A New Day, A New Start

From the day we are born, we engage with others and begin to make decisions based on our experiences, our preferences for certain things, and our interactions with other people.  Our personality develops and our lives evolve into a collection of experiences resulting in what is commonly known as a life path.  We acknowledge our personal history, learn from it, live in the present and make plans for the future along this path.  As we traverse this path sometimes we may not like a direction it’s headed in, we decide to challenge ourselves, or feel that it’s time to improve upon ourselves in some way.  It is then that we engage in one of the most challenging things to do in life, creating a new start for ourselves.

The developments of modern technology have not matched the science fiction story telling of books and movies, therefore traveling back in time to accomplish a completely new start is impossible to do.  Yet there’s a natural mechanism we encounter every day that allows for us to create a new start.  It’s called a sunrise.  With the dawn of each day we have an opportunity to chart a new life path for ourselves and the possibility of starting something new when we wake up.

There are of course some life circumstances and the reality that we cannot make a drastic change from one end of the spectrum to the other overnight.  The manageable approach however is to make a conscious decision when the sun rises to do something different than our regular norm to create a better life for ourselves.  It’s easy to look for a conditional “if-then” excuse to try something new, or do something different in life, so let the sunrise and the start of a new day be that excuse.  We need to empower ourselves, dig deep into our intrinsic motivation and decide that today is the day that things begin to change for me. 

If eating healthier is a decidedly new start, then when waking up one day the first thought should be today I’m going to go grocery shopping for a healthier meal option, or I will start doing some research on how to create a healthier diet for myself.  Whether it’s quitting smoking, launching a business, learning an instrument, or even creating better more beneficial personal habits, the chance for a new start begins with a solitary decision to make a difference, and taking the first step.  That first step doesn’t have to be drastic, it just has to be a step in the direction of the new path you want to embark on.  From there, more steps can be taken and the momentum can be built upon as you move forward to that new start. 

The caveat here is not to get lost in the seductive misleading idea that change happens immediately and results will be automatic and significant in a short period of time.  That’s all too romantic of an idea and when results don’t happen as quickly as expected, it’s easy for frustration and quitting to lead into a dead end where progress is stifled.  It’s important to remember that good habits usually take about 21 days by conventional knowledge to take hold.  Time, dedication, and perseverance are the best assets to creating a new path.   But we need to remember that just like a huge oak tree comes from a tiny acorn, big changes come from just the first step, no matter how small it might be.

Follow Your Passion

I recently saw a meme that said “Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.”  Unfortunately I don’t have a person to credit that to because there wasn’t a name listed, but it was timely that I came across it.  We always hear in motivational speaking, books, memes on social media, etc. catchy phrases such as “Follow your passion”, or “Do what you love”.  I have found it to be solid advice and letting passion light my way (as the meme says) has helped me on my own personal journey thus far, which is why I want to share my experience with you encouraging you to follow your passion.

As you read this blog post, it serves as substantial evidence that following your passion can lead to successful results.  All my life I’ve enjoyed writing in a variety of forms because I believed in the art of words and how they can touch someone reading them.  That passion lead me into my Master’s Degree program in Health Communications, but I digress.  While I was in the midst of starting an active job search about a year and a half ago, a close friend that I look up to, sent me a couple blog posts of a guy who had been in my similar position.  He started following his passion, which eventually developed into his own personal business.  Admittedly I was immediately emotionally touched by the posts and felt like they were speaking directly to me at a time when I needed encouragement.  The next day I taught myself how to start a blog site, and started developing content to post. 

My first post was “Coaching at Work” and went up on August 20, 2013.  I had no idea what direction my site would take, but I knew this is what I loved doing about topics I enjoyed writing about.  Fast forward to today and my writing has taken off.  I’ll be honest, I don’t have a job in it, but it has opened up doors for me in areas I never expected allowing for the potential for even more job opportunities.  Since that day, 3650 views, across 46 posts that I’ve written, it is now a part of the New World Flood website which I was not a part of previous to this post.  I’ve also been able to write a few articles for a statewide Texas Magazine covering events in Austin, TX, national ones such as South by Southwest, and the ESPN X Games as well as writing social media copy for a couple business websites.  I say all this not to brag, but to serve as proof that things can start happening if you follow your passion.  All too often we get sucked into empty motivation where people will suggest doing something and they have no proof that it works, or that success can come from it, and I’m sharing my own personal examples to prove that it can happen.

