others, allowing the universal cycle of giving and receiving to continue unfettered.

Food for thought: Imagine you are going to spend a lot of time with one of two people in a professional or personal setting. One person unexpectantly sent you a personal note of thanks. The other did not. They are both of equal background, similiar personalities, etc. Which one would you choose to spend time with?

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See if you can find within the story which part of the HEAR Principle was used (Have a passion, Entertain the possibilities, Act on your intuition, Remember who helped you).

Enjoy!

We were on our way from New York to Michigan and had driven seven hundred miles without incident when my friend and I decided to stop at a gas station in a tiny rural town of Canada. It was time for coffee and a quick trip to the bathroom. Climbing out of the car, I looked up at the sky. It was dark and ominous, almost foreboding. The air was uncomfortably damp, and it was drizzling lightly.

I went to the rest room and scurried back to the car. Even though the gas tank was only half-empty, I felt it best to refill it. Normally, I would have waited until the fuel gauge flashed me a warning sign. However, I filled it up, paid for it with a credit card, and hurried back to the freeway.

To my delight, it began to snow. But in the blink of an eye, it swirled down harder and harder, sharply reducing visibility. In a matter of minutes it was nightfall, and I was forced to slow the car to a crawl. My stomach tightened for the first time that night.

Roads were fast turning to ice, and the wind blew harder with each passing minute. It felt as if I were piloting a small aircraft through turbulence. We had to find a hotel, quickly.

Eventually my friend and I saw what we both thought was a sign for hotel accommodations right before an exit. The blinding storm made it difficult for us to see it clearly, but we decided to take a chance and got off the freeway.

About a mile down the road, we spotted a lone car up ahead of us. Thinking they were from the area, we followed them, but after a few minutes, we realized they were lost too. We had no choice but to go back the other way.

Turning the car around on the narrow two-lane road was no easy feat. The wind was howling menacingly all around us. The possibility of being windswept into the ditches was real—very real. With the greatest concentration I could muster, I took a deep breath and swung the car back and forth, inches at a time, to turn around.

Suddenly the rear wheels spun like crazy.

It was a sickening feeling. Despite the danger of sinking even deeper into the snow, I continued to rock the car until the wheels finally caught on and the car miraculously lurched forward.

Thank God.

We went the other way, my heart pounding wildly. There was no sign of life on the ghostly white landscape. My friend convinced me to get back on the freeway and perhaps find an overpass for temporary shelter until the storm blew over.

I looked at the gas meter. Incredibly, it was still full.

Hunching over the steering wheel and squinting my eyes, I tried to see through the howling blizzard to find the ramp, but it was nearly impossible to see where I was going.

In the midst of all this, somehow I remembered I was carrying in my right pocket a small stone with FAITH inscribed across the surface. My right hand shook as I reached down to touch the smooth, polished rock. Wrapping my hand around the stone, I closed my eyes and mumbled, “Dear God, please get us back on the freeway. Please guide us home now.”

When I opened my eyes, my mouth dropped in astonishment. We had made it to the freeway entrance! How we got there, I’ll never know.

Clutching the steering wheel, I slowly drove up the icy ramp, completely relying on the small yellow reflectors shimmering in the glare of the car’s headlights. Finally back on the freeway, we continued the treacherous journey, driving at a snail’s pace for the longest time.

A few hours later we saw several beams of light in the distance, resembling a small, bustling city. I breathed a sigh of relief.

However, as we got closer, we saw it wasn’t a city — it was a bunch of cars and trucks stuck in the ditches (on both sides of the road) with their headlights illuminating and crisscrossing the snowy night sky!

At this point, past and current problems totally vanished from my mind. I found myself mentally forgiving everyone who had “wronged” me in the past. I released all my resentments, anger and ego-related issues. My biggest concern that night was to get home alive. Never before had I done so much mental housecleaning in one night!

Nine hours later our weary, bleary eyes saw the most beautiful sign we had ever seen:

BRIDGE TO USA, 27 MILES.

We were home.

Who says God doesn’t know how to give you a good cause for mental housecleaning?

He even paid for the gas. The charge never showed up on my credit card!

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I had been taking risks and entertaining the possibilities as far back as high school. Back in those days, my biggest passion was swimming. While I was not a “hot dog” (a term given to swimmers who consistently broke records), I did have a dream and that was to make the finals at the state championships in my last year of high school. (Photo:  Ciaranz).

