Live Inspired Vlog 197: There Will Be Turbulence

A Lesson on how to Respond to Challenges in Our Lives

Well my friend, good morning!

Welcome to Live Inspired with John O’Leary on a brisk, beautiful, gorgeous Fall morning.

This is John O’Leary and I’m honored to be with you today to talk about the turbulence of life.

Because what I know to be true on this morning- the day after another election period- is that about half of us woke up this morning and we see only the trees that are missing the leaves.

We see only the chill in the air. We see only the misery of what happened last night and the challenges within our lives.

The turbulence!

And then another half of us woke up thinking, “Yes! We were victorious!”

We see the leaves changing and the sun rising and life is good again because our candidate in our states or in our area, we won!

We won!

We don’t see the bumps at all.

I’m curious how we are able to get together to the destination while feeling some turbulence, but not being overwhelmed by it.

That’s what today’s Live Inspired conversation is all about.

Two days ago, in Minneapolis with my friends at Carlson, I had an opportunity to hear a guy who spoke about finances.

Now you may not think finances have a whole lot to do with the Live Inspired Podcast, but I beg to differ.

But that’s a different conversation.

What I do know to be true is that a cartoon that he put up at the very end had a lot to do with our conversation this morning.

He put a picture up at the very end of the program, and it was of the inside of an airplane. At the top is a caption of the captain of the plane saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please return to your seats. We are about to experience some turbulence. Put on your seat belts. Thank you.”

A pretty mundane, typical message.

To the right of the cartoon, a lady in the middle seat is screaming, her hands are in the air, and she’s saying, “My gosh! We’re all gonna die!”

We are all gonna die!

All around this individual, all the people are freaking out, they’re screaming, their hands are in the air, they’re in the crash position. They recognize that they’re doomed.

Everybody is freaking out on the entire airplane, except for one person.

The one person who is not freaking out is seated on the left-hand side. (This has nothing to do with politics by the way! Don’t try to draw some conclusion.) On the left-hand side of the plane, he has a very ordinary face, very stoic, but the reason it’s stoic is because he’s got headphones on.

He’s got noise-cancelling earphones in, and he has heard none of the message.

How does this apply to finances and more importantly, how does this apply to you?

Because it is so easy with our political conversation going on, with the media going on, with social media blowing up, with all the noise in the background, of hearing what’s happening- turbulence, which in other words is a pretty ordinary thing to experience when you’re traveling at 36,000 feet at 700 miles per hour. It’s turbulence. This is normal. It’s actually healthy. It’s good.

It’s very easy to interpret turbulence as being bad, as being the end of it all, as being devastating, when in fact, it’s ordinary. It’s part of it.

My friends, we go through bumps together in life politically. We go through bumps together in life relationally. We go through bumps together in life organizationally, in our health, in our marriages, in our finances.

This is part of the ebb and flow of life.

The mistake is to put our hands up in the air and say, “My gosh! We’re gonna die!”

We’re gonna die.

My encouragement instead is to embrace the bumps more like a child does naturally.

Have you ever flown with a kid? When the turbulence comes- boom- they instead view it as part of the game of life. They view it as a gift. They put their hands up, they go for the ride.

So today, as you experience a few turbulent bumps in your life, don’t reach quite yet for the oxygen mask, don’t reach quite yet for the cell phone to call your family and say, “My friends, I’m dying. We’re dead here. We’re going down quick.”

No! Slow down, embrace the bumps and recognize that the best is yet to come on your journey forward.

I want you to have a great morning and I want you to recognize loud and clear, my friends, return to your seats, put on your seat belt, but know that the best is yet to come.

After you listen to this, I encourage you to check out my podcast at Live Inspired with John O’Leary. It’s with Tonya Dalton today. She’s remarkable. She’s going to teach you how to be more productive by focusing on the stuff that actually matters.

So, check out our Live Inspired podcast wherever you pull down your podcasts. Live Inspired with John O’Leary.

So, for this time and until next time, this is John O’Leary.

The sun is shining, the leaves are dropping, and the best is yet to come.

Today is your day. Live Inspired.

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