The Story of Twins Tony and Carl

Once there was a cowboy rodeo rider who fell in love with a prostitute and she gave birth to twin boys, Tony and Carl. When they were 12 months old, the mother left her children and their father and never came back.

The dad’s heart was broken and he turned cold and mean. He became a heavy drinker and raised his boys in the bar at night, dragging them around the rodeo circuit during the summer.

He made them go to school but was absent most of the time drinking in the bar at night. He often beat them when he came home if they were still awake. He wanted to make them tough. He taught them that life was unfair, no women were worthy of love and everything was painful so they better suck it up.

The father ended up in prison after killing a man in a bar fight. The boys were 17 and already fully self-sufficient.

The son named Tony ended up just like his father. He never had a successful relationship because he disrespected women. He drank from a very early age and became addicted to gambling too. He became a rodeo cowboy too, always in pain after being broken. At 29 he was arrested and sent to prison for stealing money to pay a loan shark.

The other son Carl, moved out of town as soon as he graduated High School and started his life fresh in another state. He found a job, got into an evening program that taught him life skills, worked hard and got his own place. He dated, got hurt, but kept trying. Eventually he found the girl of his dreams and they fell in love. He went to college, became an accountant and at the age of 29 had been married for 3 years and was expecting their first child.

When each man was interviewed. When asked why they made the choices they did and ended up where they were in life, they both had the same answer: “I am the way I am because of my father.”

Tony was a product of his Dad never questioning the line of BS he was told.

Carl questioned it all and made a vow to never be like Dad! He decided to think differently and wound up in a very different place. He was happy.

I told this story in the chapter on beliefs in my book Emerge: 7 Steps to Transformation (No Matter What Life Throws At You!).

I wanted to talk about beliefs today because as you know, we are conditioned at an early age, given a set of beliefs by the people who raised us. Then we naturally break away in our teenage years and begin to develop our own values and beliefs.

Along the way, we make adjustments to our thinking as we gain more life experience.

Sometimes though, I speak to people who have areas of their life that they really don’t like and they think they don’t know how to change it. They give excuses of why they are in a bad relationship or stay in a crappy job working in a toxic environment.

I challenge them and I’ll ask you . . . Take a look at your excuses for not making positive changes in your life and ask yourself:

What do I believe is true about why I’m in this situation? Is this a belief about myself I can change?

Don’t be a Tony! Take control of your thoughts, review your excuses, change your mind about what you are capable of and love yourself enough to make those changes to your beliefs.

Beliefs are just thoughts that we think over and over again that we think are true. You can change them! That’s the truth.

If you want a quick exercise in changing a bad thought (an excuse) that you think is holding you back, respond to this email and I’ll tell you how to change it powerfully and quickly.

Your outer world is a direct reflection of your inner world. You wanna change something in your life? Change your thoughts and if you consistently think the new thought, I promise you your situation will change.

I believe in you.

Maureen

P.S. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford

On the podcast this week . . .

My guest on the podcast this week is Doug Dolan who has been sober for over 25 years. He’s the Chief Operating Officer of Recovery in the Pines and has run over 500 interventions in the past 10 years to help people get into recovery.

Doug has an amazing story and much to share about how to live through life clean in the face of many difficulties. He is a powerful example of a leader in recovery. Give this one a listen!

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