My parents wanted me to belong to a sports team of some sort to help me develop social and competitive skills. Believe me, I tried out for track, baseball, football and even tennis but never made the cut. Did that ever happen to you?

My family was always going to swim meets for my two younger sisters (and eventually brother). We had always been a swimming family so when I arrived to high school, the natural choice for me was to try out for the swim team.

They immediately placed me on the freshmen team. Eventually I worked my way up to Junior Varsity and finally Varsity. At one point, I had gone to summer swim camp in Fort Lauderdale for some serious training for my event (200 yard individual medley – consisting of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle – in that order).

The swim team had done particularly well during my senior year, advancing all the way to the state championships. I was thrilled when “Rabbit,” our coach, put me in for the 200 individual medley event. (We called him “Rabbit” because he had two front teeth that was permanently puckered out of alignment).

The day before the state championships, I was watching the 1978 Olympics on television. My favorite event, of course, was swimming. As I was watching the men’s freestyle event, it slowly dawned on me that there was indeed a way to make the finals.

I noticed that all the guys were……bald!

Bald?

In my last year of high school?

Right before the senior prom?

Yeah!

Before I could change my mind, I made a beeline to my parent’s bathroom and promptly locked the door. The last thing I wanted was for someone to barge their way in while I was doing the unthinkable. Rustling through the cabinet beneath the sink, I found what I was looking for.

Trembling with excitement, I put the small black case on the counter and gingerly opened it. It was the electric shaver my Mom used to cut my hair when I was a toddler. Before plugging it in, I opened the door and poked my head out to see if anyone was around. Seeing no one, I got right to work.

With the razor whirring to life, I held it beside my face and stared at the mirror.

It’s now or never.

Starting on the right side, I mowed in neat lines from front to back, watching clumps of beautiful teenage hair tumble to the floor. I was halfway through when I felt the pounding on the door.

My mom!

Stupidly I said, “Who is it?”

More pounding.

“Okay, okay, just a sec,” I said in exasperation.

I opened the door a crack and positioned my head in a way that only the side with remaining hair could be seen.

“Yeah, mom, what’s up?”

“What are you doing Stephen?”, she said.

“Um, not much, do you need to use the bathroom?”

“No, answer my question, what are you doing in there!!??”

No sense in hiding anymore. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the door wide open.

She let out a loud gasp, covering her mouth in horror.

Mom practically screamed, “Stephen, what in God’s name are you doing?”

“Ma, some of those guys in the Olympics shaved their heads so I want to do it too. I’m going to make the finals tomorrow.”

She looked me up and down like I was crazy, then her eyes spied the mess on the floor – it was beginning to resemble my father’s favorite barbershop.

Letting out a loud sigh, shaking her head and pointing to the floor with her bony finger she said, “Make sure you clean up this mess.”

The cat was out of the bag. In no time the rest of my family will find out.

Waving her off, I closed the door firmly and hurriedly finished the job. I lathered my head with shaving cream and carefully plowed off the last remnants of hair.

Twenty minutes later, I was done…….

Is this how I’m going to look when I’m fifty?

It’s too late my boy, there’s no turning back!

If I’m going to shave my head, I might as well shave the rest of me!

Pssssss….more shaving cream.

When I went to bed later that night, I was in for a major shock – the sheets were ice cold! Where was the electric blanket when I needed it the most?

After tossing and turning for several minutes, I finally fell asleep.

The next morning I awoke at 6 am, had breakfast and headed for Albany State University, the site of the championships. So that no one would suspect anything, my head was concealed with a blue bathing cap. I wore nylon stockings and a couple layers of t-shirts to weigh myself down during pre-trial laps in the pool. The nylon stockings were nothing new in high school swimming. The “hot dogs” did it all the time. (Photo:  I’m the one in red goggles and blue cap on the right right).

The idea behind shaving is to compare it to a snake shedding old skin for new. You are in effect getting rid of dead body cells, giving you the like-new feeling. It provides a tremendous psychological boost – an indescribable feeling.

After swimming a couple warm-up laps, I got out of the pool, dried off and removed the nylon stocking and t-shirts. The bathing cap stayed in place. Grabbing my blue warm up suit, I sat in the corner to mentally prepare for the race.

