Attitude Determines Outcome | Riding the Wagon of Life!

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Now imagine for me that you are out on a long road trip. You get up in the morning and well it's kind of gloomy and raining. You take a look at the radar and you see this big patch of red and yellow coming toward you. So what do you do? You've got a decision to make. Do you accept the reality of well traveling and possibly riding in the rain or do you avoid the situation, call the front desk and go back to bed? That decision is what we're going to talk about today.

[00:00:34]Do you get pulled along by the wagon of life? Do you run alongside it or do you climb aboard and ride? And hang with me and I'll explain exactly what I mean. If you have watched my travel videos and wanted to ride some of the same roads I have, well, you can. On my website, living offtheslab.com, I have made available the GPX files and written itineraries I used while on adventures like my 2024 ride to Alaska or the Big New England Loop. You can download them for just $1 per day and start planning your next dream trip.

[00:01:15]Visit living offtheslab.com for details. There is an old stoic metaphor that is often used to illustrate what the logos is, at least way back in those times when stoicism was founded. Right? And what the logos means is well the will of God or fate.

[00:01:36]In modern terms, we could call it dharma, the dao, the will of God, or just the nature of the universe. In this metaphor, the logos is represented by a giant cart that just keeps rolling along. It can't be stopped. And attached to this cart, well, there's a rope. And that rope then is wrapped around the neck of a dog. So that dog then has a couple of choices, right? It can just lay down and get dragged by the cart as it travels along or it can get up and it can run alongside.

[00:02:15]And I'm going to add one more thing.

[00:02:17]Sometimes that dog can actually jump up and get in the cart and ride. Now, of course, that dog represents us, humankind, and that we have choices to make about pretty much everything in life, right? And those choices are going to determine whether we get dragged along by the obstacles and things that get thrown in our path or whether we choose to run alongside that cart because no matter what we do, well, the cart is just going to keep on rolling.

[00:02:51]We can't stop it. And remember, if you're looking for some great gear, well, check out Aerost Stitch handmade right in Duth, Minnesota, and use the links in the description of this video to help support the channel. In our rainy day example, we can get up, look outside, and say, "Well, okay, it's gloomy, and I'm going to get wet. It is just part of the nature of travel." Or we can look out the window and say, "Well, it's just going to suck today and I just don't want to do it. and crawl back in bed. Now, in both cases, there's going to be some bit of pain involved.

[00:03:28]There's going to be the pain of riding in the rain, getting wet, and maybe being a little bit cold for a while, or there's going to be the pain of paying for another hotel room as you wait out the storm. The Stoics would tell us that we should embrace that obstacle that we have been presented with. We should literally make it part of ourselves and draw strength from it. We should be that dog that runs alongside the cart. In the Buddhist or Dowist tradition, we are told that we should accept the nature of riding in the rain, of traveling, right?

[00:04:06]There are going to be days that are going to be a struggle, right? It's part of the deal. Not only should we embrace the obstacle that's been put in front of us, but we should stop worrying about it, right, and just learn to enjoy the path of life, right? We should not only run alongside the cart, but be the one that jumps in, right? And rides along.

[00:04:32]And this is the nature of what they would call wooi, of effortless action, of living in the flow of life. Now, in our rainy day example, the action that you choose to take, well, that's really not that big of a deal, right? What is really going to determine on whether you are getting dragged along or you're running alongside or you jump up in the cart, well, that is going to be your attitude. If you set out on a rainy day and you're expecting that every minute is going to be horrible, well, then you're going to get dragged along by the card of life. On the other hand, if you say, "Okay, it's going to suck, but you know what? I'm going to do it anyway, and I'm going to find a way to make it as enjoyable as possible." Well, then you're running alongside. But if you just give in, right, to what is set in front of you, right? Then, well, then you can ride along with the cart. Now, of course, the hard part is well, actually doing that, actually letting go and letting life happen. I know for myself, sometimes letting go is tough, right? My wife will tell you that the Virgo in me tends to look at the pessimistic side of everything, at least in the beginning. And that's true. Most of the time, I will look at things and I will say, "Oh god, this could happen or that could happen." But after a few minutes, after I think about it, I finally settle down and I say, "Okay, what the hell? This is what we got to do. Let's go do it." So, this very thing happened to me on my way to Alaska in 2024. I was in Duth, Minnesota, and I got up in the morning. I looked at the radar, and there was this huge red and yellow monster headed towards me. Well, I started getting all freaked out and everything about it. What am I going to do? You know, am I going to stay? Am I going to go? Well, finally I settled down and I said, "Well, look, I'm going to go." And if it gets really bad, well, then I'll pull over. I'll find a place to hunker down until it passes. So, in the end, I had about 15 or 20 minutes of really hard rain. And by the end of it, I just let all that worry go. And I started thinking, what an idiot you were to get all worked up about getting wet for a little bit. Now, you would think that after 66 years, I would have figured this out and just skipped all the pessimism, but that's not the case, right? A good example is this little health issue that I've been going through. For those of you who don't know, I had an allergic reaction to some antibiotics and that set off a cascade of u inflammation in my body and so I've been on prednazone for a while and now I'm trying to wean myself off. Well, at first, well, I was angry and questioning what I had done to cause all of this, but in the end, I did nothing, right? I had an infection. I had to take those antibiotics. It is of course normal that we all go through this kind of questioning. But eventually in order to overcome something like this, whether it's a rainy day or whether it's a health issue, we have to get to the point of acceptance. I don't mean that you have to accept that your life is going to be horrible or things are going to change for the worst. But what you need to do is accept that this is the path that you have been given and these are the things that you need to do to get through this obstacle that life has given to you. You will do whatever is required to overcome that obstacle and you will do it with gratitude and strength rather than approach it with anger and hostility and second guessing.

[00:08:30]Well, approach it with neverending resilience. In everything we do and through every obstacle that life throws at us, we have a choice. We can get dragged along by that wagon of life. We can run alongside it, or we can climb aboard and ride.

[00:08:50]It's all our choice.

[00:08:53]All right, guys. Continue to ride safe and of course, keep squeezing your lemon.