Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

A LESSON IN LETTING GO

When the plane carrying NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and his two sons crashed, the older son was able to drag his father from the burning plane, but the younger son perished. It appeared as though the crash was caused by human error compounded by bad weather. However, when asked about her feelings about the tragedy, the boy’s mother, television actress Susan St. James, explained that she had always told her children to live by the following axiom:

“Feeling resentment is like taking poison to kill the person who wronged you.”

This brave mother had instantaneously let go of any bitterness she could have legitimately felt for the pilots or air-traffic controller or airplane manufacturer. Instead of bearing resentment for the death of her younger son, without losing a beat, she had moved on to gratitude for the survival of her husband and older son. She chose to cherish the memories of her lost son and do whatever she could to make the best of a dreadful loss. Yes, she still feels the pain of the loss and, yes, she will grieve for her son for a long time. But, she will not be trapped in the toxic world of resentment that will prevent her from being wife and mother to the rest of her family.