THE CON GAME: CON-front before You CON-clude

I was livid.  I was counting on Anna to keep her word, yet I was getting emails indicating that she hadn’t.  I got up from my desk and walked around.  I needed to vent, but couldn’t think of anyone to call.  So…I picked up the phone and called Anna.  Thank God she wasn’t available or I probably would have made statements and accusations, which I would have regretted later on.  Instead, I masked my frustration and left a voicemail. 

I returned to my desk and continued to fume.   Suddenly another email came through that proved my earlier angst was unfounded and my anger premature.  Anna had done what she promised.  I breathed a sigh of relief, but I was troubled.  Troubled by the fact that I had allowed myself to jump to a negative conclusion.  I’d totally skipped all stages of questioning and had freely given in to thinking negative of someone else without even speaking to them.  I was disappointed in myself…because I knew better than that.

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Knowing When to Let Go

I grew up believing that winners never quit.  They hold on and stick it out.  They don’t throw in the towel.  All these things are true.  But every message has a counterpoint that brings it into balance.  It is true that winners never quit, but winners also know when it is time to let things go.

A conditioned athlete gets stronger by pushing their bodies to the limit and demanding more of themselves than they even believe they are capable of giving.  But they are also trained to know that point – that fine line – that stands between endurance and injury.  We all have a breaking point and if we push past it, we set ourselves up for failure each and every time.  When we push past that win zone – we simply cannot win!

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Stand Tall: Principles for Living Your full Potential

Sometimes you have to see something to believe it!  I recently watched an episode of one of my favorite HGTV shows, “For Rent.” The guest on the show was David, a 6-foot-plus gentleman looking for a new home.  David lived in a basement apartment where he literally needed to bend his neck to shower, to cook—sometimes just to get across the room.  He was looking for a place where he could stand tall.  I watched and wondered why anyone would choose to live like that.   How could you live in a place where you can’t even stand up straight?

Then came the answer.  David’s short ex-girlfriend used to live with him and loved the apartment.  The space was perfectly comfortable for her and she never had to compromise at all.  Once the relationship ended, she moved out and on, leaving David in an apartment that was literally causing him physical pain.  Out loud I mused, “Who does that?  It’s so stupid.”

But the truth is that we’ve all done it at some point in our lives.  We may not have lived in a physical space that wasn’t right for us…but we’ve lived in, or accepted, situations that didn’t fit.  In those moments, someone else’s acceptance meant more to us than our own.  Like David, we didn’t realize that in the end, we would be the one who suffered most.

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