When you can’t save yourself all you can do is shout.

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad number 1184 to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. This message is dedicated to Brian Clark, who turned around.

Here’s the upgrade:

You think surviving is something you do alone, but upgraded thinking knows survival often depends on someone else’s decision to turn back.

Here’s the story:

September 11, 2001. Stanley Praimnath worked on the 81st floor of the South Tower. He was at his desk when he looked up and saw the second plane. It wasn’t in the distance. It was lined up with his window, close enough to see the logo on the fuselage. He had maybe three seconds. He dove under his desk and prayed one line: “Jesus, please save me.”

The plane hit the 78th floor. His office came down on top of him — ceiling tiles, drywall, steel, all of it. He was buried alive, in a pocket of space that shouldn’t have existed. So he did the only thing left to do. He started shouting.

Two floors above him, a man named Brian Clark was already walking to safety. He was an executive with Euro Brokers, moving down one of the only stairwells still passable in that part of the building. He had every reason to keep going. He didn’t know Praimnath. Had never met him.

When Brian heard Stanley’s shouts he turned around anyway and climbed back up into a floor that was on fire and filling with smoke, looking for a stranger’s voice buried somewhere in the wreckage. Stanley encountered a wall that stood intact despite the destruction around him. He could hear Brian’s voice on the other side. He instructed Stanley to climb over it, promising to catch him on the other side.

Stanley tried to jump but missed. Feeling unable to climb over, he suddenly felt a surge of strength and began punching the drywall. He successfully punched a hole through the wall, making it large enough to fit his head through. Once his head was through, Brian grabbed him in a headlock and pulled him over the wall with enough force that they both went down the stairs together to escape to safety. Less than half an hour later, the South Tower came down.

Praimnath became one of only four people to survive from above where the plane hit. It didn’t happen because he was strong enough to dig himself out. It happened because he didn’t stop shouting, and because a stranger was willing to turn back. If you search “Stanley Escaped” in YouTube his story is easy to find. After the events of 9/11 Stanley entered a ministerial program and became an ordained pastor serving in New York.

The better story to tell yourself is, “Keep shouting. Someone will hear you.”

Tell me a story of someone who turned back for you to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and tell them, “I’m glad you didn’t give up on me.” You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at http://www.fromchad.com.