Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy Into Triumph PDF
Preview Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy Into Triumph
CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES How Heroes Turn Tragedy Into Triumph DANIEL R. CASTRO BEARTOOTH PRESS AUSTIN, TEXAS In cooperation with SEATTLE BOOK COMPANY www.seattlebook.com Produced by RosettaMachine www.rosettamachine.com CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES Critical Choices That Change Lives © 2005 by Daniel R. Castro All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. BEARTOOTH PRESS 10509 Pointeview Drive Austin, Texas 78738 Excerpt from It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong, ©2000 by Lance Armstrong. Used by permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Excerpts from Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins, © 2003 by Lance Armstrong. Used by permission of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Book design and cover by Janice Booker Benight Manufactured in the United States of America Publisher's Cataloging-in-Publication (Provided by Quality Books, Inc.) Ebook editions produced by SEATTLE BOOK COMPANY www.SeattleBook.com Ebook conversion and distribution powered by www.RosettaMachine.com Castro, Daniel, R., 1960— Critical choices that change lives: how heroes turn tragedy into triumph / by Daniel R. Castro. p. cm. LCCN 2003097051 Print edition ISBN: 0-9740543-1-3 Microsoft LIT edition ISBN: 0-7420-9344-1 Adobe PDF edition ISBN: 0-7420-9346-8 ii CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES Palm PDB edition ISBN: 0-7420-9347-6 MobiPocket edition ISBN: 0-7420-9345-X 1. Choice (Psychology) — Case studies. 2. Change (Psychology) — Case studies. I. Title. studies. I. Title. BF611.C37 2005 153.8'3 QBI33-2027 iii CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES "I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." — ROBERT FROST "THE ROAD NOT TAKEN" iv CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people for taking the time to read those painful first drafts and for being gracious enough to be brutally honest with their comments so that I could separate the wheat from the chaff. Without their comments and encouragement, this book would never have seen the light of day. JAMES BAKER, ROSE BERRA CASTRO, CANDI BURROWS, RACHEL MARIE CASTRO, KAREN BLOCK, CINDY BOURLAND, LYNNE DRESSI, EVONNE JONES, KAREN LONG, DENISE NOWOTNY, MARILEE PARSONS, WOODY "JACK"ROSEBERRY, DAVID SIGMOND, LYNNE STODDARD, TAMARA THOMPSON, MARK & SUSAN WALKER I would also like to thank the following authors who graciously and enthusiastically allowed me quote from their great writings: LANCE ARMSTRONG, LAURIE BETH JONES, JAMES BALOG, JOEL ACHENBACH & DR. GERALD MANN Finally, I would like to thank Celia Rocks, who helped me encapsulate the central message of this book into bullet points and develop a keynote speech for a corporate/executive audience. Many thanks! v CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES To all those brave souls who, when faced with great obstacles, made difficult decisions that changed the course of history... and those who are yet to be born. vi CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES CONTENTS 1. Whispers From Heroes 2. The Decision Behind the Decision 3. It's How You See, Not What You See 4. When Heroes are Between a Rock and a Hard Place 5. Why We Look Without Seeing 6. Heroes See from an Elevated Position 7. Heroes Focus on the Purpose on the Other Side of Pain 8. Heroes Do More Than Just Face Their Fears 9. Heroes Can See Into the Future 10. Heroes Harvest Their Hidden Gifts 11. Heroes Focus on Intangible Values 12. Heroes Can See What's Truly Sacred and What's Not 13. Heroes Can See the "Right Path" 14. Heroes See the Past Differently Than Most 15. Heroes Can See Through the "Smoke" 16. Heroes Know They Can't See The Whole Parade 17. Heroes See Stars Beyond Coconuts vii CRITICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGE LIVES CHAPTER 1 WHISPERS FROM HEROES What if you could go back in history and talk to anyone you wanted to about a struggle you were facing? Who would you talk to and why? Jesus? Martin Luther King, Jr? Abraham Lincoln? George Washington? General Patton? Dwight D. Eisenhower? Alexander the Great? Moses? Confucius? Muhammad? Buddha? Mother Theresa? Your deceased grandmother or older brother? What if those people could speak to you about your current situation? What would they say? Would you listen if they spoke? What if they only whispered softly? The voices of our heroes are like whispers in the night. You have to sit still and quietly in order to hear them. They do not preach. They do not lecture. They do not pontificate. They merely tell their stories. I was once traveling in Belgium on business. I had never been there before. I was wearing a backpack and hauling around a huge black briefcase full of legal files and a five-foot-long suitcase on wheels that felt like it weighed a ton. After I had met with clients over a period of days, I was lucky enough to be in Liege, Belgium, for the first day of the 2004 Tour de France. I had stood or sat in the same place for almost eight hours — right next to the guard rail as the cyclists whizzed by, including one of my heroes, Lance Armstrong. But now it was almost midnight and I was getting off the train in Brussels after a very long day. I was weak with exhaustion and from not eating much that day. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew the way out of the train station was straight up a long, narrow flight of stairs. I looked around. There was not an
The list of books you might like
