Monday, January 22, 2007

Waterwings

You engage. You assess. You audit. You scope. You plan. And then what?

You move forward…or not. Sometimes you leave the gate in a blaze of fire and power and sometimes you simply fizzle.

How many client or personal engagements have looked promising or like the one…… the ultimate…….the paradigm/life changer. And then one morning you wake up to find yourself farther back than before you began.

Frustrated, angry, hurt…wondering what went wrong, where to place the blame – worse – on whom to place the blame.

We’ve all been there.

But, is there a remedy? Is there a formula that mitigates the fizzle; alleviates the hurt; tempers the angry and mitigates the need to blame and lash out?

How about this:  what if real outcome is what we do and not only where we end up…..think on this one:

Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.
Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve is one of my personal heroes. I had occasion to work with his foundation. After his accident he engaged, assessed, audited, scoped and planned. He believed that spinal cord research would find a cure for the paralyzed.  He fought for stem cell research. He worked and sweated just to be able to move his head – a little – from side to side.

His condition deteriorated. He didn’t move forward…or did he?

By the metric of final outcome he was a failure. He died fully paralyzed and physically helpless.

By the metric of what he did – he was a great and huge success. He raised the consciousness of the world.  He made great inroads into funding important science. And, he inspired countless numbers of challenged people to move on.

So when you feel fizzled out look around.  Are you in the shallow end or are you swimming in the ocean?  And, it seems to me that if you are… you are already successful!

Grab your flippers, surfboard, water wings or whatever and plunge…nothing at all can stop you.

What do you think?

Posted by David on 01/22 at 09:10 AM
(4) Comments • Permalink

  1. Very well put. It definetly highlighted an important aspect of life that one battles with. Look forward to more such blogs. :-) Cheers.

    Posted by Sunil Bahl  on  2007-01-23 05:42:23

  2. Congrats. Good Blog http://www.gbuzzi.com.ar/blog/

    Posted by Gbuzzi  on  2007-01-23 12:46:41

  3. My first job out of college (in the 60s) was working for a man named Paul J. Meyer, at the tinme one of the leading players in personal motivation and leadersip development in the U.S. He once told me that succesas is all about action. Once you have a plan, put it into effect, and begin moving toward the goal, you are at that moment, successful - as long as you keep moving. By this definition, it is possible to become and instant successful. Wise words, and highly motivating when the going gets rough.

    Posted by Richard Tooker  on  2007-01-23 19:58:17

  4. And, I might add -- teaching our clients to embrace this kind of thinking; inspiring our friends and family by example are all ways to move farther ino the ocean....

    Posted by David Sable  on  2007-01-25 14:42:23

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