Friday Lesson: Resolve is the Key to Accomplishment

 

Quote of the Day: “There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.” –Dr. Wayne Dyer

Weekly Show Reflection:

Welcome, all, to this Friday’s reflection!

You know, some people may wonder what the heck this week’s four guests could possibly have in common. I mean, a pancreatic surgeon, a man spending 1-3 hours a day dressing himself up in intricate disguises just to post the pictures online, a woman who is known as the “Pull no Punches Accountability Powerhouse,” and another woman who jumped out of an airplane to tell her fears, “Be gone!”

There are actually a couple of powerful connections I see between with these guests. One is that they each had a decision to make that would undergo harsh scrutiny of others. For Dr. Taylor Riall, MD, it was to leave her profession to become a coach to other surgeons, to Michael Gump, otherwise known as #masterofdisguise, it was to continue his art, continue to push his creativity past the original 365 day mark he had originally intended: could he continue this same level of creativity? For powerhouse Candy Barone it was launching her own business: did she have what it took on the personal front and the content front to engage an audience, to empower them? And, for business coach Toni-Maree, it was staring into the eyes of corporate and saying, I’m good enough and strong enough to go it on my own.

But the connection I would like to discuss today is having resolve.

What does resolve mean? Resolve simply means to have a strong determination.

First, I would like to identify and discuss the resolve found in each of these guests’ stories, and then I would like to speak with you about your own resolve. Would you consider yourself strong? Would you consider yourself determined?

Let’s get started with Monday’s guest, Dr. Taylor Riall, MD. Now, it is no secret that becoming a pancreatic surgeon is a grueling process. To complete this task shows resolve in itself. But what happens when you get there? When you have to live up to an expectation, and all of those long hours preparing for the end goal don’t change much. When you are expected to keep that strength of steel. When you feel like less admitting that it is too much, too hard, wrong for people to live this way. Enough so that you’re prepared to walk away from all that you have earned. And you’re prepared to risk that because you feel you are the only one with these feelings. But something happens for you. An awareness. An awakening. A courage different than the one you’ve counted on to get you past all the other hurdles you’ve crossed. But to share this new understanding means to stand in front of your peers and say that there is another way. And then to not settle for less in your career until you are able to do both: treat the patients you have trained much of your life for and break the cycle of surgeon burnout. Dr. Taylor Riall stood strong for something she believed in. She believed in it so wholeheartedly that she was ready to walk away from a career she once loved. But because she was determined, she was offered a new position in a new place with a new purpose that is much better aligned with who she has become as an esteemed professional.

Tuesday’s guest took us in a new and awesome direction. Michael Gump set out on a quest on January 2015 and that was to challenge himself to create a new disguise for an entire year – that is 365 disguises in 365 days, never missing a day. This was his challenge. Now, some of these disguises could be considered a costume, but the vast majority of these disguises are more like art pieces. Based on our brief email conversations, I really thought Michael was going to be a little bit more of a jokester, that it would be difficult getting a straight answer from him. But the reality is that this is a man educated in art. That art is his career.