“I am only one, but I am one. I can’t do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.”
Edward Everett Hale
There might be times or situations where things can seem overwhelming. That can be the nature of adversity. It is meant to test you, to elicit a response, in thought, word or deed.
True, you cannot do everything.
But there is one thing you are always capable of doing, no matter what: your best. And even if you fall short, you will never regret how you embraced the effort.
You are obligated to do your best, because you are built for it.
“Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone.”
Robert Allen
If you think about it, there can be no growth without some discomfort. To become “bigger” you must exceed the confines of your current boundaries. Pushing yourself up and out.
To become a better athlete, you must work out and break yourself down to enhance your physical strength, increase your speed and raise your stamina. Speaking from experience, that brings some hurt.
To become all you can be academically, you must study in an intentional and intense manner. There are honors classes and graduate courses. Projects, clubs and societies. Endeavors guaranteed to take take you out of your comfort level – but essential to open the door to opportunity, towards a degree, certificate and your life’s vocation.
To embrace all you can be artistically, you need develop your expression. You must create, discern the result and begin again, again and again before it develops a resonance within others. Failure must be an option if you intend to ultimately achieve what lay within.
And to become a better person, you have to learn to give up yourself and “leave it on the field”. Especially as a member of a team, you must learn to set aside some of the things you might want, need or dream of so that the whole can become what it is intended to be at this moment. The sacrifice needed to release potential and spur achievement.
Whether muscle soreness, mental exhaustion, or the uncertainty that can accompany sacrifice, each can be tough adversary to face and overcome.
And all reside exclusively just outside of your comfort zone.
“One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. He only is right who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded by worry, fret and anxiety. Finish every day, and be done with it. You have done what you could.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
To write it on your heart is a pledge. To take an oath. To commit. And once committed, to own it.
So let me ask you: “Where is the sense in holding in, holding on or holding out?” There can never be an inkling of thought granted to waiting for the “right moment”. For once you do, it is a lock that it will have already passed. Fretting over what might have been or might be is a waste of energy, effort and time.
It takes you out of where you are now: today.
Consigning your thoughts, words and deeds to “enduring” the so-called “fates” or embracing “conventional wisdom” can only lead you astray. Right down a path where things will undoubtedly happen to you. When in fact, you should always be the one happening to things.
Give some serious consideration to what Mr. Emerson proposes.
Every day can be the best day of the year. And if you do live it right – they should be. One right after the other. So write it on your heart. Bind yourself to that oath to own each and every one of them. Pledge your sacred honor to make this the best.
To epitomize attitude is often easier said than thought, understood and applied.
But attitude truly is everything.
In the right hands, a coach, mentor or leader can make attitude a powerful weapon of mass instruction. Instilling in others an awareness of its impact and how it can promote achievement and success. How it ripples ever outward. And ultimately, creates unanticipated growth.
Of all the things that we seek to control and temper throughout the course of our daily lives, attitude tends to be the one thing that is overlooked or taken for granted. Perhaps because it often requires more effort and perseverance than was ever anticipated. After all, it is not something that can be held, defined or KPI’d. It is only just attitude.
But then again, attitude is EVERYTHING. It alone belongs to and answers to us. It is a personal, business and life changer. If we can fully recognize and honor that.
However, more often than not, we choose to cede our authority to it. The wrong one. Allowing it to run rough-shod over us and others when we allow it. Attitude alone has the ability to transform any adversity into opportunity. Attitude provides one with the proper perspective regardless of the severity of the situation. It is our ally when we understand its goal. Enemy when we do not.
Attitude – good or bad – can go viral. It can become a highly contagious element. For good. And, for bad.
You must be willing and able to become the relentless source of a positive attitude for all. Not just for you. But for all.
And then?
Be willing to administer the vaccine should all negativity happen to turn it into a bad infection.
...my temporary assignment. 