If you Google ‘Follow Your Passion’ you will find a fair amount of people who disagree with that line of thinking.  Those that disagree will assert that you should “Love what you do”, and “Do what contributes”.  They will also suggest that in areas where there are a small number of successful people at the top, professional athletes, political offices, company CEOs, that it can be discouraging if following your passion doesn’t land a person in those positions.  A person’s opinion is a person’s opinion, but I ask you to make your own decision and question, why does it have to be mutually exclusive? 

There is a chance that you are currently in a job that might not be in a field or involve tasks that you are passionate about.  That’s reality, that’s life.  But in the process of following the advice of “Love what you do” and unifying it with “Follow your passion” why not try to think of creative ways to incorporate something you are passionate about into the work that you currently do?  For example if you work at a call center but you’re passionate about knitting why not start knitting during your lunch breaks and offer to make items for coworkers.  If you work at a bank, but your passion is boating you can start a boating club that coworkers can join and you can teach them about boating.  This can even extend beyond the work place.  Once you’ve identified your passion, you live in a community that has a wide variety of people living in them with different interests.  In the process of “Doing what has value” and following your passion, your passion might fulfill a niche within your community that can engage and help others in ways you never imagined.

The bottom line here is that as a human being regardless of where you come from, how much money you have, or what your culture is, we share some very basic tenets of personality.  We all have things that we are passionate about, we all have a desire to matter and make a difference, and we all have a value of some sort.  If we can harness, and combine those things together, what we are passionate about can make a difference and provide a value (monetary or not) to the community we live in and beyond.  Sometimes that value can even be very validating of our sense of self and help to make meaning of the world.  As you finish reading this post I encourage you to find your passion, think of ways that it can manifest itself in your life, and then follow it to success.

Going for the Gold

Here in Austin, Texas the city is alive with the buzz of ESPN X Games Austin 2014 kicking off on Wednesday.  The ESPN X Games Austin 2014 crew has been here for a while making plans, and constructing what will be a tour de force of fun, sports and music happening downtown, at Austin 360 Amphitheater and at Circuit of the Americas.    The competition will be undoubtedly fierce in a variety of events for gold medals.   

You see, whether you’re a fan of an event that will be here, whether you’ve never seen any of the events before, or even if you don’t care about the X Games Austin 2014, we all are a part of our own process in going for gold medals in our lives just like the athletes competing.  That’s what I want to talk about this week is 3 major components of going for the gold in our own lives.

So far I’ve already had the privilege of talking with Chase Hawk (BMX), and Jay Reichert (Stadium SUPER Trucks), two of the athletes participating in this year’s games and the common thread between them and you and I is that the pursuit of professional and personal goals is a long committed process.  Both athletes talked about how they got started and stayed committed to their sport, practicing and participating in competitions for a long time.  As you pursue your own personal or professional goals it too can be a long arduous process that has its trials and tribulations.  Getting a raise might be followed up the next year by getting overlooked for one.  Maybe you’re saving up to launch your own business but the financial woes you face keep putting it on hold.  It could even be a situation where you keep just adding on voluntary tasks to strengthen your resume to be ready for when you find your dream job so that you can be qualified to apply.  Much like the athletes I spoke to who are successful at reaching and participating on a grand stage, you too will eventually succeed, and land that consistent raise, launch that business, and secure that dream job so that you are in that position to get your own gold medal in life. 

The work ethic however must be driven by passion a second necessary component to achieving gold.  We must have an intrinsic motivation and love of the pursuit process of our goals.  While talking to Jay Reichert, it was obvious that he absolutely loved driving Stadium SUPER Trucks.  After only one question he lit up as he talked about what it was like in the driver seat of his truck during a race, and had story after story of other races, practice runs, wrecks, and even what it was like to analyze the truck’s performance in trials.  That’s the type of passion we must have to transform our dreams into reality.  There has to be a passion about how we talk about our goals, and the work that we are doing to achieve them.  The intrinsic motivation and joy that we feel, should be palpable to anyone who asks, or observes us as we pursue our hopes and dreams.

Throughout the process of chasing our own gold medals, it is imperative to continuously set and aim for new goals.  We need to be battle tested as we move forward and test ourselves with various opportunities that come up.  This part of the pursuit process helps us to prepare for our shining moment.  This could be taking on a project that utilizes our skills, maybe taking an extra class, getting involved in an association outside of work, or anything else that will enhance our skill development and prepare us for our end goal.  These are all a part of the proverbial ‘corporate ladder’, because a ladder exists in all processes of pursuing a dream.  Each rung is further progression to the top of your game.  Much like these X Games Austin 2014 athletes are involved in circuit competitions around the United States, and some around the world which serve as their rungs of the ladder while they pursue a gold medal.

