Skip to main content

The Long Distance Race: Building Career and Personal Resilience


This past week or two, I have been listening to several interviews with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Chief Operating Officer and author of the bestselling "Lean In" book. She has cowritten a new book called "Option B" following the death of her husband, just released this week.  I have the book and I can't wait to read it!  But beyond the book, she is calling for a movement, for all of us to build resilience and help others build theirs.  She and her co-author have created a nonprofit organization called OptionB.org to provide tools to build resilience.  Visitors can share their own personal stories, join online support groups and find information from experts.

Of course we can all use some support if we faced with difficult circumstances or choices, sometimes because of something we have pursued but other times simply because life happens. Life is beautiful in all of its complexities and riches, and sorrow and disappointment as well. They are all learning opportunities for self-reflection and personal growth. We should never stop learning.

So life is a long distance race, not a sprint.  It's about all the small day to day choices we make moving towards our own goals, and in accordance with our own personal values.  That means it is surely not a straight line and there will be disappointment along the way.

Building resilience is a life-long pursuit.  I hope you have people around you to help you through those challenging times in life and that we all vow to support each other.  I can't wait to dive into Option B!  And as Yogi Berra once said, "when you come to a fork in the road, take it".  There are no truly bad options if you are always moving forward.

Labels

Labels:
Location: DeKalb, IL, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Nonprofits According to Pablo Picasso

I lead two nonprofit workshops this week; one on the use of technology and one on how to communicate your impact.  I always begin my workshops with a similar theme: understand your organization and take a serious look at your values, vision, and mission.  Once that is clear, you can more clearly identify the goals and actions to take your organization where it needs to go.  Seems simple but in most cases, these are extremely hard conversations to have and even harder to reach consensus. As I was leaving my Forefront workshop in Galesburg, Illinois, I drove past a construction crew working on a house and had to capture the image.  The signs read  "Every action of creation is first of all an act of destruction " by Pablo Picasso .  Genius and true! If you want to build strong buildings and organizations, you first have to tear them apart, see what you're dealing with, come up with a plan for improvement and then build it. This also reminds of nonprofit...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Thank You Letter to Libraries

“The public library is a center of public happiness first, of public education next.”  ―  John Cotton Dana ,  A Library Primer  (1903) .  Libraries have been, and will likely always be, a large part of my life.  My library at Holy Name Catholic  School was my first volunteer experience, at the age of 10.   By volunteering in the library, I could come to school early before the other students arrived, and sort and shelve books.  I remember feeling peaceful while my classmates arrived on buses and on foot, filling the grounds outside.  At the first bell, the silence would end, and I would have to go to my classroom.  I started a classroom library in 7th grade, complete with our very own card catalog.  On weekends, I would go to the Pembroke Public Library , finding a quiet corner usually on the second floor and escape in books, the outside world fading away to barely a hum.  I spent many hours in that Public Library ...
Post a Comment
Read more