All of us face challenges from time to time, and I’ve grabbed hold of an important principle that we should apply in those kinds of times. It’s the Anti-Deer-in-the-Headlights Principle.

When difficulty comes, sometimes we stop—frozen in our tracks—and the difficulty becomes DANGER!

When I was a kid we had a large field of alfalfa behind our house. The groundhogs loved it. From our back window I could see them crawling through the alfalfa and I’d sneak out into the field with my Dad’s single-shot .22 caliber rifle and crawl on my belly until I was in position. Then I’d whistle loudly and it would startle the groundhog. He’d stop. Then he’d raise on his hind legs to look for where the sound came from. BANG!

Imagine if you started to drive across the railroad tracks and your car stalled on the tracks. Would you just sit there wide-eyed? Or would you get out and get moving? Then why do we so often stop in the swamp when we get bogged down by stuff?

Forward momentum is of utmost importance. There’s a song on the radio that says “If you’re going through Hell, keep on going, don’t slow down, if you’re scared don’t show it, you might get out before the Devil even knows you’re there.” But not if you stop.

It’s a weird quirk of humanity that in times of trouble we stop, frozen in the headlights, dead on the tracks facing the oncoming train.

Next time you find yourself in difficulty, hit the gas! Don’t stop. Accelerate through the problem and let the forward momentum carry you to safely to the other side.