You can you know. And me too. I really can achieve what I set my mind to. This belief has pulled me out many times from difficult situations, and for anyone discovering this feeling, you cannot describe power inside. No bragging, just quiet confidence.

Have you heard about story of mothers pulling great weights off their sons or daughters in order to save their lives. And then find out that weight they lifted was virtually impossible! Tell that to a mother who is trying to save her children. There is no impossible in her mind. There is no other acceptable alternative other than total and complete success.

You can use this principle! We will move heaven and earth when we feel it is important to do so. You really can get anything you want in life if you set your mind to it. The timing and strategy may change, but result is in bank, ‘if you set your mind to it.’

OK. You have my curiosity stoked, you say. Now you ask, how do you set your mind to it? Ahhhh. There’s rub. The question of ages rears it ugly head once again.

I have written a success story of mine below. I am not proud of where I was, I am proud of how I handled it and came back.

1987 - This period of my life was both worst time of my life and best time of my life. Anyone hitting rock bottom can relate.

That year 1987, my life was in "crapper". I was in a downward spiral, and couldn’t seem to stop myself from ruining not only my life but my family’s too. I was drifting away from very people who were most important to me.

It's funny that even when you know that you are screwing up, you sometimes can't seem to make change. That’s when you sometimes get lucky. At least I was.

I was drinking heavily, an alcoholic by definition, not by belief. I was up late drinking myself into a stupor and fell asleep with a lit cigarette in ash tray. When I woke up next morning, cigarette had burned down, fell out of ash tray onto coffee table and burned a thin streak into wood.

Now you would think that this would shake anybody up, but, this wasn't catalyst! No.

When our little girl Sheri came down this particular morning, she remarked, horrified, that I could have burned house down! I could have died just from look on her face. Well, I would move mountains for my family so it was enough of a picture that I gave up smoking right then and there. March 5, 1987 My focus was laser concentrated, quitting smoking was most important thing to do in my life at this time.

If you notice, I never said that I gave up drinking there. No. Not enough leverage for that one yet.

Later that year we were at a friend's wedding, and I still was drinking heavily. Probably more heavily if that could be possible. It's a wonder that I didn't get alcohol poisoning, I had no problem downing whole cases of beer, and requesting more. (24 packs in Ontario, where we were living at time.)

When we came home that night, my wife and I got into an argument, and after verbally abusing her, argument elevated. I HIT HER.

I struck my wife, a little more than 115-120 lbs soaking wet! What a big man I was. The argument continued for another few minutes, but she picked up kids and left house for her mothers.

At that instant, I realized even through my drunkenness that I had crossed line.

When next morning came, and I had sobered up a little, I could have cut my right arm off. In my life, I had swore that I would never become one who would beat on their wife. And I had hit her physically.

I have never had another alcoholic drink since that time. July 18, 1987. Quit cold turkey, with leverage that few people get to feel. Thank God for that. And of course I never hit her again. She is absolutely most important person in my life, and I try to demonstrate that daily.

Change took on a whole new importance to me. I had tremendous leverage on myself. I had crossed a line in my mind, a threshold, that gave me absolute power over my actions. That is where we have to be when we expect change to last.

These are our friends, allies and mentors.

Appearing as enemies on surface, these seeming threats are our most helpful teachers on our Earth adventure. These apparent foes repeatedly demonstrate how we humans have awesome power over our fate and circumstances in life.

When faced with an expected outcome we don't like, we have an option. We can open to an alternative scenario, another framework, a different set of rules. I jokingly call this handy ploy "switching channels."

I discovered that we all have ability to change channel or perspective from which we are viewing-and creating!-our Earthvision series. When plot line goes from situation comedy to melodramatic soap opera, we can do something about it!

We can simply let go of our old way of viewing world and allow a fresh point of view to emerge. When we decide to turn dial, we find ourselves shifted into a new reality-a different station with a new story line that has a much better ending!

Grace to Rescue

I first noticed this saving gift of grace when I was a kid. I've always enjoyed thrill and challenge of dangerous situations.

On ice rink, I discovered that if I completely collapsed into a fall, I came out unscathed. Caught in a precarious position when tackled on football field, I went with force of hit to tumble out of harm's way. When in a sharp skid while driving, I embraced skid by turning directly into it to straighten car. When my feet slipped on a rocky trail, I went with twist or slide and landed-like a cat-upright and stable. Like proverbial drunk falling safely down staircase, I used to sled down a steep set of wooden stairs on a makeshift cardboard toboggan, deliberately crashing at bottom and never getting hurt.

I practiced knack of letting go in everyday situations, so that I was able to successfully apply skill in much more urgent and crucial predicaments.

The Alchemy of Abandonment