As we work at achieving our own gold medals through hard work, determination and success it’s important that we remember that it’s a process, we must maintain our passions, and be constantly ready to be tested along the way.   Sometimes we will get a few silver and bronzes along the way, but that gold is waiting and it’s achievable.  It will happen.

 

 

Never Stay Down

Imagine that you’re walking on a city sidewalk on your way to run an errand.  You’re walking with a purposeful stride, the sun is out, life is good, and you’re on a mission to get things done.  As your head is on a swivel taking in your surroundings at eye level, there is chip in the sidewalk ahead of you.  It’s sitting there with impending misfortune for your next few steps and you’re completely unaware of the foreshadowing that is about to become reality.  The toe of your shoe catches the jagged sidewalk and you stumble and fall to the ground.  After gathering yourself, you stare back at the chip that led to your demise with severe disdain as you check your hands, elbows and knees.  With no physical damage done, your cheeks are a bit flushed with embarrassment.  Then without a second thought, you get up and continue on your way to reach your destination.  I take you through this scenario because we’ve all experienced something similar, and in each situation we always get up and continue on our way after we stumble or fall. 

Life is full of unexpected chipped sidewalks laying in our paths as we pursue our goals.  Sometimes it’s the loss of a job, failing a class, a break up/divorce, financial struggles or anything else that we don’t anticipate that makes us stumble and fall on our path through life.  But similar to the above scenario as if it was an actual chip in the sidewalk that we stumbled on, we need to get back up and continue on our way.

When life’s unforeseen obstacles make us fall, our pride might take a hit and quite often there is some pain that comes with it.  Sure it may hurt for a while or we might be lucky and it’s a short lived pain.  Ultimately however, it will not hurt forever, and we can heal from those heartaches and pains that make us feel like a failure, or that we aren’t good enough.  What matters most is that we don’t give up moving forward and just sit there stationary in our lives because of one misstep.  Imagine if you were still sitting in the spot where you last tripped and fell on the ground.  There’s no way that you would sit on that sidewalk for days, months or years without getting up.  So if you wouldn’t let that happen, then let’s not get stuck in the rut we’ve fallen in after getting knocked down in life.

Sure it seems easy for me to say to you from outside the box as I sit behind my laptop writing this, because I don’t know your story or what you’re going through.  But I do know that you’re a strong person and so am I, and we’ve all survived difficult times in our lives before.  Quite often it is very tough when we’re in a situation to see a way out of it, but we’ve survived hardships before, so we can do it again!  This isn’t the first and it certainly won’t be the last time we stumble and fall, so let’s get back up and keep on pursuing that dream, chasing that goal, and making a difference before we stumbled and fell.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned through experience it’s that life doesn’t always go the way we’ve planned it.  It’s filled with those cracked sidewalks to make us trip, and fall, and it’s filled with plenty of detours as well.  The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but there’s always a detour when it comes to life and it certainly isn’t always linear. 

That’s when we need to dig deep within ourselves to find that intrinsic motivation and refocus on our goals.  Figure out what our true motivation was at the beginning of our journey before we fell.  This is the first step to help picking ourselves back up.  Sometimes there is some pain in getting back up, and we need others to help us out.  It feels dependent, when all we want is independence, but there’s nothing wrong with that.  That’s the time when we look to family and friends, people in our community, or our social/professional network that can help get us back on our feet after getting knocked down.  Other times we need to pay a little more attention to the details and maybe retry something with a little more effort but just slightly change it.  Then the next time that chip in the sidewalk gets closer, we can step right over it, and keep on walking.

It’s important to remember that no matter what, we should not stay down.  We need to take some time to make sure we’re ok and ready to get back up.  Then make it happen, and stand stronger than ever while moving forward with the purpose and determination headed in the direction of success that we were moving towards before we fell.

 

 

Learning from Lacey's Legacy

The morning of April 9, 2014 many people awoke to the news that Lacey Holsworth, an 8 year old little girl in Michigan had died of cancer around 1:00am that morning.  People who have never met Lacey were saddened by her passing and felt that they themselves had lost a loved one.  While it is always sad when someone dies, especially a child, many felt connected to her touching story because it unfolded very publicly after an encounter in 2012 at Sparrow Hospital with Michigan State basketball star Adreian Payne.  The two formed an immediate bond which strengthened and grew over time.  As many learned of her battle with cancer, there was an outpouring of love and support showed to her and her family from total strangers.  You didn’t have to be a Spartan fan, to be a fan of Lacey cheering her on through her battle with Neuroblastoma.  Princess Lacey (a nickname she affectionately took on) was such a young spirit, but there are so many great lessons that we can learn from her. 

