Hey, How are you doing this Monday morning?
My coaching always starts as a conversation about how something isn't working out as one had hoped. Disappointment then is our first beacon telling us that change is possible because we
can imagine the world better than it presently is.
But what about when we work really hard based on a belief in something and the effort bears no discernible fruit? Our lack of success is the epicenter of all disappointment?
When we dive deeper, the spiritual questions emerge. Did we have wrong motives? Where is God, was he not in this work at all? If God is not in the work, was God even in the
faith?
These questions are typically resolved in 3 ways:
- Retreat into duty. Some people just double down their efforts. This can be wise if the belief is actually true. If not, it can grind a person to powder while they forfeit their life at the grinding wheel.
- Retreat into Spiritualism. Going deeper can be a wise thing to do so long as we are not separating our internals form our externals. If a chasm grows here, people
start to lose touch with reality and even get weird.
- Give up or Shrink back. There is certainly a point where we need to throw in the towel on an endeavor, but how do we know when that is? Usually, disappointments stem from quitting too soon or not quitting something that is failing.
May I offer these two considerations.
- We must never conclude that our past or present failures preclude future success. If you do, despair is the
result, and that is not a fun place to be.
- We also cannot assume that success will come without intentional focus on internal battles.
One thing I've learned is that while we are striving hard to successfully build a thing; that thing is actually building us.
Lastly, those who attain "success" without those aspects of personal
(spiritual) development, are not actually successful because while they have mastered a craft, they have failed their humanity. These can never win.
Instead, those who humble themselves and become students in the process are the only ones capable of possessing the success they already have. Thus they can never
lose.
Have a great week.
k
"In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good." Ecclesiastes 11:6
