Have you ever had $12,000 worth of your possessions stolen from you in one fell swoop? It was my first time in San Francisco, and I was an hour off of my flight when I decided to park in SoMa for a burger. It was 5pm, on a beautifully sunny summers day. The air was warm, but not muggy… and I received several happy glances from people passing me by. I thought… “What a friendly city! I think I’m going to enjoy my time here…” After polishing off my peanut-butter bacon burger (something we need a lot more of in Canada), I went outside to discover that my car window had been smashed out and my carry-on luggage had been taken. Inside of it was all of my favourite clothes, a brand new MacBook Pro, an iPad, and about $7,000 worth of digital SLR camera equipment. I later found out that it was my mistake for parking in broad daylight in a nice area of town (apparently any area of town isn’t safe for luggage in a car in SF). But the lesson that I took away from that day was immeasurable. Instead of getting upset over something that was already in the past, I immediately decided to look for what I could learn from the situation. I took it as a lesson to let go of photography and invest in relationship coaching with 100% of my focus and attention. No camera? No problem! It ended up being one of the greatest and most catalyzing moments of my life. Stuff is just stuff. My things were gone, but I wasn’t harmed in the slightest. And I was a stronger and more focused person for having had my material possessions removed from my life. So where are you attaching a harmful story to the events in your life? And how could you mentally reframe those events so that they served you instead of stifled you? Ps. I really hope that the person who got the gear got a decent price for the goods. He could have lived well for at least a couple of months - even in a city as expensive as SF :)
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:28:00 +0000