All too often, we get caught up in the hype and bravado that we have to be a well-known, wealthy or highly influential person to make a difference or be important.  Lacey taught us that significance comes in all sizes and ages.  As an 8 year old little girl she lived her life with courage, and had a tremendous positive influence on others.  A pebble can be dropped in a pond and even though it’s not the biggest rock there will be a ripple effect created.  This can positively influence the lives of others, so it’s not always necessary to be the biggest, loudest voice in the room, just the most genuine. 

When Lacey was sitting in Sparrow Hospital in 2012 recovering from surgery, she had no specific laid out plans to cut down a net at the Big Ten Championship game, watch Adreian Payne in the dunk contest in Dallas, TX, or go on the Today Show and Good Morning America.  Would it be cool?  Of course.  But Lacey was living her life, determined to smile through her discomfort and the life altering difficulties that cancer presented.  That determination lead to her building a bond with Adreian Payne, which lead to inspiring a whole basketball team, and eventually others across the nation.  Lacey was creating her own ripple effect by being herself.

Lacey’s determination and courage to keep smiling and make the most out of her days is something else that we all can learn from.  It’s easy to get caught up in the complaints of our daily lives because something isn’t going right, or it’s not going the way we planned it.  This isn’t to mitigate the serious nature of what’s happening, but it’s too easy for that negativity to consume us and dictate how we interact with those we love and others.  I’ve been guilty of it on certain occasions myself, so you won’t find any finger pointing here.  But what if we shifted our perspective a bit and took the time to be thankful for what we have in our lives?  What if we approached each day being thankful for being able to see the sun rise, thankful for having people in our lives who love us, and looking for the silver lining of different moments? 

Lacey was grateful for each day she had, because she never knew what day would be her last.  She always had a smile on her face whenever the camera would show her in the stands at a game, or when strangers would ask for pictures with her, even though she had so much going on in her life.  If we approached life with a little more gratefulness would our interactions with others change, would we enjoy the little moments a bit more, and not take so much for granted?

The legacy that Lacey has left behind will be impossible to measure.  She touched the lives of so many people and will continue to remain in the hearts of many.  A vigil at MSU in her memory brought out droves of people in and outside of the community many of whom signed a famous landmark rock on Michigan State University’s campus.  The rock usually gets repainted with something new every 24 hours, from student group names, to events, to proposals, etc., but that same message in her memory (pictured below) has been there since April 9^th with more and more people making the journey to sign it with prayers, words of encouragement for the family, and messages of love.  Her story has inspired ESPN sports analyst Dick Vitale a long-time advocate for cancer research to set up a research fund in her name (click here). 

Lacey was just a child, but the way she lived embodied the words of a former famous basketball coach Jim Valvano who died of cancer as well, “Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”

While you or I may not have cancer, if we live like Lacey with courage genuineness and determination, and love like Lacey (like it says at the bottom of the rock), while staying true to ourselves, we can leave our lasting impression on the world, and fully enjoy each and every day.

Simple Physics in Life

If you’ve ever taken a physics class in high school or college, you might agree or disagree with the title of this blog.  However, you’ve more than likely been introduced to Newton’s First Law of Motion, commonly referred to as The Law of Inertia.  In its most basic form, it states an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, and an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.  (I figured I’d save you the pain of reading about constant velocity by not quoting the actual law, or dredging up any more bad memories of physics classes that you might have.)  The point is that even though were are more complex than the simple objects that Sir Isaac Newton’s Law was created for, our lives mimic this law. 

Have you ever just had a really bad day where nothing seems to be going right, and it seems never ending?  Then all of a sudden something good happens, it makes you smile, and then it seems as if more and more good things seem to happen to bring you out of your dark state.  This is exactly how our lives can play out according to this law of physics.  That outside force of positivity acting on you, changed your emotional direction into a positive one when it seemed as if you were headed down a negative road.  The same thing happens when we are in a really great mood and something bad happens or it “acts” upon us and brings us down.

This is where we as humans are more special than a regular old object that sits in our surroundings.  We can be responsible for creating forces that bring us out of our own difficult situations.  While the same is true that we can also be responsible for creating forces that send us into bad situations when we’re already headed into a happy direction.

