- Jim Wall | The Adventure Chronicles
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- 💡Read How My Summer Plan Failed
How getting robbed, stranded in a gorge, and an act of kindness from a stranger taught me that things always happen for you, not to you.
It’s 95 degrees and sunny in Bilbao, Spain.
Michelle and I open our oversized suitcases and begin purging.
I have WAY too many jeans right now.
Throw those in the box, we need to send half of this back to Miami.
Turns out packing for chilly Bogotá doesn’t work well for summer in southern Europe.
What about these wedding cards?
Yeah, throw those in too.
We didn’t realize that those cards still had $500 in cash that we would never see again.
Money Is Energy
The day after we sent the box to Michelle’s mom in Miami, she remembered the money.
Ten days later the box arrived with a hole slit in the side.
You guessed it, the cards were empty.
Only the shipping or customs people with an X-Ray would have known about the hidden cash.
I thought it wasn’t a big deal, but Michelle was distraught.
It’s not just about losing money Jim, it’s about how we treat money.
If we are careless with it, if we don’t treat it well; it won’t be attracted to us.
Money is energy, and the more conscious we are about it, the more it will flow through us.
As a couple, it’s critical to be aligned in our mindset around money.
And this was a hugely positive lesson for me.
Losing $500 was unfortunate, but the discussion that it led was worth so much more.
Emotional Baggage
Have you ever taken an airline like Spirit, Frontier, or Ryanair?
If you have, you know that insane game of baggage roulette you have to play:
Pay for a 13kg checked bag, but needed to pay for 15kg → $100 fee
Bag gets measured at the gate and it’s 0.75 centimeters too tall → $85 fee
Water bottle counted as personal item, purse now becomes $35 carry-on
You know exactly where this is going…almost.
We rush up to the agent for Sky Express airlines to check our bags in Athens airport.
The flight is boarding in 15 minutes and the airport is jam-packed. We’re stressed.
Your bags are 3 kilos overweight, that’s €120.
When you hear those dreaded words how do you react?
The exact order of my thoughts were:
3 kilos is nothing! I’ve taken shits*** bigger than that!
This is literally more expensive than my flight ticket!
Are you smiling right now because you like charging us?!
(***Pardon me for being too graphic 😅)
Fortunately, the filter between my brain and mouth prevailed, and I took a deep breath.
I then asked her kindly if we could move the weight to our carry-ons.
It’s still too much weight, but that’s ok, here are your boarding passes, have a nice flight.
We were flabbergasted.
Turns out the smile she wore was genuine.
Had my initial thoughts turned into words, I’d no doubt be paying €120.
Not only was money flowing back to us, we were left feeling extremely grateful.
And reminded to always lead with kindness.
Because that can make even stressful scenarios still work out in your favor.
Google Why Have You Forsaken Us?
According to Google Maps, there was a short-cut back up to our car.
We had just finished 2 hours hiking down the Richtis Gorge in Crete.
It was a tough trail, so this other route looked like an easier way back up.
Soon we found ourselves melting under the sun, zig-zagging up a road with no end in sight.
It turns out Google Maps isn’t so accurate in remote areas on Mediterranean islands.
When we ran out of water and had no cell signal, that’s when we got worried.
We were at least 90 minutes from the nearest anything.
Only one car would pass every 20 minutes, so we started sticking up our thumbs.
First car, full.
Second car, kept moving.
Third car, full.
Fourth car, stopped.
Thank goodness!
A friendly German couple had pity seeing us struggling up the mountain in the intense sun.
We had a great chat and they dropped us off.
Relieved, I told Michelle we needed to pick up some hitchhikers to repay our debt.
Don’t you remember those travelers we picked up in rural Spain 2 weeks ago?
Oh yeah! Wow, Karma works fast sometimes!
This tough situation turned into a fun conversation with new friends.
And even more importantly, a reminder that what goes around truly does come around.
The Bottom Line
Whether things go as planned or not as planned, they are always still going in your favor.
It’s our job to take any situation and mold it into a lesson and a story.
My challenge for you this week is to do a random act of kindness for a stranger. Not for Karma points, just because. Buy someone a coffee, offer a hug to someone who looks sad.
“Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.”
Contrarian opinion: plans work even better when they don’t work.
We grow more from needing to think on our feet and create Plan B, C and D.
What’s a “failed” plan of yours that ended up working even more in your favor?
— Jim Wall (@thejimwall)
6:02 PM • Jun 20, 2023
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That’s all for now my friend. I’ll be sending you stories that show what's possible when we look at our life as a great adventure.
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📢 The next issue will arrive from Italy! As always, I will share stories and ideas so that you can feel more adventure in your daily life.
Keep living your Great Adventure.
Jim Wall