I, like many of you in your life, have been dealt a crappy deck of cards. Many people have said to me, “I don’t know how you have done it all’. To tell you the truth, sometimes neither do I.
I tell myself every day, just take one more step forward. Sometimes that step is outside of my comfort zone, outside of my routine, or outside of my circle of trust. You never know how far you will go if you don’t just take that one extra step. One day you will look back and see how far you made it. The pain you may have felt at the time will only be a memory and not physical. The reason I decided to reach out and share this is because each one of us is battling something in our lives. These battles could be be financial, work, family, personal illness, time management (too much to do and too little time), and the list goes on. Too often these battles make us want to stop dead in our tracks and hope for things to change. Hope is not a strategy (there’s a book on that). Sometimes change causes us to stop dead in our tracks too. We are all experiencing some type of change in our lives. Some change is self-imposed, some is imposed by others. Change is what drives us to the best version of ourselves. I have a 97 this semester in school, made quota, cared for my father n law, lost him on March 17th, still grieving, and yet still wake up every day and put one foot in front of the other. I do this because I know today’s change, sacrifice and pain will be tomorrows better version of me filled glory and only the memories of the pain to get there. We create change, we have the power of choice and to choose to put one foot in front of the other. When you think you’re at your limit, truth is you’re only 40%. Here is a great video that explains what I mean. http://bigthink.com/videos/jesse-itzler-on-living-with-a-navy-seal
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Christina,
So powerful this was to read. You certainly have had adversity and also courage. Obviously the pharmacist saw that grit in you that he trusted and potential you did not yet know you had. Google "grit" and you will see what I mean about that quality and what it means for success - who has it, how to get it, how to tap into it. Hands down you got it. Grit is more indicative of success than almost any other indicator and is best described as mental toughness. Being able to reprogram your brain and knowing you need to train your thoughts differently is an incredible skill to have. Nice submission. - Amy This is the response from my professor after I wrote a paper on Adversity. I explained in my paper that adversity was a way of learning and growing for me. I learned from watching my mother struggle with her poor decisions and knew that not how I wanted my life to turn out. I had several people provide me opportunities and I made the best of them as well as ALWAYS put forth 110% because my effort would be a direct representation of them. I had nobody to fall back on if I failed. This is a portion of the paper I wrote. I would be happy to post the books if anyone is interested in reading them. I had nobody to fall back on if I failed. My learning did fall in one of Akin’s roster of modes of learning. I had no one to Emulate, but I did take on “role taking, in which one has a conception of what one should be and does it. (Bennis, 2009). I learned from that one experience that if someone provides you an opportunity to better your life, don’t burn the bridge, give it your all, and do your best to make your success theirs. This learning also fits Akins modes of learning by “Practical accomplishment, in which one sees a problem as an opportunity and learns through the experience of dealing with it.” (Bennis, 2009) Lesson Two: Accept Responsibility. Blame No One. This lesson was a difficult one for me because even though I had the strength and will to be different than my mother, I was influenced by her as a child. How could I not? She would always blame everyone for anything negative that happened to her. Therefore I had to reprogram myself to think differently as an adult. I had many mentors who I would emulate to learn this new way of thinking and believing. I truly feel that accepting responsibility and blaming no one but yourself is a belief. Once I got to page 60 in chapter 3, I was moved by Bennie saying, “Leaders begin, then, backing themselves, inspiring themselves, trusting themselves and ultimately inspire others by being trustworthy.” I have never been able to describe why I have overcome so many obstacles and pain throughout my life until that moment that I read that. I have made my life my way by understanding it. At the end of chapter 4 there was a paragraph that listed what learning from experience means. The one that fits me best was the first one. I learned from looking back on my childhood and what happened enabled me to become the master of my own life rather than its servant (Bennie, 2009). On Becoming A Leader, By Warren Bennis 2009 |
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