Lessons in life often pay us a visit as we go through the day. When we don’t stop to reflect we waste opportunities of learning and growth. Since I started sharing “My Lessons From Last Week” I’ve been astounded by the things I learn about myself and life in general… As always I will share just a couple of what I learn last week and hope that it somehow enriches you…
- My Body Talks To Me: I paid a ‘visit’ to the emergency room at the hospital on Wednesday night. It definitely wasn’t fun at all and that was probably one of the longest nights of my life! My skin color changed to grey! That was weird to say the least. To cut a long story short, I was reminded of something and learnt simultaneously. My body actually talks to me! I could hear it speak but I didn’t listen to it much. My body has been telling me that it doesn’t like what is happening in its ‘belly department’. It would speak then keep quiet. On Wednesday it decided to shout a little louder, I could not even ingest a sip of water! There are many things our bodies tell us, it is just that we don’t listen hence they end up telling us in more aggressive ways.
- Sometimes fatigue is your body telling you to slow down or that we are not servicing it with needed exercise or good diet. Other times it tells us it doesn’t like some foods no matter how good they taste. At other times our bodies speak in a language called pain, telling us to handle them a little more delicately. This morning as I thought about this post I started to ask myself, what else has been body been telling me and I’ve been ignoring? You can get a transplant for some body parts but I’ve never heard of a whole body transplant! You have one body and should take serious care of it. It will treat you like how you treat it! So I am going to listen a little more intently to my body from now on. you can easily avert some life threatening issues if you take time to listen, even to the seemingly minute things your body says. Your body has been speaking; have you been listening?
- Team: On the squash court… Things are not going as well as I would like. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know I’m just one of those guys who sees no point in playing without the intention to win… At the moment my squash league team is not doing as well as we’d like. We’re not accumulating substantial points in our weekly fixtures… Last week we had no matches and instead of ‘taking a chill’ like some teams, I proposed we use the normal match day as a practice day. I’m glad we did it! My lesson: a win from my teammates is a win for the team. The opposite is true – my loss is not just mine but team’s! It is rather obvious and you probably know this but there something I’d like to add in this regard.
- When your team is not winning or reaching its goals the responsibility is not just the captain or leader to turn things around. Teams, on some occasions, continue to miss targets or lose because all responsibility is placed on the leader. There is a line from the movie, ‘A Bug’s Life’, “When you’re the leader everything is your fault”. I agree with that in part. As a team player you also have some influence leveraging your team to a better game! It is not all up to the leader. Frankly, there are times even when he doesn’t know what to do. Never stop looking for the solution. Your team will only be as great as you make it. Take responsibility in turning things around. There is something you can do. Not being the leader doesn’t make you powerless; it actually empowers you to take risk.
- When my team is not winning, it is my responsibility even if I’m not the leader, to be part of the solution! Some team members have watched their teams fail as they kept quiet with solutions. Speak up! Most team players only want to identify with their team when they win. However, true loyalty is always proven in the heat of adversity. Do you cower and refuse to identify with your team when you experience losses and associate with them in wins? As part of the team, what do you do when things aren’t going as you’d like? If you’re part of a team you don’ t lead, have you been as responsible as you could be? Why or why not?
There most certainly is an “I” in “team.” It is the same “I” that appears three times in “responsibility.” – Amber Harding
Don’t just let life happen to you, learn something and grow! Have a great week.
