I get motivated about stories of members when they overcome the “odds”. I hasten to add the “odds” are only someone else’s opinion of you, and they never take into account the lengths you are prepared to go to excel, and of course prove everyone wrong who wrote you off through your big relentless efforts.
I had one story about a member’s relative this week being consigned to a chair due to various health issues, and emotionally they had given up on life at that exact moment, and two years later they were dead.
I was talking to a member this morning who doubted how well he was doing, and offered a bleak assessment of himself.
I pointed out that he was now doing two valuable new exercises that he could not even do ten days ago, and that was a clear sign of progress he started to believe in himself a bit more.
What turned the belief system around too was when I told him about his late wife, when she was headteacher and she doubted whether she had the ability to do the job, I asked him how did you get rid of her doubt?
He told her that she always had the ability, some hadn’t and still did the headteacher’s role anyways, but his wife was talented, consciousness and a “people’s person” and would be fantastic in that role, which would eventually change so many pupils’ lives for the better over many, many years.
When we doubt ourselves, when we are at our lowest lows, all we need is a little encouragement and a reality check from people who can uplift us by stating facts that somehow we miss when it’s far easier to see the situation from the most negative point of view.
To keep going no matter what shows courage, grit and determination that’s a fact, but making sure we are always around people who will keep us going in our darkest moments is just as valuable.
