The election didn’t turn out the way that I hoped and I was disappointed, Oregon lost their football game to Washington today and I was disappointed, I didn’t get to go elk hunting this year and I was disappointed. As I think about major disappointments in my life the one that sticks out the most is when I flunked my motorcycle driving test for the third time in a row. I had already bought my Yamaha V-star 1100 motorcycle, and I had already planned every day of my 9000 mile trip around the United States hitting all lower 48 States on my motorcycle. I thought the driving test would be easy, but I kept knocking down those dumb cones. After my third failure I took the “Ride Oregon” class at Chemeketa Community College and passed and got my motorcycle endorsement. But I remember very clearly the pain of the disappointment of that third failure. I had not yet resolved in my head the disappointment of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and I wanted very much to get away by myself on this motorcycle adventure and get life straightened out in my head, but I couldn’t pass that stupid test. I had not ridden a motorcycle before so this was a bit of a stretch for my adventure seeking mentality, and now that I had committed to going on the trip my inability to get a license was extremely frustrating. When I passed the test in the parking lot of the college I was so relieved and happy. I remember thinking to myself that my disappointment and then the happiness were strange and unbalanced in light of things that were way more important.

We all experience disappointment, some minor and other very painful. How do we manage disappointment? It is the self talk that we do that determines our level of success at coping. we can turn a fairly minor disappointment into a a deep, dark depression if we don’t manage our thoughts and self talk concerning the disappointment. My most successful tool for coping with disappointment is to memorize key Bible verses and meditate on them so that I am able to refocus my dreams and desires on something else, and keep running the race of life with passion and fire.

I experience a lot of disappointment because I want certain things to happen with great passion and fire, and the drive that I put into things guarantees that I feel great disappointment. But I work hard at not letting my disappointment cause me to downsize my dreams as many do.