Living Inside Out

“The only change was on the exterior environment.  Don’t let that affect you.  Keep focused on your own work and goals.” – Randy Rigby

Living Inside Out

When I was a young boy I loved to listen to my father tell me stories.  His tales mesmerized me and I believed all of them.

One day my parents got a phone call from my teacher at school inviting my dad to come to my class and talk about being a bear hunter.  My parents were shocked!  I wasn’t.  After all, it was my dad who told me about a time when he was walking down a trail when a huge bear came up to him and roared.

“The bear walked up to me and stared me in the eye.  Then he let out a deafening roar!  Did I run?  No!  I reached down his throat, grabbed him by the tail and turned him inside out!”  My father told me with convincing theatrics.

I was surprised when my parents declined the teacher’s invitation to talk to my class about his exploits as a bear hunter.  It was only then that I came to know that this fantastic tale was only a story.  But, to this day, I believe the principle of living your life inside out is one of the most important values a person will ever internalize and it still challenges me to this day.

As a tween, I began to make up my own “tall tales” and loved to tell people stories.  Then, when I was in high school I became an extemporaneous speaker.  I viewed myself as the top ranked member of our team and won the regional championship.  But, when it was time to compete at the state tournament I wasn’t able to control my internal stress and made myself “sick” with worry.  In the end, I couldn’t compete because of this self-induced illness and my friend and teammate won the state championship.  He deserved to win.

I’ll never know if I could have won, because I let one small change in the presentation environment dictate whether or not I could perform, even though I had done the same thing over and over again in smaller venues and had been successful.  I couldn’t keep my interior self focused!

Randy Rigby once spoke to me about a conversation he had with an Olympic Athlete.  He said she told him that when she asked a coach what she needed to do to become an Olympian he said, “If I put a twenty foot long, four inch wide board on the floor can walk on it?”

“Yes.” She said.

“If I put the same board on the floor, can you run on it?”

“Yes.” She replied.

“If I put the same board on the floor, can you sprint on it?”

“Yes.  I can.” She answered.

“If I put the same board up in air between two buildings five-hundred feet in the air can you still sprint on it?”

“I’m not sure.”  She timidly responded.

“The only change was the exterior environment!  Don’t let that affect you.  Keep focused on your own work and goals.  That’s the difference between an athlete and an Olympic Athlete.”  He taught her.

The lesson is the same for every one of us.  I still sit and stew about things in my work and life that make me feel uncomfortable.  But, the difference between the High School me and the today me is that I’ve learned to break the scary things down in to simple steps.

First I see that the bear has walked up behind me.  I look him right in the eye and feel very afraid.  I want to die right there before he has a chance to eat me!  Then I say to myself. “Look, he’s opening his mouth.  But it isn’t to eat me!  He simply wants to scare me more, so I have time to do one small thing.  I can lift my arm up.  O.K.  I did that and I can see all the way down his throat!  I can thrust my arm down his throat!  O.K.  That worked and the bear is now gasping for air!  I think I can feel his tail with my fingers.  Yes!  I can grab his tail and pull him inside out!  Whew!  That bear didn’t eat me!  I did a good job!”

Now, that’s living life inside out!

You can live your life from the inside out by break your biggest challenges into small manageable pieces.  When you do, you’ll get better at managing the things that challenge you internally as well.