In addition to this, we are also responsible for being either a positive influential force on the lives of others or a negative one through the way that we treat other people, and the decisions we make.  Take for example a supervisor that is always berating employees, or not valuing their work ethic, and the effort they put forward.  The supervisor is limited in their view of the employee and sees the product produced, but they never appreciate the sweat equity that goes into the end result or recognizes it with appreciation.  This type of supervisor is someone who, while great at achieving the bottom line, might be creating a negative force bringing stress upon their employees and creating an unhappy, unhealthy work place.  I’m sure we all can think of different people in our lives in various situations who are negative forces, and those who are positive ones based on their actions and the things that they do.

As stated however, as humans we are more complex than objects so we do not only have to rely on extrinsic forces influencing our daily lives, we can create intrinsic ones for ourselves, as well as consciously be responsible for forces that affect those around us.  If you have found yourself volunteering your time to support others, or you have been someone that listens to that close friend who needs you at a difficult time, these are examples of creating positive forces to influence the lives of others.  If you’ve ever put in the effort to achieve one of your goals that seemed unattainable, or you’ve overcome a difficulty through perseverance and determination these are examples of creating intrinsic forces that are acting upon you to move you in a positive direction.  Even the power of positive thinking can be a force that affects how we move through our daily lives, and affects the decisions we make for ourselves.

There is acknowledgment that there are some extrinsic forces that we can’t control such as weather, government decisions, personal health issues, etc.   However we have the ability once acted upon by those forces to create our own intrinsic ones to take action to keep us moving in a positive direction no matter how bleak the future might seem, or insurmountable the obstacle that we face.  Also extremely important is having the awareness of the influence that we are having on those around us and the types of forces that we are creating on their lives.  Ultimately through positive thinking, awareness of our actions and of our decision making, we can create more positive forces and in fact move ourselves and others in a more positive direction.

They Will Say No, You Will Say Yes

It’s definitely that time of year in sports.  There are NFL Playoff games happening, and NCAA College Basketball is in full swing.  So many of us watch great catches and defensive plays on the football field, and then flip the channel to amazing dunks that make us stand up and high five complete strangers.  If you take the time to read some of my past blogs, it will come as no surprise that I pull a lot of motivation and leadership philosophy from athletes, sports quotes and sports teams.

This week, I was reminded of something from playing basketball my freshman year in high school when I heard the stories of two athletes Derrick Coleman and Isaiah Austin.  I was reminded of a motivational quote our coach gave us during our first team meeting.  It stuck out to me, so I cut it out and hung it in my locker.  From then on, I would look at this quote all through high school, college, and eventually come to share it with people I supervised when I started working full time.  It’s from a Nike Ad (the ad is below) and although I love the whole thing, my favorite line is:

“They will tell you no.

A thousand times no. Until all the no’s become meaningless. 

All your life they will tell you no.

Quite firmly and very quickly.

And you will tell them yes.”

Derrick Coleman is a player for the Seattle Seahawks.  He climbed the ranks playing football through high school, at UCLA, and now will play on the greatest and biggest stage in the NFL, the Super Bowl.  I came across Derrick through, surprisingly enough, a Duracell commercial.  After reading more about Derrick I realized that he has a very inspirational story.  What you may not know about him, is that he is a legally deaf person playing in the NFL.  In a sport where snap counts, audibled plays (plays changed by the quarterback before the ball is hiked) and crowd noise play a vital role in the success of the team, Derrick has learned through his hearing aid and coping mechanisms to play at the most elite level in the sport.  From being a child trying to fit his hearing aid under his helmet, to going undrafted in the NFL, he was constantly being told ‘No’ and through perseverance and determination, he told them ‘Yes’.

The story of Isaiah Austin is also a story of triumph under difficult odds.  Isaiah Austin is a basketball player for Baylor University, a Division I Men’s Basketball Team.  Through a routine dunk in warm ups during middle school, he aggravated an injury from little league.  In basketball where eye sight and depth perception are as vital as a good jump shot, Isaiah was learning to play the game in a completely different way than most youth.  He tore his retina in one eye and despite surgery and efforts to save his sight, he eventually became blind in one eye.  He was therefore learning coping mechanisms to compensate for his sight, and how to play through his unique circumstance.  Bearing this secret until very recently, he admits to hiding his loss of vision in one eye because he was afraid people would tell him ‘No’ suggesting that he wasn’t good enough, or not take a chance on him because he only could see through one eye.  Instead he found ways to tell them ‘Yes’ before they even had a chance to say ‘No’.

