“Our Greatest Glory”

 “Our greatest glory consists, 
not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

– Oliver Goldsmith          

Sometimes when we come through a rough patch in life, and feel that we are in some way responsible for the muck, we can lose precious time still stuck in that muck and lose the opportunity to fully dance with the life that is right in front of us. 

Here is a simple self-coach process we can each use to accelerate the self-love process of setting ourselves free, such that we can consistently stand up again, hearts open, and face fully into all of life.  Generate a list of answers for each set of questions in relation to the given situation:

What can I acknowledge myself for?  What did I do really well?  What am I proud of?  No matter our level of guilt or suffering, there is nearly always something here.  Sometimes, these are quite precious contributions, much appreciated by others.  So polish your own window, and immerse fully in remembering the gifts and richness that you have brought to others.

What do I need to take responsibility for? This wording is key.   Response – ability.  We have the ability to respond differently.  For each of us, we build our future out of our now.   So while this question may take us to the heart of our pain, it also has an essence of hope: it points to our ability to begin anew.

What is the hard truth about the situation?  Don’t answer this one until you’ve fully explored the two above this.  Just see where it takes you.  Sometimes this is where breakthrough lives.

What is the learning? What have I learned about myself, about others, about life?  What have I learned about what matters most? 

Finally, ask yourself this: What is the way to move now, the place to be in conscious choice, in order to best live my learning?  This is the moment we get to choose to live a new now, and to build the future we want to live, one now moment after another!

We do no favors for those we work with, live with, or love by staying stuck.  Those who truly love us want us to thrive, and want us to be able to dance fully with the joy in life, instead of moving however subtly away from what may remind us of our pain. 

We get to choose.  Leadership is about conscious choices and creating meaning.   Today is a new day.

“No man or woman (was created) even nearly perfect.  But we grow in both our virtue and our capacity to love by the testing, against the world and each other, of those weaknesses which by…grace…we can convert into strengths; and by the finding of those strengths and beauties in each other which we hardly dared suspect were there…. The glory of …(life) lies in the surprises which loving support, acceptance, and graceful forgiveness can bring forth.”

R.B. Crowell (Friends Journal, 11/74)