A couple years ago a friend of mine, who was 84 years old, crashed one of his personal planes and walked away with minimal injuries, just a few scratches on his nose! Yes! I just said, an 84-year-old man crashed a plane and walked away barely scathed! After the crash, he was transported to the hospital. The following day a friend of mine and I went for a visit. While we were visiting him, I was showing his wife a picture of his plane that had been posted on Facebook by their son. She took my phone, walked over to him and showed him the picture.
The words that followed out of his mouth were and I quote, “Ohhh, I can put that back together.”
My point here is, what is Your state of mind? Is it negative or positive? Is it complaining and whining or is it optimistic and filled with tenacity? The only thing my friend was complaining about was wanting to get out of the hospital and go home. He had been placed in the ICU upon being released from the ER; I mean, he did crash a Fa-Rekin plane!!! However, all he wanted to do was get home, so he could start putting his plane “back together”!
So… If you were in a plane crash, regardless of your age, would you survive it…barely scathed?! The “plane crash” here can be used as a metaphor for situations that happen in our every-day lives. How many “plane crashes” do you survive barely scathed on a daily basis? How do you put your “plane crashes back together”? What do you allow to derail you and squash your joy?
Our state of mind and how we “show up” in the world is in direct correlation to how amazing or not so amazing our lives are. My friend is one of these unique people who would most likely tell you that his life is amazing because he lives his life to the fullest, doing every day, that which makes him happy! He never developed the mentality of, “well, I’m too old to do what I did in my younger days.” I am most positive that when this guy leaves this world, he is going to leave it doing what makes him happy and nothing less!
Living a FullFilling life is key to quality of life and life satisfaction! Your mindset is also key to developing quality of life and life satisfaction. It is important to have a “growth mindset” rather than a mindset that is based on what is wrong, could go wrong and dwelling on what went wrong. You get what you focus on. Your mind controls what your eyes see. What do you want to “see”?
My friend does not even let a real plane crash derail him!
So, most recently he was working on the engine on another one of his planes; he is now 86 years old, when the oily rag he was using, fell into the engine. He bends down to get it and the propeller, which was running, hit him and lopped off the tippy top of his head! Fortunately, it was again, a minor scathing. The story goes; he grabbed this dirty, oily rag and placed it on top of his bleeding head and drove himself home, which is less than 5 minutes away. He walks in the house and says to his wife, “Getrude, we gotta go back to hospital again…”
Your mindset is also in direct correlation to how quickly you bounce back from negative happenings in your life!
There are numerous stories of centenarians that attribute their longevity to the quality of life they generate due to self-care, connection with others and keeping themselves busy doing things they enjoy! The many elderly who allow themselves to become sedentary, look upon their later years as a burden to others and just allow themselves to “die” pass a lot earlier than those who keep themselves young by playing and enjoying life!
Like I mentioned above, when my friend leaves this world, he will probably leave it doing something he enjoys, which for him has everything to do with his planes!
To be honest, he will probably out-live us all.