I share these stories and the Nike Ad because intrinsic motivation is such a vital source of the drive we must have to succeed.  I think about my favorite line whenever I get the sense that someone thinks I’m not good enough, or when I come across an obstacle blocking me from something that I want to achieve.  Our circumstances may not be the exact same as Derrick’s or Isaiah’s, but they serve as great examples of how to overcome the odds against them to achieve their goals in life.

Most importantly I use the Nike Ad and will now think of these athletes when doubt creeps into my own mind wondering if I’m good enough, or talented enough.  I think it’s safe to say that we have all had moments of self-doubt where we have second guessed ourselves or berated ourselves in comparison to others.  We can easily get sucked into the spiral of negativity in our minds and our thoughts second guessing ourselves on whether we are capable of something.  It’s natural for those thoughts to creep in occasionally, but it’s even more crucial to put them out and stand resilient with the confidence in ourselves.  We have to eliminate those thoughts and be determined to succeed the same way Derrick and Isaiah have persevered through their challenges to succeed.  The reason this is so important is because as the Nike Ad says: “They will tell you No”, so if you’re not willing to tell them ‘Yes’, then who will?

Story from ABC about Derrick Coleman click here.

Story from Sportscenter about Isaiah Austin click here

Go the Distance

We have all had a slow day that leads us to spending some time on the internet checking out news stories and viral videos.  One headline story has some links on the side of the page to others and before we know it we’ve clicked and read through a labyrinth of articles.  In this same fashion I stumbled across one last week about Meredith Fitzmaurice, a runner who finished a marathon on accident.  An accident?  While whipped up in a frenzy of working out I’ve had great days where I had the energy to push through 5 more minutes on a run, or I did one extra set on the bench working out so I sort of get it.  It is difficult enough for most people to run a marathon and she finished one on accident?  It was hard to imagine how someone could finish a marathon “by accident”.  Or was it?

As I read the article (I’ve attached it below) I was obviously impressed by her accomplishment.  Then I paused and re-read it through a different lens.  I thought about how in life we typically have a path to success that we’ve planned and laid out for ourselves.  We work hard daily at our jobs, in our relationships or on something else in our personal lives.  We prepare ourselves, and do what we can to follow that plan, but life is very unpredictable as we go down that path.  There are the proverbial pot holes, or speed bumps that slow us down, but sometimes much like Meredith we get distracted by something, or something happens, and get unintentionally diverted onto a completely new path. 

Quite often we find this sort of diversion as a setback, and look at it as harmful to our commitment of staying the course.  We get sucked in to vilifying ourselves and beating ourselves up with thoughts such as: “How could this happen?”  “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” “What now?”  But what if we approached these diversions differently, and took Meredith’s perspective.  Once she realized she was off course, she asked for a race official on a bike to keep her company while she continued on and she became determined to finish even though it wasn’t her plan to run the full marathon.  When we get off course in our plan, it’s ok to ask for help and reach out to friends, family, neighbors, etc. to ask them to be with us as we continue on.  This is not a moment of weakness, it’s a testament to strength that we continue on despite the diversion.  What’s most important is to not give up.

I had a supervisor tell me once that success occurs when opportunity intersects with preparation.  The phrase comes from Seneca, a Roman philosopher who philosophized that we create our own ‘luck’ in life.  Meredith prepared for a half marathon, got diverted and her achievement superseded her expectations.  She created her own ‘luck’ through her preparation, and when the opportunity presented itself, she was ready to work harder than she planned and eventually achieved an unexpected success. 

As you follow the path you’ve laid out for yourself, whether it is at work, in relationships, or in another aspect of your life it’s important that when things do not go as planned that you don’t lose hope.  Don’t second guess yourself to think I’m not ready for this, I can’t go on.  There will be times where you are diverted from your plan because life is unpredictable, it’s inevitable.  What is important is to remember that you have what it takes to keep on going.  Sometimes you will have to go farther than you expected to reach success, and sometimes it will lead to great things you didn’t think were possible, and didn’t expect to achieve.  Meredith qualified for the Boston Marathon before she expected to, and she was the first woman to finish the unintentional marathon.  Sometimes things don’t go the way they are supposed to but you just have to keep pushing on and believe in yourself that you can finish the race.  Success is in your future, sometimes greater than you expected, you just have to keep pushing yourself.   I believe in you.

The link to the news story is here:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Half+marathoner+wins+marathon+mistake/8955604/story.html