This guy was traveling one night on a lonely country road- you know the kind- two lanes, no street lights, and miles of hardly anything. Anyway, his car gets a flat tire. So the fellow pulls over, gets out of the car, opens the trunk and he finds the spare tire but he discovers that there is no tire jack. How is he going to change the tire?
He takes a look around. Its dark so all he can see is a light that he estimates is about a mile away down the road. The fellow assumes it is a farmhouse and that they'll surely have a tire jack. Don't farmers have everything like that? So he starts walking toward the farmhouse hoping to borrow their tire jack. As he walks he starts talking to himself, like you do when you're all alone walking down a country road. He tells himself as follows:
"I just hope the farmer will lend me his jack.""He probably doesn't lend tools out"."If he will lend it he'll probably want to charge me for it.""How much can he charge me for renting a jack?" he thinks. "One dollar?, maybe two?"
Being the middle of the night, as the guy continues walking toward the farmhouse, and as his agitation increases, he thinks to hiumself: "The man will probably be asleep and if I knock I'll probably wake him up. He'll be put out and will want to charge me even more- probably another five dollars. He'll probably be so mad he'll want ten dollars more."
This guy goes on walking and his stress level goes on rising. He asks himself: "What right does this farmer have to get mad at me? I just want to borrow a tire jack!""If he has any decency he'll lend me his jack for free!""He could give me some help to change the tire! But nooo- he's going to charge me for the rotten jack""He'll charge me extra just because I'm out here in the middle of nowhere."
As this guy nears the farmhouse he continues to stew about the injustice he feels sure he'll face. Finally there, he rudely bangs on the front door and steps back from the house. An upstairs window opens and the farmer leans out asking "Hello there- Is there something I can do for you?" The guy answers shouting: "Yea- you can keep your rotten jack- I wouldn't borrow water from you if I was dying of thirst!" and leaving the befuddled farmer in his window the guy turns around and walks back to his car empty handed.
Sometimes in our quest to live our dreams things get difficult. There may be obstacles and setbacks. Depending upon our attitude it can be easy to become cynical and assume the worst in any given circumstance. It may be helpful to find the strength to step back and challenge any negative conclusions we reach and see if we're just 'borrowing jacks'. If we talk to trusted friends they might have a different viewpoint that could be valuable in reaching our goals after all. If we stay positive despite our misgivings and try anyway we could be surprised by a successful outcome.
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