Even so, being informed by a doctor whose English I barely understood that my daughter had Typhoid definitely stretched my attitude boundary.
Admittedly, as this new information sunk in, the thought of packing up and heading someplace familiar crossed both my and my husband’s minds – more than once. This seed of doubt tested our decision to stay the course, as did the comments that appeared on our blog from friends and loved ones who mentioned that they would throw in the towel and return to the safety and security of home.
Yet we had decided long before this diagnosis that we were going to spend a year traveling around the world as a family, and it was this commitment that helped us deal with the current situation and figure out a solution so we could move on.
This simple decision, to choose our commitment to our goal over the fear we felt, helped us overcome what came to be referred to as the “Typhoid Molly Scare” along with innumerable other obstacles we faced throughout year.
When we allow doubt to sneak in, we invariably let fear take the drivers seat. This fear can sound like “what if” and “if only” and “we should have.” It also shows up in other forms including FOMO (fear of missing out), FOF (fear of failure), FOBJ (fear of being judged), FOSO (fear of standing out), and FOMU (fear of messing up), to name a few.
And when fear is driving, there are no good solutions.
I experienced this the moment the doctor said Typhoid. Fear took over and my mind started spinning stories of death, destruction and other grave consequences. Yet, when after a bit of time, I reconnected to our decision to travel the world, even in the face of Typhoid, I was able to allow hope back into the drivers seat and with that, options began to appear.
We could reverse course for a while and head back down to the better resourced city of Chiang Mai. We could seek out a better equipped and a hopefully more competent, English speaking doctor. We could find a place to rest and rejuvenate while Molly recuperated. And most importantly, we could find peace in the process, rather than fear.
It was with this attitude that roadblocks became puzzles to solve rather than reasons to quit.
Deciding on a specific course of action first limits and then opens possibilities and it is at both of these junctures that we can get stuck. When we initially committed to traveling for a year we had to give up other possibilities. It’s the same with every choice that we commit to. Once we say yes to this and no to that, we forego some of our options. This is often a sticking place for many of us and can lead into the murky path of indecision, which is caused by one thing and one thing only – fear.
When we do choose, if we’re not careful, we can let “the grass is always greener” thinking ruin our ability to make our decision work.
When Typhoid stood in the middle of our road, we asked ourselves if this was a trip-ender. The answer that came back was a firm no. The thought of ending our trip felt like giving in to fear and made us feel lethargic and sad. On the other hand, dealing with the typhoid diagnosis together as a family and making sure we were all healthy and ready for our next country left us feeling strong, connected and joyful.
Once we identified strong, connected and joyful as the way we wanted to feel we were able to start solving our current problem.
The good news is that you don’t have to wait for a Typhoid diagnosis to try this in your own life.
Whenever you are facing a decision or a roadblock, you can ask yourself these simple questions:
· Which choice feels like fear?
· Does this choice leave me feeling drained or energetic?
· Do I feel empowered and full of energy when I think about making this choice?
· Which choice feels like joy?
As we traveled along, we picked up many other things in addition to the virus that mimicked Typhoid but thankfully, wasn’t.
We found a love for meeting and befriending new people, an interest in all things local, an appreciation for different ways of doing things, a realization that no matter the differences we are very much alike, a weird obsession with the body parts of people long dead and an appreciation for each other, travel and home. But perhaps most importantly we acquired an understanding that your attitude can make or break you.
When our family of four had decided to travel the world we had, perhaps naively, committed to something much bigger than ourselves… and much bigger than our day-to-day successes and failures. We had unknowingly committed to a yearlong study of the importance of your attitude.
For us, the study was successful and I’m happy to report that we concluded that the ability to choose your own attitude is truly one of our greatest gifts and most profound freedoms.