The
other night I attended a hockey game. Trust me, there is something a little
surreal about going to hockey game in south Florida. Seriously, I have to bring
something warmer to wear in the arena than I do outside! Unfortunately the home
team lost but after looking at the game stats, this got me thinking out loud
about effort and results.
You
see, while looking at the score board, the opposing but winning team had more
“shots on goal” than the home team. Keep in mind, all those shots did not
result in a scoring goal, it just means the eventual winning team made more
successful efforts.
Lots
of time, you will hear people (maybe your own team members or maybe even
yourself) say “that was just wasted effort”. I used to say that myself but I
now know better. Just like the hockey metaphor, every effort toward a goal is
never wasted. True, you may not meet your goal every time but you learn
something every time you take your shot! You learn what works well and what is
not as effective. You learn that your first approach was not completely
successful but parts of it were. History shows us that Thomas
Edison made thousands of attempts in his efforts to create the light bulb.
When asked about this by a reporter, he said “I did not fail thousands of
times, I just discovered thousands of ways of how not to do it!”
The point
is this. There is no such thing as wasted effort, just missed opportunities.
Just like in hockey, conditions will rarely be ideal. You may not have all the
resources you need. The perfect team may not be assembled. None of that, however, should stop you from making the
attempt! The more effort extended, the higher the probability of
successful results. Failure only comes when we don’t take advantage of
the opportunity to take a shot!
I
would wager you took a risk or two to get where you are today. You bet on
yourself or one of your ideas when others were skeptical. Just keep taking
those “shots on goal” and don’t miss your opportunities!
As
always if I can help you and
the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would
invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the
training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a
bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your
contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring
initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical
in order to add value to your organization!
Yours in Leadership,
Bill Faulkner
Principal Consultant –
Out Loud Strategies
Independent Coach,
Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email = bill@outloudinc.com
No comments:
Post a Comment