Archive for June, 2010

I recently had to travel at the last minute to the UK for a family emergency (I think most of you know I’m originally from Scotland).
Long story short, after a scary couple of days, everything turned out ok.

But there was a period of time when I seemed to get bad news every day…

I had my six month cancer check-up (all clear) but saw some sick people there who were fighting hard.
The next day there was a procession in town for a soldier who had died in Iraq. Very emotional.
The next day, a friend of a friend’s son fell out of a window and was killed
The next day my Dad was rushed to hospital so I jumped on a plane to Scotland.
The next day Rach had to put down our cat (we’d had her for 11 years)
I got a call from a friend who’s mother had cancer
Rach’s dad found out his prostate cancer markers were moving in the wrong direction
A friend we know found out that he had relapsed (cancer)
The Dad of my contact at one of the magazines I write for was in an accident and was in a coma
A friends mother died of cancer.
Another friend’s father had a stroke.
And a clients’ cousin was murdered in front of him.

So I’m standing in the airport at London Heathrow, just running negative stuff through my head on a seemingly never ending loop.

The one thing that kept coming up was the realization that one day, I’m going to say goodbye to friends and family for the last time. I live very far away and at some point, my Dad will pass away.

I think we’re all aware of this in our subconscious, but this was one of those wake up moments for me.

As I’m waiting on my flight, I walked over to a book shop. I glanced around and one book literally jumped off the shelf at me. “Flip it” by Michael Heppell. I’d never heard of Flip It, or Michael Heppell I’m embarrassed to say.

The premise of the book is that you can “flip” any negative situation into a positive.
Pretty simple but a lot more difficult in practice!

So I tried …

I decided instead of being sad about my Dad having been taken to hospital and the realization that one day…… and being frustrated about an 11 hour flight home that was laying ahead of me…. I flipped it.

I realized that my Dad was out of hospital – and was doing very well.
I made a decision that I’d travel home more often and see friends and family at least three times per year.
And I decided that relaxing in a chair for a few hours, enjoying a meal, a couple of cold beers, and 2-3 good movies was something that a lot of people wouldn’t be too upset about.

And believe it or not – it worked. Not immediately – but over the next couple of hours for sure.

Seriously the book is great and you should all pick it up.

But the story doesn’t end there….

About four weeks later I was speaking at a seminar in the UK (hosted by Jon Le Tocq and Paul Mort).
The keynote speaker? You guessed it – Michael Heppell. I didn’t know this when I agreed to present.

Michael gave a great presentation and I got him to sign my book.

I don’t know if you believe in coincidence, fate, karma, law of attraction or maybe just being in the right place at the right time — but I thought that was pretty cool.
Check out “Flip it” here

–
Alwyn