The Best Surprises Occur When You Surprise Yourself

Who doesn't love a good surprise? Whether it's a birthday party, a simple gesture, or finding money in your coat pocket, just about everyone enjoys surprises. But in my opinion, the best surprise comes from within -- when you surprise yourself.

"How is that possible?" you may ask. Well, you know the feeling you get when you're able to do something others say you can't? That feeling gets magnified when you do something that even YOU don't think you can do. And that's the surprise I'm referring to.

It happened to me just the other day. (I'll keep it short.) For a couple months now, the hi-beams (aka - the brights) on my wife's car would ALWAYS be on when you turned on the lights. After getting several dirty looks from the residents of SW Missouri, it became impossible to drive her car at night.

Regardless of how simple or complex the problem was, I knew it was going to cost a pretty penny just to take it somewhere. So one morning, when my wife was out with my car, I decided to be very risky. Yes, I started taking apart her steering column piece-by-piece. I had no idea what I was doing and no anticipation of fixing anything. I just thought if maybe I moved things around it would solve the problem.

It didn't.

But instead of putting it back together, I took apart even more things. And low and behold, I found the issue. It was just one stupid little piece of plastic! After 10+ years, it had worn down and was no longer serving it's purpose.

It wasn't something I could run to Auto Zone and pick up. Even if it was, I couldn't drive without an assembled steering column. So I took another risk... I grabbed the super glue and tried to re-create the original piece of plastic. I waited for it to dry, put everything back together, and turned on the lights...

It worked!

I couldn't believe it. I never expected it to actually work. I had totally surprised myself, and it was awesome.