Persevere for the next
In my darkest moments on toughest days, I struggle to find motivation. Invariably, thoughts of those who rely on me or would be heartbroken by me giving up, pushes me through and out of a dark time. The dark times can be minutes, hours, or days. So my thought tonight for resilience in a tough time that seems to be ceaselessly beating on us day in and day out, is to know that we need to get up, persevere, and adapt to better for the next generation, for the people next to us who on their tough days, are doing the same for us.
Most intimately, it is our children, the next generation we created, and indeed this is the most powerful galvanizing force in my daily struggle to be overcome adversity and move on with a smile. Tonight, my 1-year-old daughter wanted an hour’s time to be close to me and for me to hold her as she fell asleep. Other nights, my 3-year-old son wants this. I never want anything else in those moments. I looked at my daughter’s unimaginably beautiful little face and had the out-of-body sensation as I saw my little sister’s face of many years ago. I can’t put into words now what that made me feel other than overflowing emotion and sense of duty to do better everyday, and in a positive way, for her and for my son.
Professionally and globally, I feel the same feelings for my students and mentees, and for our community. When things are tough, we should get up to be the inspiration for others to do the same. When we want to give up, we have to remember the people who are relying on us to help them move forward. When we fall short, we should be better for our future. I always want my trainees to do better than I did, earlier than I did, with more success along every step of the way, and in a community that is more collaborative, diverse, open-minded, and innovative. This is the way we make our families better and humanity better.
Tonight, if you are feeling like I am, tossed around and treading water, beaten down and sideways over and again by waves from home, work, burden of people who need you, people who don’t care that your world is hard, people who aren’t emotionally mature enough to work with you or be there for you, leaders who fall short, and stress of a world falling apart, keep treading, find that rock for today, cling to it, hoist yourself up, and pull the next guy up with you. You can do this.
