Getting Prolific, Day 9: Seized By An Irrational Determination

Will you allow your talent to grow in response to your aspiration?

We’re all familiar with unrequited love.

But what about underground love?

Here’s a headline about this very idea that caught my attention recently.

Married man builds secret tunnel to his lover’s house, busted by her husband.

According to newspaper reports, the gentleman in question was a construction worker who put his professional skills to personal use. Alberto and his lover had managed to get away with their affair for some time, until one day her husband arrived home from work earlier than usual and caught the pair in the act.

While the philandering construction worker cowered behind the couch, the woman’s angry husband noticed a hole that led into a tunnel underneath his house. When he climbed down to the passageway, it led him all the way back to the construction worker’s home.

Neither were available for comment.

Wow, now that’s what you call commitment. That’s what a person who wants something does.

Sure, the measures this particular man took were illegal on several counts, like breaking and entering, trespassing, vandalism and adultery.

But let’s not lose sight of the big picture here. All crimes aside, it’s hard not to have a smile on your face when you read a story like this.

Forget about the fact that this affair probably dissolved two marriages. This guy built a freaking tunnel. With his bare hands. Just to see this woman. Alexandro set a goal and had a dream inside his heart that nothing was going to stop. Not even the desert floor.

We should all be so fortunate to desire something or someone that much in our lives. Shakespeare would have bought this man a pint, for sure.

Because stories like this that reveal the transformative power of the human spirit are what tragic plays are made of. Also country songs.

The other key lesson from this story is about the power of applying professional skills for personal use.

Alexandro was clearly a man who had a good working relationship with his own talent. He knew that his experience of toiling in the sun as a construction worker could be useful in his romantic endeavors, so he hired himself and put those skills to use for multiple people’s benefit.

He transferred his talents from one domain to increase his fulfillment in another. He epitomizes grit in the figurative and literal sense of the word.

Most people don’t do that. They don’t give themselves permission to enlist every part of themselves to get better results.

Our tunnel digging friend here had the courage to go deep, double pun definitely intended, with his underground love. Which will no doubt be a handy skill for escaping the prison he’s going to spend the next year in.

Remember, dithering guarantees defeat. If something feels like a step forward toward your dream, no matter how small or ridiculous it seems, go make it happen.

Allow your talent to grow in response to your aspiration.

And for god’s sake, make sure your lover’s husband isn’t home.

What if you were seized by an irrational determination to forge ahead?

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