Don’t make mountains out of molars…

Well, I had hoped to get my video program up and running, but life sometimes has a way of getting in the way.

Last week my wife got ill from some virus going around at work. Then I picked it up, though not as bad as she had it. Last Thursday, ( Aug. 19th.), my stomach was a little off.

But the real problem was I had a molar beginning to cause me some problems. Thursday night I only slept about 2-3 total hours. I could not lay down as the pain would become pretty intense.

So, Friday I call my dentist and he happens to be gone for the day. The receptionist schedules me for an appointment on Monday the 23rd. No problem, I figure. I have some left-over Vicodin I had not entirely used up from leg surgery. So I start taking the Vicodin and  it does ease the pain somewhat. But, off and on throughout the day and nights, the pain gets worse. Sometimes very intense. You know how it is with tooth problems.

Between Thursday and Monday I got maybe 8-9 hours of total sleep for those nights combined! I’m feeling loopy from Vicoden and lack of sleep. Maybe that’s why I put up this sale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf3ALknxheI&feature=channel

Yet, there is something I wanted to share with you about all this. I could have just whined and complained and moaned in pain about my predicament. I could have taken it out on my wife and friends who called. I could have taken it out on myself.

But I did not.

Whatever happens to us in this world, we have to realize certain things. Some things we bring on ourselves, either because we failed to act, failed to act soon enough or made the wrong decision.

Other things happen to us through no fault of our own. We are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stuff happens.

But, and this is always true:

We have free will. We have the capacity to determine how we will react to any given situation or circumstances.

It doesn’t matter whether we brought things down on our own head or they just happened.

If we brought it upon ourselves, learn from that mistake and don’t repeat it. Bear up under what your prior actions have set in motion and make the best of it.

If it is something that just happened to us that we did not cause, don’t beat yourself up about it either. Accept it and determine how to make things better or how you can turn things around for the better.

Treat those around you with respect and honor.  Take a deep breath and smile.

I was hurtin from a bad tooth and a bad stomach. Fun? You bet!

So, Sunday, a day I usually spend with friends, I decided to stay away from others so I would not spread whatever bug was in my gut. Plus my tooth was hurtin!

So me, being the nut that I am decided to do a little training. Not too smart am I, ha ha.

I snuck outside while my wife was cleaning, and did 13 sets of military presses. Why? I wanted to see if I could exhibit a fair amount of strength while feeling pretty poor physically and dealing with sleep deprivation.

Hey, sometimes ya just gotta test yourself.

I paid for it that night as my tooth hurt even more and I got even less sleep.

Then Monday, I go to the dentist. He refers me to another doc, an endodontist (is that correct?) to look at the tooth more. Between the two of them they determine it is best to remove the offending molar.

Fine by me! It hurts.

The offending molar.

So, Monday late afternoon, my wonderful wife is home from work. She is busy talking to her parents so I sneak outside once again. This time I do 5 sets of whip-snatches super-setted with 5 sets of pull-ups. Then I do 5 sets of real heavy loaded cleans and 5 sets of heavy high pulls with each arm.

Why? I don’t know. Guess I didn’t learn my lesson from the day before.

Once again, that night my tooth hurts more than it should. I wonder why.

But for me, I had to do it. I couldn’t lay there crying about my predicament. I did not want to mentally self-talk myself down. I felt like doing something!

And even though I felt more physical pain from stirring up my blood pressure which affected my molar, I felt good because I did something, I proved I could train under such pain. I could push on.

Though when my wife finds out I did this, she’ll probably kill me, ha ha.

You know many times we say things to ourselves, in our own head, that we wouldn’t say to another person. We tell ourselves we’re stupid, or dumb, or can’t do anything right, that we are a loser, not fit to be alive, that no one cares, and on and on.

I call bull. It’s a load of mental defecation. Dump it if you talk to yourself like that. Flush it down the toilet where it belongs. Get it out of your head. Take control. No one is preventing you from thinking better of yourself except you. Everyone self-talks in their own head. No one is so uniquely different that they don’t do this. It is a human trait.

So, use that self -talk wisely. Thoughts eventually manifest themselves as things or speech or actions. Those thoughts draw other similar people or things or actions from others to us.

You ever notice how someone can be a great person? Then they start talking bad and unkind of others. The longer they think bad of themselves and others the more they become an anxious, upset, irritated, frustrated, angry individual. And after awhile, notice who their friends are. They begin attracting and hanging out with the very same people who reflect their inner thoughts and feelings. They begin to feed off each other.

That’s why one negative thinking person can influence a mate, family or group of people to think and act negatively too.

So get your thoughts squared away. Focus on good. Do good. Change your thoughts and you can change yourself.

You are and will become what you think of yourself. It takes just as much energy to think negatively as it does positively.

So, where do you want to be?

What kind of person do you want to be?

What kind of person do you want others to see you as?

Yeah, things happen to all of us. Some our own fault, others not our fault, but how will we react?

I got the tooth pulled Wednesday, August  25th.

I did not go to the dentist in a bad mood. I joked with the receptionist, joked with the oral surgeon. I teased my wife. I can’t train now for a week or two, because the pressure could cause the blood clot where the molar was pulled to pop out and create a dry socket.

There are all kinds of things I could say and think about that are negative, particularly since now I will not be able to get my video program up and running as fast as I wanted too.

But you know what?

I ain’t gonna do that.

This has made me even more determined to put out the best video program I can. I can’t wait to get started on it again. I have new things I am thinking about to make it even better.

Don’t listen to some little dude in your head telling you you can’t do anything right, telling you that you are a failure because…

Knock that guy out with a mental punch. Don’t listen to him. Don’t let him say another negative word. Take control of your thoughts. Direct your thoughts at what you want to accomplish, at the kind of person you want to be.

If you want to lose weight, get in better shape, change your diet, get stronger and tougher, then do it.

If you need motivation, create it in your own mind and heart. Motivation starts with just a thought. Build on it. Think: “I can” and you will. Build on that one thought until it wells up inside you and becomes an irresistible force in your life that nothing can stop.

Create a mental image of who you want to become and then work on stepping into that image.

Then you will become who you want to be.

Walter