Message from the Mountain 009

Preparation is key, and love is all that really matters. Attitude in the face of adversity will always create the outcome you focus on.

The past month has been a real test. If we thought January and February were tough, March really showed us that was just a warm up.

Tropical Cyclone Alf arrived. And did his bit! We knew it was coming, we prepared best we could, given our experience (or lack of) in February 2022, and then bam!!! Not prepared at all.

Fridges stocked. Dried food in the storage cupboard, months of dog food ready, Fuel stored for the generator, solar power and batteries installed, and and and.

What to say – all best laid plans go out the window, or as Mike Tyson said,

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”.

Alf certainly did more than punch us in the mouth, he bent us over and really kicked our ass.

Power went out in the first 30 minutes of the pre-storm, 3 days before the actual storm made land. Generator hadn't been connected correctly by so-called experts, so we had no possibility of any power, nor getting another supply into the house or to the fridges. Our state-of-the-art disaster proof off grid energy system may have well have been a hand wheel for us to turn to generate our own power. No possibility of fixing it for 10 days.

3 months of frozen food supplies gone in an instant.

No water for showering or flushing the bathroom.

No phone or internet signal.

No power for equipment, no way of getting dry, and man, what a mess.

Not to mention trying to re-arrange my travel plans, so that I could stay with Sam and the dogs, rather than leaving for business in Europe mid storm.

This is not a “poor us” story, because poor me doesn’t carry any weight in a disaster. Nor were we alone in this, 100s of 1000”s of people fared way worse than us. So what to do?

Well, we caught a lot of the over 1meter of rain we had over the 3 day period, and used that to fill the toilets to flush (thank heavens!!).

The orgasmic joy of pouring luke warm rain water over ourselves in candle light to “get clean” at the end of the day.

The learnt enjoyment of ‘white rice, coconut oil and dried jerky” twice per day, and most of all, the peace of sitting with Sam, in candle light, without any outside distractions.

You see, in life we have a choice – fear can represent “fcuk everything and run” or “face everything and rise”.

Where we live it is unrealistic to think anyone is coming to save you. We do have amazing people who live nearby, who would do their best for sure. Our dear mate Scott Evennett offered to drive down from the Sunny Coast to help too. But the wind, the rain, the flooding, all meant in reality we were on our own for a few (10) days.

It was this realisation that helped immensely. No one is coming to do the work for you, or to save you. It’s you who will save you. In the end, it’s us who saved us, by our attitude to the situation.

Fallen tree or firewood for winter?

Excess rain or water for the garden?

 No connection to the world or chance to contemplate and plan for the next time?

That’s the best lesson for me, in real time. The Universe always shows you what you need, rather than what you want.

In this instance, we needed to be shown our preparation wasn’t as it should have been! As Scott shows on his My Next Op immersion courses, even the best prepared are unprepared. As our amazing Special Forces practice - It’s what happens when the sh.t gets real that matters, as no amount of planning can cover every scenario. The training is in how to react to the unplannable, so it becomes an asset not a liability.

When the trees fell across the driveway – do we call for help or get out the tractor and chainsaw? When the food went off, starve or improvise? When the toilet doesn’t refill – dig a hole or get out the buckets? When there is no power, light a fire, get out the candles, use the car to charge things or not?

Most of all, that realisation - life is always going to test you, that’s a given. It’s how you perceive the test - as a problem waiting to be resolved, a challenge waiting to be overcome, or “why me” again story. 

Our health journey is like that too – if we pull a muscle, do we stop, or do we find ways around it whilst it heals?

Do we consistently fuel our body with adequate nutrition or get out the junk food and complain we couldn’t do this because of that. When we travel, do we excuse our poor food choices as the only option, or do we pack our STAIT superfood, EAA+Creatine, Man tea, Energy tea etc, so we can maintain our daily health?

Do we focus on the possible solutions in front of us, or embrace the woe is me, and become absorbed by the crap.

What it has reiterated to me is that attitude to the issue will create the outcome. Energy doesn’t lie. That’s a universal truth.

If you don’t like what you have currently in your life, change your focus on it. Things will change. I know from my life, things don’t appear as you necessarily want them to appear, but as you need them to. Focus on the life you desire, and most importantly, take steps to create it.

Want to lose weight, focus on eating well and being physically active. Want a better job, focus on what you want, and take steps to research it.

As a dear friend, Stuart Walter (highly recommend you get a copy of his work) advises in his “Dear Diary” process, write down as if you already have what you want, and trust that you can create it. Over 45 Olympic gold medallists not to mention many successful business men and women can attest to this working.

What this month has shown me, and also illustrated I am still a huge work in progress, is how attitude in the face of adversity determines the outcome.

So the message from the mountain this month is to embrace the suck!

Whatever the suck is, embrace it, because in the embrace comes the solution.

I appreciate that we are in tough times, particularly financially. Having just been in Italy, I can tell you their roads are nearly as bad as ours.

What I can also say, is even in the perceived loneliness, community is always there. Don’t be too proud (or stubborn like I can be) to ask for help. Asking is a strength, not a weakness.

So thank you Universe for showing me this month that there is still a lot of work to do for me and Sam. Thank you to our amazing community where we live whom we know always has our back in times of need. To our dear STAIT Ambassador friends who were there to offer a hand and valuable survival tips! And at this time, most importantly, to the incredible SES teams and essential energy teams, who risked all to restore order as soon as was possible.

One final thank you - thank you to our amazing STAIT community, many of whom were messaging us to check in, offer support and just being there. Its such a huge support for us to know in the mix of it all, you guys are out there, seeking to be your very best every day. It's that energy that keeps Sam and I doing all we can to be there by your side.