“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” Horace
As many know, I am a huge hockey fan… We are finally getting down the Stanley Cup Finals! The playoffs are something special and this season has been really special. My home town Phoenix Coyotes are making a run that the team has never made before. They are in the conference finals! 2 rounds further than ever before. Awesome stuff, when you think about it. Right now, no one is thinking about awesome. The team has hit its first patch of adversity. Not that they have had adversity this season – they still don’t have an owner, league run with financial restrictions, not overly talented compared to some teams that have already left the playoffs and the list can go on. They have continued to overcome adversity to make it where they are today. Now, they need to really pull out all stops to make sure that they can continue on their quest… Let’s Go Coyotes!
Adversity is something that we all have witnessed throughout our daily life’s. What comes to mind when you hit that fork in the road, when the challenge is put in front of you? You have some options…
- You can charge ahead and dig deep to overcome! My favorite, by the way. Challenges are put in front of us everyday. I want them. I need them. I have always tried to make sure that, as a parent and a leader, I instill in my folks that they can overcome adversity – it requires work! Lots of it…
- Let it consume you. Ever witness this? It is that feeling of being overwhelmed so much that you just can not get started.
- Pass it off and blame others. More and more, I am witnessing folks fall into this trap. I’ll call it the entitlement trap. Instead of working hard to move forward, folks are side stepping it to let others deal with adversity. Ever see this in action? Bosses, that like to blame their team for failure. How about a parent that blames the teacher for their child’s poor grades? There are many examples..
For me, I am witnessing more and more folks choosing the third alternative. When I was growing up, I got instilled in me that hard work is what is needed to achieve your goals. Nothing will ever be handed to you. I bet we all think that way. Do our actions support that today. Something has changed. Did I “give” too much to my kids when they were growing up, so that they are falling into the entitlement trap? Are you doing that? Time for some self reflection on everyone’s part… We have to get back to HARD WORK = SUCCESS… I don’t think that I will see my hockey team roll over and just let adversity stop them from achieving their goals. They may not make it, but at least they are going to put the work in to TRY…
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