Taking a Rest Day.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I would share a few of my life’s best coaching moments on rest days. So, here we go with the first in this series.
I believe that all of us are born with a specific and unique set of gifts and talents. I think that through these gifts, if we learn to leverage them, we make our finest contributions to our families and communities.
Most talents are obvious or require only a little bit of digging to recognize, i.e., a natural aptitude for art, sports, math, technology, salesmanship, writing, etc. However, I have discovered that some gifts are not readily apparent. These strengths and talents stay hidden below the surface until some situation occurs that draws them out and we recognize them. This usually has happens in adverse conditions that cause a person to stretch or act in a new way.
Let me try to explain. A few years ago, I went through a particularly dark time in my life. I was struggling. Likewise, I had been through a series of difficult times in the years prior to this. Some of the adversity was self-created. Some was purely circumstantial.
Around this time, I was leading a discussion around this idea of every person having talents. During this discussion, I referred to the gifts that I see in my children and siblings. I listed “persistence” as one of the gifts that I admire in one of my family members. I mentioned how much I wished that I could count persistence as one of my strengths.
At that very moment, when I considered my experiences over the previous 10 years, I suddenly realized that persistence IS one of my talents. It had always been there. But, I never recognized it until then. That “coaching” moment was a quiet life changer.
Once discovered, I started to look for ways and opportunities to apply it more fully. Somehow, just knowing this about myself has made a huge difference. For example, I have set some new and challenging goals for myself over the next few years. I do not yet see the full path to reach them. But I do know two things. I can work like crazy. And I can be blindingly persistent until I achieve the thing that I set out to do.
I am thankful for this late life discovery. It makes me more open to the next thing that life might be trying to show me .
The Journey:
I am eager to get back out on the road tomorrow morning as A2B starts looking ahead to Big Bear Lake and the Mojave Desert.
Great thinking and comments, Daryl! I believe that most people have the inner strength to endure almost anything that we encounter in life. Once
we realize that, we can draw on that strength when the going gets rough.
It does not make the task at hand go away or get any easier, but it does help us realize that we CAN bear the difficulties and DO IT! Persistence is, indeed, a talent, and it is needed in almost all worthwhile accomplishments. To exercise it, however, sometimes requires reaching way down within ourselves to find that strength and courage to hang in. I know that you have been there.