Overcoming the Twists and Turns that Life Doles Out

Good Morning!

Just when you think...

...life puts another twist into the equation!

That is the way that it is!  When you think through "what life is all about," "twists and turns" are at the most elemental aspects of life itself...

It is not a human specific condition...

Even the most basic forms of life encounter "twists and turns"

Even a virus is up against challenges of the antibodies of the hosts that they infest...

Adaptation is the key to survival!

If a virus sat and complained or drove itself to complacency...it would become extinct...

Those that survive...adapt...and meet the challenge...

There are micro-organisms that thrive in conditions that would burn our skin off...(hot springs)

I could cite thousands of examples...yet...all point to adaptation as the key...

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I was walking into an awards ceremony...to see Courtney receive an award...which was kept secret...until its announcement...

The night was planned to recognize the top students in the high school...

As I walked in...a mother daughter combo was in front of me...

The mother was complaining...

The daughter had a better perspective...and was responding to the complaints in a way...that we (as leaders) can take a lesson from...

"Mom...it is what it is...you can go through life with a bad attitude...of you can go through life...with a good attitude...Life is going to beat you to death no matter what...are you going to let it get to you...or are you going to be happy with what you got?"

It was rather cliche, yet this young girl (I later found out that she was a junior...from the award she won) is light-years ahead of the general population.  

This is one of the "chicken or the egg" conundrums that I have subtly referred to in the past...

Life is going to hand you a myriad of twists and turns...some will align with your passions...and most will conflict with them...

Do you seek out only those things that align with your passions and ignore the rest...or do you find ways to become passionate about everything that you encounter...?

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I dislike loading the dishwasher...

I dislike mopping the floors...

Yet I do those tasks with a passion...why?

Because they are things that have to be done...and if I have to do them...I seek passion that leads to accomplishment...

I love doing things with passion...but not only the things that I am passionate about...

Passion is the key element to success...

As I think about it...does passion come first or second in this equation?

My answer is that it always comes first...

An interesting characteristic of real passion is that it does not have to spur from a specific like or dislike...

It can be conceived and born from adversity...or love...and as you think deeper...it actually be spontaneously generated!

Whatever you set out to do...passion has to be a foundational element in it...

If you are not doing things with passion...you are just doing things...

Many are forced into doing things because of a twist and turn handed to them by life...and they do it...complaining all the way to the finish line!

They miss an opportunity to be happy...

"I'll do it...but I am not going to like it..."

Like that junior student...life is going to beat you to death no matter what..."why waste your entire life complaining or unhappy?"  "It is what it is..."

Great leaders find and create passion around anything that they set out to do...

If it does not morally or ethically align with them...that and only that is the reason for them not to do it...

Otherwise...they do not waste their lives on doing things that do not promote happiness...their own and that of others...

They also realize that happiness and passion is to be pursued and utilized and if necessary...created...

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Life is all about "twists and turns"

Don't you love it?

A fairytale life is written...not experienced...

When a twist arises...find a way to passionately challenge it...and turn it toward those passions that do not require effort...

It requires effort to adapt and thrive...

Take a lesson from our friends the virus!

Enough said...for today!