Against All Odds

[Guest guest]

Against All Odds

"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival."

—Winston Churchill

In January 1982, American Steven Callahan set sail from the Canary Islands

in a small sailboat he'd built himself, his plan to cross the Atlantic.

He was 30 years old, fit, capable and looking forward to the voyage

that had been his dream since boyhood. Six days later while he slept

content in his berth, the boat struck something big, most likely a

whale, and capsized. Awakened by the collision, Callahan had only a few

precious seconds to grab what he could before scrambling to position

himself safely aboard a five-foot inflatable dinghy. Having managed to grab only a bit of

food and some bottled water, along with a solar still for making sea

water potable and a fishing harpoon gun, Callahan knew from the onset

that his chances of survival were not good. He had no way of knowing,

however, that he was about to embark on an amazing journey in

self-reliance that would last an astounding 76 days and carry him 1,800

miles across a vast and frightening sea. During his ordeal, Callahan faced

death continually, fighting off sharks, exhaustion and the utter

hopelessness of watching ships pass without noticing him. But despite

the terror presented in every moment, he held tight to his wits and

forced himself to think his way through each situation as it presented

itself. After losing the launching mechanism to the fishing gun, for

instance, he lashed the harpoon to the gun and used it like a spear,

often kneeling motionless for hours waiting for an unsuspecting fish to

swim into the perfect spot before jabbing it. As his body weakened from

hunger and the intense and relentless heat of the sun, he scraped bits

of rust from the bottom of metal food containers into his drinking

water, hoping the iron would strengthen him. Faced with such formidable odds, giving

up would have seemed the only rational thing to do for most, but

Callahan was not like most. One of that rare breed of survivors who

understands that we all have within us the power to carry on in spite

of overwhelming circumstance, Callahan became his own survival coach,

talking to himself constantly, convincing himself over and over again

that he could make it. "I tell myself I can handle it," Callahan later wrote in Adrift At Sea, his narrative accounting of the ordeal. "Compared to what others have been through, I'm fortunate." It's hard to imagine circumstances more

unfortuitous than being lost at sea, but perhaps Callahan was thinking

of Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, who as a young Austrian doctor

forty years before, had found himself in perhaps even more terrorizing

circumstances when along with his young bride, his parents and his

brother, he was arrested, stripped of everything he held precious, and

taken to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. In the early days of his imprisonment

Frankl kept his mind alert by trying to reconstruct the manuscript he'd

been writing prior to his arrest. First recalling it word for word in

his mind, and then writing it down on stolen slips of paper, Frankl

realized the completion of this task gave him purpose, a reason for

holding on to a vision of the future. Later, when during a particularly

grueling pre-dawn march, another prisoner commented on the fate of

their wives, Frankl discovered that as long as his memory of his wife

remained, he could keep her present with him. Knowing she might already

be dead, he accepted the possibility and then told himself that as long

as he could keep her in his mind, she would remain alive to him. Later

Frankl wrote that it was in that moment that "I understood how a man

who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss." It would be his discovery that

meaningfulness can be found in suffering that would most impress Frankl

and lead to his life's work.

"Everything can be taken from a

man or a woman," he wrote years later, "but one thing: the last of

human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of

circumstances, to choose one's own way."

These two incredible men survived because they simply would not give up,

even when everything in each of their circumstances screamed that

giving up was the only option. They chose their own way, willingly

assuming total responsibility for their lives, refusing to step into

victim mode by blaming God, nature or human cruelty for what had

befallen them. There are certain things in life

you can't control, such as nature, the past and other people. Steven

Callahan and Viktor Frankl understood this. They also understood, as

all successful people do, that we can control our thoughts and our

actions and when we do that, when we step up and take 100 percent

control of our lives. By taking command of what we think and what we

do, we become the masters of our fate. We also become undefeatable. No one succeeds in life by taking the

easiest path.We succeed only after we determine that we will, commit

ourselves to it, and then insist on keeping our minds positive while we

move consistently and persistently toward our goals.

I wanted to tell you about Steven Callahan and

Viktor Frankl not only because I personally think their individual

stories of triumph are incredible, but also because I know that on any

journey toward success you may embark on, you're bound to come up

against obstacles that may, for a time, seem impenetrable. When you do,

I hope you will spend some time thinking of Callahan and Frankl and

reminding yourself that compared to them, your task is really not all

that insurmountable, after all. If you are committed you'll find a way.

I hope you will remind yourself of this and then follow Frankl's

example of returning your full focus and intention to the task at hand.

After that, you'll need only to let your voice

be strong as you utter those powerful and life-changing words: "I can

handle this. I know I can."