Transcript

Warning #1177 · From Chad

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The ground gave way with almost no warning.
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There's a story behind that. This is your daily message from
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Chad #1177 to upgrade your mental game today by telling
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yourself a better story. Because the most important story
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you hear is the story you tell yourself.
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This message is dedicated to the families of the Trishuli Valley.
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If you'd be disappointed if these daily messages went away,
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you can stoke the fire with a like, comment, thumbs up,
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subscribe, follow, or whatever way your player gives you for
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connecting the content. About 1/3 of you listen on
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Spotify, 1/3 on Apple Podcasts, and the last third on other
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players. These messages are listened to
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in 109 countries, with the second biggest audience outside
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the US coming from Japan. You can get a free copy of my
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book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to from
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chad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message
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and hundreds of others are always available at
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www.fromchad.com. Here's the upgrade.
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You want to know why it happened, But upgraded thinking
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knows an explanation is not a foundation.
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Here's the story. On the morning of August 26th,
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high in the Himalayas near the Nepal Tibet border, a huge mass
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of ice and rock broke loose around 17,000 feet up.
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It plunged almost a mile into the valley below.
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Scientists said it was almost impossible to forecast in time
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to protect people downstream. Water, ice, rock and debris
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surged through the the river valleys and down the Trishuli
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corridor. The toll is still being counted.
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More than 1000 people have been reported dead across Nepal and
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Tibet, and thousands are still missing.
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By that afternoon, the explaining had already started.
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That's what we do. We can't stand not knowing, so
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we reach for a reason. Once we have a reason, we feel
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steadier. But the reason is not holding us
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up. It only feels like it is.
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This response isn't new. On November 1st, 1755, it was
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All Saints Day and the churches in Lisbon were full when an
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earthquake struck, estimated near magnitude 9.
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Then a tsunami, then fires that burned for days. 10s of
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thousands were dead. Portugal's capital was
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devastated. Most of the city was gone.
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Europe's smartest people went to work explaining, Voltaire wrote,
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against easy answers to suffering.
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Rousseau wrote back that crowded 6 and seven story buildings had
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made the catastrophe worse. Preachers called it judgement.
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Philosophers argued about nature, God, evil, and human
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responsibility. But one man turned toward the
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work in front of him. They asked Portugal's chief
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minister, the Marquis of Pambal, what should be done.
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He's remembered for answering quote, bury the dead and heal
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the living. In quote you see, explanations
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don't rebuild, only rebuilding does.
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Within a day, he ordered the dead removed to reduce the
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danger of disease. He moved to restore order,
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protect food supplies and curb profiteering.
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And even as Lisbon grieved, officials began planning a safer
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city. When Lisbon was rebuilt, it used
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an internal timber framework inside masonry walls.
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They called it the pommelin cage.
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It was designed to let buildings move more safely in an
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earthquake instead of simply shattering. 28 years later, a
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major earthquake struck Calabria in southern Italy.
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Frequently repeated account says a palace built on that system
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survived when much of its town was destroyed.
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Jesus told a story about two men and two houses.
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A storm came and only one survived.
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He labeled the man who built on stone at the wise 1 he built.
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He labeled the man who built on sand foolish.
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Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say the wise man got
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better weather. The rain fell on both.
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The floods came on both. The winds beat on both houses.
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Same storm, different foundation.
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An explanation is sand. It shifts the moment new
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evidence comes in. A foundation is stone.
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It is what you built before you needed it, and what you do first
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when the ground moves. As a widely shared saying puts
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it, serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the
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storm. The better story to tell
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yourself is I don't need an explanation, I need a
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foundation. When you need to rebuild, don't
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focus on explanations. Bury the dead, heal the living.
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Build on solid ground. Tell me a story of solid
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foundations to from chadsmith@gmail.com Since when a
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text and asked them if you had to rebuild tomorrow, what's the
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first thing you'd do?