“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” Robert Jordan
If your “2-year-old” self comes face to face with your “current self”, who would he/she be looking at?
A resilient self hopefully.
Resilience is a trait innate to humankind. That’s how the 2-year-old self learned how to walk, talk, and feed. We all tripped, we all fell, we hurt, we cried, but we tried.
There is no way growth can come through if there are no mistakes made, no failures experienced or no rough patches encountered. Three things to remember when you tripped:
- Growth isn’t a linear process. There are forward movements and then there are bumps, roller coasters, u-turns and who knows regressions as well. What’s important is that we dust off and try again.
- Taking time for some introspection is the first step towards well-being when we come short of achieving our goals. What needs to be adjusted – is timing, support network, style, perspective, and the intention behind the goal. A lot can be adjusted. And take the time to check where you need to bend like the willow.
- In any kind of work – talent, and persistence are equally important for success. But if you had to make a choice between the two, choose persistence. Because if you don’t soon your self-esteem will take a beating.
When we fail three things that can happen, we either decide the goal was not worth pursuing so give up, we may start blaming, complaining and start the vicious cycle of disempowerment or we get up, introspect, learn and try again.
In my life, I have seen the third option work the best.
It may pain to keep going at first. But that’s what commitments stand for, don’t they? Being true to them – regardless of the inconvenience.
Are you letting go of a goal just because you have hit a rough patch? Share your comments and thoughts.