Daily Intent

Santa Barbara, CA

Imprisonment. Confinement.  Unable to act freely.  Wall bounded.

For some, identification to such phrases brings up awful memories, irreversible acts. 

However, W Mitchell gave us new perspective to such descriptors in which all can identify, in which all can improve upon.  W Mitchell reminded us that though some may be imprisoned in the physical sense, all are imprisoned in one form or another psychologically.  Our minds have created walls.  Our minds have bound us to parameters, thus limiting our freedom, our greatness, and our true experience of life. 

In the most humble of ways, Mr. Mitchell, ripped out our preconceived notions of living free and challenged us to live out a “real” way of free.  He spoke to the point that just as we learned to drive a car in efforts of taking responsibility over our locational freedom, we need to remember to take responsibility over how we choose to live out each day.  No one but our individual selves get to choose where we sit, where we work, where we find joy.  It is up to us; we must own it.

Many in life have spoken to this point however no story is more powerful and more influential than Mitchell’s.  He leaves no room for excuses.

A young man with the world in front of him suffered through not one, but two near death experiences.  He not only lived to share with us the horrors of each life changing moment, but how he overcame the physical and psychological challenges that ensued.

Motorcycle accident.  Driver missed a stop sign.  65% of his body soon was in flames.

Unable to do anything for himself, dependence, excruciating pain, pricks, prods, and exhaustion, posed his first challenge.  Toes over the cliff of “giving up”, he asked his doctor “can’t I take a day off?”  His doctor, mindful of his personality, persistence and desire for freedom, responded with a willingness to let Mitchell call the shots.  “Mitchell, you’re going to decide what you do and what you don’t want to do” from here on out.  The doctor in effect, presented Mitchell the opportunity to take responsibility over his life again.  And that he did.  A new found belief in himself.  Within a matter of time, Mitchell hit the San Francisco streets. 

A dramatic transformation of appearance and loss of all fingers spurred on his second challenge.  He’d look away when others were near and scamper across the street early to avoid children.  Kids were the most brutally honest.  They spoke with their lips, not solely with their eyes. In the end, it was the power of a stranger’s smile that gave him new hope; life was going to be okay.  He was starting to see one more possibility rather than one more impossibility. 
 
He took his new found confidence to Colorado.  Life started along with beauty and adventure, he had his own plane, and the mountains nearby.  Both meant freedom, exploration.

Little did he know one of which would lead to the loss of many physical freedoms.  

A plane crash left him paralyzed. 

Back in the ditch he went, figuratively.  Back in therapy, back to rediscovering a new way of experiencing life.  Everything became an obstacle. The daily activities were arduous.  New challenges came.  The chair was uncomfortable. 

He gave over his life to “the meanest, toughest person [he’s] ever loved.”  His physical therapist, faithfully and patiently, worked with Mitchell to overcome 5 impossibilities each day.  By day’s end, there were five more things he could do.

These daily overcomings of impossibilities and depression that stemmed from the immediate shock of it all, led to greatness.  He chose to take responsibility for change.  Change in the way he saw the world.  Change in the way he contributed to the world.  Change in the way he lived out each day.

He became mayor of his town in Colorado.  He built up a $65 million company.  He began speaking to the world citizens of how to take responsibility for one’s ways.  30 countries later, he sat in our home-like setting of the University Club. 

There are still days that are tough, however, “the thing [he] does better than [he] did is [he] gets out of the ditch quicker.”  He chooses to have “half” bad days or even bad “hours”.  He chooses not to have entire bad days. 

For “it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it.”

Thank you W Mitchell for inspiring us all once again.  We now know what we need to do, but as Mark Twain once said, “we can’t remember everything we know, we must be reminded of it.”  Please come back soon and remind us again. 

-Inspire SB