Recently, I had the opportunity to sit along with my John Maxwell Team family at a special teaching session at the Certification Training with Nick Vujicic of Life without Limbs (www.lifewithoutlimbs.org) and he made a statement that got me thinking. He said, “You don’t need courage to win, you need courage to lose”. It was very profound and I wrote it down.
As I returned to work and started to share with my Team what our next level will be and how we all needed to be on board and work extra hard so we can get to our goal; I saw both excitement and fear at the same time. I saw and recognised the feeling because it was what I was feeling as well.
We are a small team, and we have done great things even as a team that small, now we need to do more; with the same team. With more training; but still a small team none the less and that can be worrisome. As we rounded off our meeting with prayers; allowing for us all to go back to think through what we are planning to achieve.I started to sense that doubts were surfacing; questions like; “will we be able to achieve goal within the set time?” are we likely to be able to make the transition without anything breaking? What is the assurance that we have that this will succeed? Will this benefit me?
Guess what? It wasn’t my team asking the questions; the questions were all mine! It was at this point I remembered what Nick had said at the Certification event. I do not need courage to win; I need courage to lose. This was going to be new territory and yes the possibility of not breaking even in the set time is there; there is also the possibility that something may have to give to achieve our goal. These are facts, and facts we should not ignore.
However, as I thought on what Nick said, it dawned on me that if doubts will not surface then this probably isn’t the next level. It dawned on me that if we will attain significance then we will need to risk failure and stand up so we can stand out.
So maybe you are thinking of expanding the capacity of your dream life, or maybe you are just stepping out into that life; or maybe it is just that you are required to make some change in your life and you have questions like I do; what should you do? How will you get going despite the fears?
Here is what I did… and you can do too.
1. I asked myself if I was convinced that this was the next big thing for me and my team. My answer? Yes it is the next big thing and to tell you the truth we were created to do this.
2. Next I asked; will this in anyway make life easier for any other person? To this I couldn’t help smiling; because I know that this will be a definite blessing to those who will be affected.
3. Next I asked myself; what is the worst that can happen? Hmmm, my answer is two-fold, we may lose money and secondly we will learn how not to do it that way. So what is my reaction? We will do it anyway, because no matter what, it will be too much of a burden not to try to do this.
4. Finally, what do we require to see that we do it properly and succeed? Well, we will need the commitment of everyone in the team. We will require training to do it right but more importantly we will need the courage to just step out.
So my conclusion is; we are doing it, and so should you. After all, courage is only required in the possibility of failure. What we do right now, we have mastered and not likely to fail in anymore. Therefore doesn’t require courage anymore.
It is time to step out so you can stand out. Even when you are not 100% sure of the outcome, remember that it is the possibility of losing that makes courage a requirement. If you knew you will win, then you don’t require courage but knowing you may not is why you need courage.
So step out, recognise that even if you failed, you will be counted for trying but more importantly understand that failing this time doesn’t mean you will not make it, because from where I stand; You will make it NeverTheLess.
Here is to your success
Bidemi