Beside my  speaking, I have been working the last two years with an Autistic boy.  It doesn’t pay much, but I love the boy I work with and have helped him achieve some amazing progress.  When I began working with him he was non-verbal and now he not only speaks, but can read simple sentences as well.  It was so amazing the first time I heard him use words.  I was shocked and yet so excited because we had an amazing breakthrough.

We spent our days going for walks and doing activities that would help integrate into society.  He never had a lot to say to me, but would always respond when he understood.  He was a great sounding board and whether he understood me or not he was my buddy.  My 6 foot 230 pound Autistic buddy.

I have spent nearly every school day for the last two years with him.  His favorite thing in the world was to walk in the rain and stand under the water at the swimming pool every Thursday at the pool.  Something about the water falling onto his head was soothing to him.  He looked perfectly normal, but when someone beside me asked him something, they could quickly see that he wasn’t like all the other kids at school.

One of my greatest achievements so far in my life so far was hearing him speak for the first time after working with him for so long and never hearing a sound.

Today at about 11 o clock I found out I wouldn’t be working with him anymore.  The company I worked for needed to make some lay-offs and I got the short straw.

I was sad I wasn’t going to be able to work with my friend any more, but I also realized that this job had been holding me back from achieving all that I can professionally.

I am a speaker, I love speaking and have an important message to share.  A message of hope, inspiration and how to make changes in life for the better.  The job I was working at offered me a small paycheck, insurance and some security.  Today, like many people in these times, that is gone.

Believe it or not, it is the ABSOLUTE BEST thing that could have happened to me.  Now I am forced to go after my dream of speaking to people around the world.  I am lucky enough to be able to pursue my dreams with no safety net!

Many of us wish we could have that opportunity.  I now have it.  Whether I succeed or fail, whether my family succeeds or fails financially, is directly upon my shoulders.  I love it!  I love a challenge and can not wait to see where this new independence takes me and my family.

This past week I have put more effort into building my speaking business than I have the last two years.  I have secured events that will pay more in an hour than I made in months at my recently new “old job”.  This excites me.  This is going to excite my bride as well when she gets over the shock.

Times are tough right now and I know I am not the only one who is feeling the pinch.  The great thing is that I refuse to let this economic pinch turn into a gouge.  I immediately went to work pursuing my dream.

Sometimes the best way to move forward and pursue our dreams is to have our safety net ripped out from under us.  When that happens we are given a couple of choices.  We can fall hurtling toward the ground and hit hard or we can keep flying and not worry about needing a net.

One day my little boys are going to learn to ride a bike.  They may start out with training wheels.  Eventually they will get comfortable enough in their abilities that they will take the training wheels off.  I guarantee once they do that, they will appreciate their new freedom and never ride around wishing they had their training wheels back on.

So it goes with us adults.  We have to be confident that we have the ability to overcome and not wish we still had the training wheels on.

Today my training wheels were removed and I haven’t been this excited in some time.  As has been said before, in these times we can let things happen to us or we can make things happen for us.  I choose the latter.  I am going to make this my best year ever and not listen to a single person who says it can’t be.

BE WELL!  BE GREAT!  TAKE OFF THE TRAINING WHEELS!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009, 9:27 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.