“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
A pursuit of excellence doesn’t just stop at scholarship, the arts or athletic pursuits. It is also meant to include service to others. Giving of oneself without expectation of return.
Servant-hood.
The excellence with which you treat, care for and support others. How you affirm their ultimate value and importance to you and others just may enable them to recognize those traits in themselves. By making them the focus of your thoughts, your words and your deeds, you raise them up. And in the process, you cannot help but raise yourself up too.
Service to others is the tried and true method of connecting all of us together, in an unbreakable bond.
When intention fully employed and acted upon intersects with an unflinching level of intensely personal investment, the result can be exponential. The product of you becoming a positive force multiplier.
An entity ever rippling outward.
You see, nothing we ever do in life exists in a vacuum. Your thoughts, words and actions convey your precise intention and personal investment to the public in every venture you pursue. Things that you hold dear are revealed to all each step you take to achieve it. Everything is seen, heard and felt by all of those around you.
The positive force of your choice, action and effort has the potential to be multiplied when those who witness that change in you then choose to embark upon a similar course and make it their very own.
That being said, when you push beyond physical limitations, imagined boundaries of comfort and personal obstacles, others will be led to do the same.
When you exert the mental acuity needed to eliminate distractions, have a short memory when it comes to mistakes and you can “be” totally present, others will witness those outcomes and choose to travel right down that same path along with you.
By stripping yourself of limitations imposed by selfish interests, the constraints of ego and moving beyond “me” to unleash a positive and lasting energy that can only be found in “we”, you will articulate a selflessness meant to be embraced and emulated by all.
Display the courage to give up yourself so that others may become the best version of themselves? Then all will be raised up – as well as you – in the process.
And finally, when you love your teammates and those around you enough to make them the center of your universe, you will be an exemplar of faith in them. An avenue to return your love of them with the same depth and commitment back to you.
So as you embark on the next step of your quest to become what you were intended to be, appreciate the positive force multiplier that lies within each one of you.
Understand how intention and investment cannot exist in a vacuum.
And that the impact of the intersection of your intentional action and your limitless investment therein is seen, heard and felt across all of your universe.
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time when the tide will turn.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
Too often, when we do get into that tight place in our life, we give up a little too early. We quit literally just moments in advance of the turning tide. A situation to which I can speak of, having been there more than once. And I will bet that I will be there once again.
But as Ms. Stowe implies, it only “seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer”.
“Seems” is a subjective state of mind. Fear, anxiety insecurity guides us to follow that chain of thought. Rather than just holding on a minute longer.
And if we allow circumstances such as these to rule the day, “seems” can work its way into our psyche and make the transition to become doubt. A self-induced concoction meant to move us off of perseverance and faith. And then, our doubts will only betray us.
So, speaking from experience, never give up then.
Gird yourself for just another minute.
For that is precisely the place and time when the tide will turn.
“If you can’t live through adversity, you’ll never be good at what you do. You have to live through the unfair things, and you have to develop the hide to not let it bother you and keep your eyes focused on what you have to do.”
— Maurice “Hank” Greenberg
I will go one step further.
It is simply not enough to live through adversity, to choose a path of tolerant coexistence and acceptance. Instead, you have to learn how to embrace another tack, and go far beyond just leaning into it.
You have to figure out how to thrive in it. Because if you are living right, adversity ain’t ever gonna be a “one and done” thing. “If” that something just happens to happen.
Adversity will then always be a “when” event.
That is for certain.
Because if you consistently push out beyond your personal envelope of safety and constantly venture out beyond the confines of comfort, you will be creating guarantors that produce more than your fair share of adversity. The “when” will then always be the operative word to describe the frequency of adversity’s presence in all of your endeavors.
So perhaps at first, leaning directly into an increasing array of challenges isn’t always possible or prudent. After all, they are new surroundings. And this is an acquired taste.
But in time, you will learn to thrive in this environment. Not just in spite of it – but because of it. You will develop a rare sense of perspective. Become adept at recognizing the opportunity that is hidden within every trial and tribulation. And then, proceed to shine in spite of it.
I promise.
Sure a thicker hide will help absorb and deflect the punishment those moments are bound to deliver as Mr. Greenburg asserts.
But a stoutness of character paired with a resolute courage in your convictions will always help you to overcome just about anything.
And not just “if “ they do.
But when they present themselves.
Then, once that begins to happen, things will no longer happen to you.
“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have known you could be.”
Coaches see things in you, that you are not ready to see yourself.
Like the precious gems that we know you to be, we aim to clean you up and take off the rough edges.
Over time, you will learn to take on and embrace the luster that we have always known to exist within. So when the moment is right, and your time comes, the world will then see what we knew was always there. Then, everything changes. And you will realize the potential you have been blessed to possess.
So until then, be patient. Persevere. Not only keep the faith within yourself. But also that which we have always had in you.
Allow us to help you burnish the exterior, remove the protective coatings that have been applied over the course of the years and make you all you were meant to be.
After all, that has always been our only goal. One of brilliance.
...my temporary assignment. 