Working through and embracing our tough stuff
We have been staring the problem in the face.
We have walked around it and looked at it from every possible angle.
We have talked to our team about it.
We have explored numerous avenues of approach.
And yet we are still standing, looking at it and not addressing it, still hoping we can find a less onerous solution, a less painful one.
Are we resisting the reality that this one is going to be tough, ugly to solve? That there isn't a pretty, clean way out of this one? And by not admitting to that, we are delaying?
After all the deliberation, fact-checking and evaluation, When we resist reality, in business and in life, we end up contributing to the problem. Not only are we not making it better, but likely we are making it worse.
I got to talking about this with my friend Molly Asebey-Birkholm, the incredible Yoga teacher; she shared the poem below with me and we started to discuss that sometimes in life, to get through the tough stuff we have to face it head-on, work through it; in essence embrace it.
Our wisdom, our experience comes from many places - and surely failures and battles are part of that. Our scars tell our story and we become better for them.
And so, reality is about accepting the good, the bad and the ugly as equal parts in the fabric of our experience - building.
Sometimes there is no pretty way. It's ugly and hard and we have to face and embrace it. Resisting adds to the problem. Embracing creates strength.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest-house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
~Rumi
We have walked around it and looked at it from every possible angle.
We have talked to our team about it.
We have explored numerous avenues of approach.
And yet we are still standing, looking at it and not addressing it, still hoping we can find a less onerous solution, a less painful one.
Are we resisting the reality that this one is going to be tough, ugly to solve? That there isn't a pretty, clean way out of this one? And by not admitting to that, we are delaying?
After all the deliberation, fact-checking and evaluation, When we resist reality, in business and in life, we end up contributing to the problem. Not only are we not making it better, but likely we are making it worse.
I got to talking about this with my friend Molly Asebey-Birkholm, the incredible Yoga teacher; she shared the poem below with me and we started to discuss that sometimes in life, to get through the tough stuff we have to face it head-on, work through it; in essence embrace it.
Our wisdom, our experience comes from many places - and surely failures and battles are part of that. Our scars tell our story and we become better for them.
And so, reality is about accepting the good, the bad and the ugly as equal parts in the fabric of our experience - building.
Sometimes there is no pretty way. It's ugly and hard and we have to face and embrace it. Resisting adds to the problem. Embracing creates strength.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest-house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
~Rumi
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