by
Dave Cole
Back when my son Karl was 3 to 5 years old, he simply loved to play tractors. Tractors were his life. He so looked forward to getting up each morning, he hated to go to bed at nite.
Karl had a passion for playing tractors.
He had the sounds down pat, brrrr-ing or put-putt-ing.... he would drive those toy tractors around as far as his young imagination would stretch. He plowed more acres and baled more hay than dad did in real life.
In the young mind, he was a real farmer that had important stuff to do......and he did it with enthusiasm.....and had a whale of a lot of fun at the same time.
Pulling....did you mention tractor pulling? Of dear lord did we love to go tractor pulling! If there was a pull within a hundred miles, Dave and his little puller side kick Karl were there.
All the pullers knew us. Believe it, at a big pull we got there hours early to get good seats and then go down to the "Pit" to look over the tractors. We went to farm stock pulls, state pulls, & the big Grand National events.
Karl knew the name and brand of every Super Stock, Pro Stock, or Modified Grand National tractor in the eastern half of the U.S. (all Grand National pulling tractors have their own name)
At home he pulled every tractor he had from the small ones up to pedal tractors. Then would go out in the barn and sit on dad's real tractors and pretend to pull them.
One Christmas I built a small replica of his favorite Super Stock pulling tractor plus a miniature pulling sled. (what tractors pull). Oh did he ever put pulling in high gear then. Everyday there was a new pull he had going. Karl would line up all his tractors and one by one he hooked them to the sled and Brrrrrmmmmmmmm down the track they'd go.
What Enthusiasm he had
What a Passion
What a tremendous amount of Fun he had
Folks would you like to know why he had so much fun and tireless energy pulling and playing tractors?
Think seriously about this.......
It was because Karl Cole was who was in control.
He called the shots. Events happened just the way he wanted them. He determined when one of his tractors would break down and he then knew he could fix it. He decided who was going to win each pull. He decided when and where each pull would be, which tractors were entered, when it would start, and when it would end.
He was the boss....he was in charge. He controlled circumstances......they didn't control him. The structure in his life was constructed by him.
He made his own choices, and they were surprisingly good ones too for a 3 to 5 year old.
His circumstances were dictated by his imagination.
Karl was one of the happiest children I've ever known. Always had something fun going on, always had something good happening.
His mother and I gave him a lot of freedom to express himself. That was my philosophy when I home schooled him too, freedom to explore, to learn and try new things, we were always doing something new and different.
You wanna know a real good reason why people are un-happy?
Think it might be cause they're not really the ones that are in control of their lives?
Well who is in control then?
The boss
That JOB
Your time schedule
The Bills
Your spouse
People aren't free when they are controlled by circumstances.
If you have a job, your life is structured around and dictated by that job. It controls you.....you don't control it. That job tells you when you will be there and where you will be every day and then when it allows you to go home. It controls how much money you make and how much money you will spend. That job determines which kind of house and car you will buy, and whether you'll buy the best or the cheapest.
If you're in debt, the bank controls you. You have to have a source of income to pay that monthly debt or else the bank reposseses. You don't own that home with the mortgage....the bank does. Let them call the loan and if you don't have the cash immediately, the bank sells that home or car or boat. The bank tells you how much you will have left over After you pay them, and it tells you how much to pay each month and on what date you pay.
When you go to a job, the boss controls what you will do, how long you will do it, and the quality of what you do. And if you don't stay within the guidelines, you lose the job Buckwheat.
You're not in control - the boss, or the job, or the bank, or you fill in the blanks - is in control.....no wonder you don't have much fun is it?
Karl is now 15. He's no longer in control. The school dictates what he will do every day, when he will be there, when he will get up in the morning, when he will be allowed to come home. His life is now structured around what someone else decides for him to do....not what he wants to do.
He doesn't have nearly the fun anymore. Ask him what is going on in his life and he'll say, "nothin"......ask him how the day went and he'll say, "I don't know." It's flat..... no enthusiasm. No drive, no Passion.
You know what tho, when he's home and riding his dirt bike, he's back in control. He's the man. He's Ricky Carmichael (top dirt bike rider), he's the boss. He's excited, he's enthusiastic.....he gets to make his own choices....he's having a whale of a lot of fun.
He never talks about school, he talks about dirt bikes and baseball.....umm...and girls too. But see the point.
Life is the most fun when you are in control. Not when someone or something else controls you. Reflect if you will for a few minutes on some of the times in your life when you had the most amount of fun.
I'll bet they were the times when you were the one who was in control.
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This article courtesy of http://www.heavy-tractor.com.