Having a bad day? A little perspective.
The next time you think you’re having a sucky day, remember this guy.
Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart
Born in Brussels in 1880 to nobility and apparently a family who believed in long names, he served in three wars. During that time he was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, ear, and groin.
He survived two plane crashes; tunneled out of a Prisoner of War camp and tore off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them.
When describing this experience fighting in the First World War, he wrote, “Frankly I had enjoyed the war.”
Despite the stressful events and challenges in his life, he spent the majority of his eighties duck hunting, one-handed, on a massive estate and living with a woman half his age.
I wonder what he’d say about being stuck in traffic? Or missing a flight? Or getting locked out of his house? Being behind on debt? Yes, all those things are bad to be sure.
But if Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart’s life experience can teach us anything it’s that, even if you can’t control the event, you can control how it affects you.
I don’t know if that was mindfulness on Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart’s part or just straight-up gansta’, but it is what mindfulness is all about.
Hey, I wrote a book about being mindful in the new age of content.
Does This News Make You Look Fat? A book about media consumption and how the way we consume it makes us intellectually obese. Preview or buy the ebook at Amazon.
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