Struggle: Recognize it, Own it, Re-Org, Move on
March 8, 2010
Over the past week, I noticed a reoccurring pattern butting its ugly, and sometimes necessary, head into my life, at expected and very random times. Oh hey there struggle. A year ago if someone had asked me why people struggle, I would have probably given a clichéd response about self-deprivation or the current, ever favorite scapegoat: the economy. However, over the past year and especially in the last week, I’ve realized that while struggling may be ugly, the process and outcome of struggling can be quite liberating.
I pride myself on a hard work ethic, for me it’s what creates character. I strive for it to be something I practice in all aspects of my life: personal and professional. Because work ethic is such a prominent theme in my existence, when situations aren’t successful for me (both personally and professionally) I take it very hard and go into hyper self-analysis mode.
This past week, I found myself at a crossroads. Now anyone who knows me will tell you I’m my own worst critic, but it would not have taken Roger Ebert to figure out something was off in my normally sublime world. “You have to roll to the bottom before you can reach the top” seemed to be the song lyric of choice on repeat in my mind.
Before I realized it, my team (in both work and life, that’s how we roll) was surrounding me in a veil of support, being able to recognize the one thing I could not: I was struggling. I felt it of course. I knew in the back of my mind that I was having a tough time, but whether it be my ego or knowing that saying it out loud made it true, I couldn’t acknowledge it… until I had no choice.
There is beauty in truth. We forget sometimes that colleagues, family, best friends, acquaintances, clients, and even your favorite barista at Starbucks are not mind readers and you probably do a better job at concealing your feelings than you give yourself credit for. Recognizing that I was struggling made it real, but it also provided the people who care about me and want to see me succeed step in. So what did we do next? We owned it as a team and had a fantastic whiteboard brainstorm session (ask anyone else who knows me, I love a good whiteboard).
Now this is where the fun comes in. After our fantastic whiteboard session we had a plethora of re-organization: new ideas, new strategies, new processes, and I had my sublime spirit back. I was back the next day, ready to tackle our tasks in a smart, methodical and strategic way. Now, a year ago I would have dwelled on the fact that at first I did not succeed, but this time I moved on. Not being successful 100 percent of the time is life; it’s how you recover, learn and move forward that counts. Michael Jordan said it best:
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
I learned a lot this week, I felt a lot this week and I moved forward a lot this week. But I didn’t do it alone, I couldn’t do it alone and I wouldn’t want to. It’s pretty liberating to say that struggle creates success and I’ve never believed anything more.
