Last week, everything that could possibly go wrong with my Social Media Conversion Secrets telseminar did. But that wasn’t the first time that I’ve had things go really wrong…

One of my most memorable moments like this was right after I met Mark (my husband and business partner). I was living in Southern California at the time, and he was living in Florida. After we’d known each other 2-1/2 weeks, Mark proposed and I decided to move to Florida.

We were thinking about how romantic it would be to drive across the country together. So we rented one of the biggest moving trucks available AND a full-length trailer on the back for my Mercedes. Everything was going great. We had movers helping us load the truck and they were almost done. The sun was about to set and we were ready to begin our journey.

That’s when it all started…

First, we went to get our small bags of belongings that were going to bring with us in the front of the truck. That’s when we found out that the movers had packed them somewhere in the back of the truck (even though we’d asked them specifically to keep those things separate). And, of course, that’s where our keys were. After 1-1/2 hours of searching in the dark, we had to call a locksmith (which wasn’t easy either since I was living way up in the mountains of Malibu at the time, it was now the weekend, and getting to be late at night).

We were finally ready to go…

That’s when we realized that we wouldn’t be able to exit the main driveway of the estate where I was living. The fully-loaded truck was so heavy that it might crack the driveway. So Mark had to use the service entrance, which was super steep and narrow. Four times we got up full-speed, and couldn’t make it up and out of the driveway. Every time we had to carefully back up down to the bottom again.

On the final try, one of the back wheels on the truck started going off the driveway (more than a 1-foot drop-off) and we and we almost flipped over. One last try and we finally made it out. The engine was screaming and there was smoke coming out from under the hood of the truck from the engine belts.

Finally, we were free (or so we thought)…

As we started driving down the mountains, we started to get nervous. It was super steep, and the farther we went… the harder it was becoming to slow down. We didn’t want to ruin the brakes by riding them all the way down the mountain, and there was danger on both sides of us. Get too close to the canyon going around the corners and we’d smash the truck into the rock wall. Go too far the other way and we’d go over the cliff. About 1/3 of the way down Mark starting turning white and pumping the brake as hard as he could. It wasn’t working. He had to use the emergency brake and all his strength to get the truck to stop.

We looked at each other, took a deep breath, and saw a strange glow on the canyon wall next to us... The truck was on fire!

All the heavy braking had caused the brakes to ignite. We rushed outside and used water bottles to put out the flames. Of course, there was no cell phone reception up there. So we had to figure out how get my car off of the trailer behind us, in the dark, and drive to a hotel for the night (until we could get the truck towed down the mountain, and get the brakes fixed).

The next morning the truck was delivered to our hotel after a good night’s sleep. We loaded my Mercedes back up on the trailer and got back on the road. For about ten minutes…

A few miles down the freeway, lots of cars kept honking their horns at us. So we pulled over and found that we’d left the back of the truck was wide open! Luckily, it didn’t seem like any of my things had spilled out. Things were good after that (for a while). We were holding hands and talking about all our plans for our new life together.

Until we starting crossing the desert (I don’t remember what state we were in), in the hot summer sun. It was so hot, the truck was so heavy, and some of the roads had such an incline… that we couldn’t go faster than 35 miles per hour in some places (were just praying that the truck wouldn’t stop completely)!

At this point we looked at each other in disbelief and started wondering… was all of this just a strange series of coincidences… a sign that we weren’t supposed to be moving to Florida… or a sign that we weren’t supposed to be together at all?

Then came Texas…

Driving through Texas I started not feeling well. I had a headache and a fever, the right side of my neck felt swollen. I started having a little trouble swallowing, and my breathing was beginning to be affected. But we were in the middle of nowhere, close to the border of Mexico. While we were trying to figure out where the closest city was (with a hospital), the truck broke down.

Mark got out of the truck and looked at the right side of my face, which was now dangerously swollen. We got my car off the trailer again and started driving, trying to get to an area where there would be cell phone reception. We eventually got directions to a tiny ghost of a town called Van Horn (population 2,013) and got me into the emergency room.

The doctors sat me on a foam covered stretcher and after a few minutes Mark noticed that my left leg was soaked in blood. We took off my pants and looked for an injury, but didn’t find one. The blood had come from a trucker who’d just been involved in a bad accident and been operated on. Apparently the foam stretcher had a cut in it and absorbed a lot of his blood.

The doctor didn’t apologize for any of this and made it seem as though they hadn’t done anything wrong. Mark was furious. Regarding my diagnosis, the doctor said he thought I’d been bitten by a brown recluse spider (VERY dangerous). Then they gave me some horse-sized pills to stop the swelling so I’d be able to breathe.

Once we left the hospital we called the rental truck company. They said it was going to take 7 DAYS to get our truck back (they couldn’t give us a replacement because it was the middle of summer, their busiest time). While we were in Van Horn, Mark got sick and got a fever too. But we did have time to rest.

When we finally got the truck back, it was 8 pm at night. We were so eager to get out of there that Mark started driving at night. He didn’t stop (except to get gas and food) until we reached Florida (29 hours later). I still don’t know how he did that. Of course we had more excitement along the way… getting stuck in a small gas station and taking about an hour to get out, and turning accidentally onto a dead-end dirt road and having to go down a hill and over a median to get back on the highway.

Shortly after that, two of the tie-down chains for my car broke and the air conditioner stopped working. But we weren’t going to stop for anything at that point. We just kept going. And we finally arrived in Florida at our new home…

I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through this experience, but it was powerful. It tested our commitment to our goals and to each other. And we never lost hope. I learned from this road trip that sometimes you just have to keep going, no matter what. There is no use getting negative, fearful or destructive. If you can somehow stay focused on your goal (and keep looking for the silver lining), you’ll eventually find it. Maybe not that moment, but you will in the end.

I know that you have had your own amazing challenges. Maybe you’re having them right now and you’re trying to stay focused… wondering if you’ll be able to get past it. Keep moving forward, turning your negative thoughts into positive thoughts, and looking for opportunities in EVERY situation.

Today I know that I wouldn’t want anyone but Mark by my side. We are powerful together (even though we don’t always have the same perspective). But we always come together to make powerful things happen. I’m grateful to know that I have a great fighter by my side.

Things often don’t go exactly according to our plans. Sometimes... they work out better.

Action Step:

• Remember that your perception about your current situation creates your reality.

• Trust that everything is perfect (or will become perfect), even if you can’t yet see how that’s going to be possible.

• Stay focused on solutions and what you have control of. NEVER stay focused on the problem.

• Be flexible.

• Keep moving towards your goal.

• Write me and tell me about a time that you turned a hard experience into a good one.