I was very keyed up, filled with nervous anticipation about making the finals. This was going to be my special day – I was going to show everyone what I was capable of doing. I closed my eyes and meditated, murmured some prayers and took a couple of deep breaths. As I was stretching my legs, I felt a light tap on my shoulder.

It was one of the “hot dogs” from my team.

“Yo man, it’s almost time.”

My heart lurched. Here we go.

Wanting to savor the surprise, I slowly undressed, first the warm-up pants followed by matching windbreaker.

Then with a dramatic flair, I took off the blue bathing cap and threw it in the air, Mary Tyler Moore style.

The “hot dog” nearly fell in the pool.

He let out a gutteral scream, “Hey Hoppy (my high school nickname) shaaaaaved!”

The look on everyone’s faces was priceless. It was a sweet moment for me. “Rabbit” almost died of a fatal heart attack (See Coach in blue shirt, white shorts).

Laughing, I made my way over to the the starting block. Everybody gave me high fives on the way over.

Arriving at block # 5, I took one last look at my family up in the spectator section and gave them thumbs up. Snapping the goggles in place, I stepped onto the block, shaking my arms like they do in the Olympics.

Cocking my head slightly, I waited for the magic words to come forth from the starter’s lips.

Take your mark!

The swimmers instantly spring-loaded themselves into position. I was the only one with my head turned toward the starter’s gun – everyone else was looking down, intently listening for it to crackle. The only way I could knew the trigger was pulled was to watch for the flash that came seconds before the sound. As long as I didn’t hit the water before the popping sound, I would not be disqualified.

Splashing into the water, my hairless body sliced through the waves effortlessly. The first lap was over before I knew it and then I switched to backstroke.

Have you ever noticed arrow-shaped flags floating across both ends of a swimming pool (see photo above)? They serve as visual checkpoints for backstroke swimmers to alert them of the fast approaching end of the pool. As soon as they reached that checkpoint, they automatically counted a pre-determined number of armstrokes before touching the wall and flipping to the next lap.

Upon seeing those flags, I counted five arm strokes, 1-2-3-4-5.

Then disaster struck.

Everything happened blazingly fast. I miscalculated the number of armstrokes and crashed into the wall, almost knocking me out. It took me a few seconds to reorient myself but the mishap cost me precious seconds.

As soon as I came to, I pushed off the wall and tried to catch up.

I still have a chance, I still have a chance.

After completing the breastroke, I switched to freestyle and gave the last two laps everything I had, not daring to turn sideways for air. My eyes were riveted to the end of the pool.

Slamming on the touch pad, I ripped off my goggles, practically gasping for air and looked at my family. They were cheering, clapping and giving me thumbs up. So was the swim team. My hopes surged.

Glancing at the huge digitial time board, I couldn’t believe it.

My performance turned in the best time ever!

Excited, my eyes darted over to the column that listed the order of placement.

Mine was “3.”

Rubbing my eyes, I looked again.

Sure enough, I was not imagining things.

I didn’t make the finals.

Stifling the urge to cry, I dipped my head back in the water as if that would wipe away invisible tears and pulled my taut body out of the water.

On my way over to the bench, the “Rabbit” came up to me, cradled his arm around my shoulders and said, “Congratulations Stephen, you did your best time ever!”

I said, “Yeah, but I didn’t make the finals.” His mouth puckered in sympathy and he gave my arm a reassuring squeeze as if that would somehow wipe away the pain.

Meanwhile, the rest of my teammates were slapping my back, giving me high fives but I didn’t feel their joy. Suddenly my head hurt – it was throbbing furiously. I absentmindedly rubbed it. There was a lump the size of a small baseball.

That was almost 30 years ago. (That’s me on the left side with “Bunker” the hotdog swimmer who let out a guttural scream at the beginning).

The lesson? Have a passion for your goals and entertain the possibilities. Even though I didn’t make the finals, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Because of my passion for swimming, I was able to take a compelling idea and follow through. As a result of acting on my intuition, I ended up doing my best time ever and for that I can be proud. I won’t be sitting in my rocking chair wondering what would have happened had I shaved.

Let me ask you: “Do you have a passion for something? Have you entertained the possibilities? And finally, have you acted on your intutition? If not, what are you waiting for? You only live once.

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