There’s no escaping hurdles and trials in our day-to-day lives. Being faced with adversity is a common thread among all of us as human beings. The question, then, is why some people can become completely overwhelmed by obstacles while others are able to embrace them and come out the other side stronger than ever.
We address:
What is the fine line that separates those who succeed versus those who fail?
What is the key to overcoming your limitations?
What is the “pain cave” and why should you look forward to it when chasing any goal?
What is the value of listening to your gut?
Karen Morales welcomes Julia Becker Collins, an endurance athlete and the COO at Vision Advertising, a boutique, inbound marketing firm, to shed some light on what to do when life throws you a curveball (or two, or three, or four, one after the other). Few today can articulate the spirit of crisis management like she can: Apart from years of experience in endurance athletics and leading teams, Julia received a thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2020, throwing her into a new journey of being a survivor.
Julia believes, despite the success she has had balancing huge responsibilities for Vision Advertising while dealing with her medical challenges at the same time, amid the pandemic to top it all off, that her grit, endurance, and potential are no different than anyone else’s. “Cancer is only part of me,” she says. “It’s not all of me.” There’s no escaping the fact that life will throw test after test at us. The single biggest difference between those who stagnate and those who thrive regardless is the willingness to embrace the challenges. The choice is between growing and dying. For Julia, nurturing an insatiable hunger for growth makes life worth living.
3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED
You will not only change your job multiple times in life, but your career as well. A lot of young people understandably assume that the field they go into after graduation is set for life; but for the vast majority of working professionals, that’s rarely the case. You’ll have those crucial moments where a career pivot is inevitable. After all, when you’re a decade or two into your career, you’re probably not going to resemble how you were in your 20s. Likewise, the choices you’ve made up to that point, the situation you were in as a college student, and maybe even your core values may no longer be relevant to how you’ll see the near future. Embrace the never-ending evolution of who you are as a person. If there’s one thing in life that’s consistent, it’s change.
Embrace the circumstances you were born into, and grow anyway. Karen and Julia both find it difficult to understand why people would find their personal and professional journeys “inspiring”. Isn’t it logical to simply deal the cards you’re dealt and find a way to win anyway? You can’t decide the circumstances of your birth, but you can decide the direction of your life.
Pain is part of the process. As the old saying goes: “You need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” True performers don’t get emotionally invested in the constant barrage of discomfort that comes their way naturally on account of their never-ending desire to improve. When faced with challenges of any sort, Julia simply tells us to “deal with it and move on.”
