Perhaps an odd title – who would choose to be a victim? Seems like no one would, but in reality many of us do every day.

We recently went on a LONG road trip where nothing went right. 

 

 

After 8 grueling hours of driving, we got to our first destination. Hot and tired, we couldn’t even go to bed right away because there was chaos in our room.

 

 

The next day, we went to a water park, and even though it was hot out, the water was freezing and the wind was blowing, so we wasted a whole day and a bunch of money and barely rode any water slides!

 

Back in the car again, we drove another 5+ hours to get to Las Vegas – where it was STILL hot and now we had secondhand smoke overload anytime we went inside to escape the heat! We checked into our hotel and went up to our room, only to find it a complete mess! We had to lug all of our stuff to another room and get another key, and they would only give us a late check out to compensate for the inconvenience.

 

We spent the day in Vegas, and spent so much money winning prizes that probably weren’t even worth what we were paying to play the game!

 

We got back on the road again, to another hot place – Williams, Arizona. McKenna got an ear infection along the way and we had to take her to Urgent Care. We got there late and worried we’d have to drive another hour to pick up a prescription because the pharmacy was closing.

 

The next day we had to get up early and we rode the train to the Grand Canyon. It took over 2 hours because the train didn’t go over 40 MPH! We got there and Ecksley declared “The Grand Canyon is NOT fun” after 2 minutes, and we had to stay there 3 hours in the heat and wind. On the ride back, we got robbed, and McKenna’s ear was still hurting. We barely had cell phone service and we almost got lost on the way back to our hotel.

 

We got back on the road again to Carlsbad the next day, and we went to the caverns the following day. We had to hike a mile and a half into the cave and it smelled like bat dung for the first hour. We walked and walked and walked, and then we walked some more – in the dark for hours!

 

We just got back from an amazing road trip! We spent 18 days on the road and experienced some awesome stuff!

 

Our first day driving was the longest of the whole trip, and it went by so fast! When we arrived, we were greeted in our hotel room by some friends we had not seen in a while. It was nice to see them and visit for a bit.

 

The next day, we met some other friends at a water park, and had a nice, relaxing day enjoying a few waves and waterslides.

 

After that, we drove to Las Vegas – where we had a mix up with our hotel room and ended up on the top floor as a result. What a great view from there – and no one above us to make noise. We had a great time in Vegas, letting the kids use their money to win prizes that they carried around with pride.

 

Our next stop was Williams, Arizona. We were fortunate to get there in time to get McKenna to an Urgent Care where they diagnosed her ear pain as an infection and gave us a prescription in the office because the pharmacy was closing.

 

The next day we rode the train to the Grand Canyon. It was a great experience, and we didn’t have to drive! On the ride back, there was even an orchestrated “Hold Up” where we got robbed – but only because we participated in the skit.

 

We got back on the road again to Carlsbad the next day, and we went to the caverns the following day. We hiked a mile and a half in wonder into the cave and explored the cavern before thankfully taking an elevator back up.

They are the same experience, told from two different perspectives! In the first one, I allowed myself to be a victim. In the second, I chose to be a victor. Which would you choose?

At some of my live events, I ask everyone to take inventory of all the terrible, horrible things that have happened to them and share them with someone else in the group. Amazingly, we’re all pretty good at taking on that role and making ourselves the victim.

 

Then I ask them to share the same details, but pulling out the positives from the experiences. It’s the same story - but now from a hero’s perspective, no longer a victim.

 

Which way do you think would feel better? So how do you want to live your life?