Adrift
by Adam Khan
In 1982 Steven Callahan was crossing the Atlantic alone in his sailboat when
it struck something and sank. He was out of the shipping lanes and floating
in a life raft, alone. His supplies were few. His chances were small. Yet
when three fishermen found him seventy-six days later (the longest anyone has
survived a shipwreck on a life raft alone), he was alive-much skinnier than
he was when he started, but alive.
His account of how he survived is fascinating. His ingenuity-how he managed
to catch fish, how he fixed his solar still (evaporates sea water to make
fresh)-is very interesting.
But the thing that caught my eye was how he managed to keep himself going
when all hope seemed lost, when there seemed no point in continuing the
struggle, when he was suffering greatly, when his life raft was punctured and
after more than a week struggling with his weak body to fix it, it was still
leaking air and wearing him out to keep pumping it up. He was starved. He was
desperately dehydrated. He was thoroughly exhausted. Giving up would have
seemed the only sane option.
When people survive these kinds of circumstances, they do something with
their minds that gives them the courage to keep going. Many people in
similarly desperate circumstances give in or go mad. Something the survivors
do with their thoughts helps them find the guts to carry on in spite of
overwhelming odds.
"I tell myself I can handle it," wrote Callahan in his narrative. "Compared
to what others have been through, I'm fortunate. I tell myself these things
over and over, building up fortitude...."
I wrote that down after I read it. It struck me as something important. And
I've told myself the same thing when my own goals seemed far off or when my
problems seemed too overwhelming. And every time I've said it, I have always
come back to my senses.
The truth is, our circumstances are only bad compared to something better.
But others have been through much worse. I've read enough history to know you
and I are lucky to be where we are, when we are, no matter how bad it seems
to us compared to our fantasies. It's a sane thought and worth thinking.
So here, coming to us from the extreme edge of survival, are words that can
give us strength. Whatever you're going through, tell yourself you can handle
it. Compared to what others have been through, you're fortunate. Tell this
to yourself over and over, and it will help you get through the rough spots
with a little more fortitude.
Adam Khan is the Author of "Self-Help Stuff That Works" which can be found at
Amazon.com. Adam has been published in Prevention Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Tea Magazine, and The Body Bulletin. Adam has been a regular columnist for Think and Grow Rich Newsletter and Rodale Press's newsletter At Your Best, where his monthly column ran for seven years and was voted the readers' favorite.
