Question: Have you ever had a conversation with someone, concerning your particular day-jobs, where you both piss and moan about how “everybody else” at work is “the idiot”?
Are you absolutely certain, 100% positive, that you are not the idiot?
I’ve never heard anyone say, “Man, I was such a jerk at work today. I really hacked those guys off.”
How do you assess yourself? Taking a hard look, is well… hard.
With davebosquez.com and theemergingman.com, capturing the journey as it happens has me pondering… “Am I the idiot? All I post are my failures.”
Terms like “self-awareness” “self-control” and “self-discipline” can SEEM to allude to ones own inadequacy.
On my journey I’ve discovered when I’m honest with myself, or what I like to tell myself now… “Face the reality of it Dave, you are currently inadequate.”
It allows me to focus on the steps needed that will allow me to move forward.
In his book: Sovereignty: The Battle For The Hearts and Minds of Men, Author, Ryan Michler writes,
“The moment I began to accept responsibility for my part in the demise of our relationship, the more I began to wrestle control back in my life. The more I faced the reality that I was inadequate in our marriage, my business, and my life, the more I gave myself the power to do something about it.”
“… the power to do something about it…” we have the ability, the power, to look at ourselves honestly.
And if we are honest with ourselves, we might identify with… being the idiot at work; being the guy who missed the deer; being the guy who is out of shape… being the guy who is inadequate on some level.
We don’t have to continue on in our inadequacy. We can fix it. We can get stronger.
Having the power, requires us to acknowledge the fact that that power has to be attained to, it has to be harnessed, developed, and gauged along the way… for you to realize your personal power has increased.
If you exercise by running, lifting weights or cycling… you gauge yourself when you start, then AGAIN, when the training duration is concluded to see if you’ve improved and gotten stronger.
My recent inadequate performance on an archery hunt has… in reality… shown me how I HAVE improved my mindset, and harnessed the power that comes with a better mental approach to life.
Yes, I’m obsessing over the poor shot made… BUT… my mind keeps going to ALL of the POSITIVES that led up to having the opportunity in the first place.
My past self would have hung his head and WALLOWED in my [perceived] failure, [don’t get me wrong, that first night was horrible] and I would have been fine with the title of “idiot”.
But as they say, “If you hunt long enough, you’re gonna make some bad shots.”
In his book, “Can’t Hurt Me”, author David Goggins, chronicles his failures going after the Guinness World Record in pull ups. He didn’t fail once, but twice… before finally breaking it. We’re talking 24 hours and over 4000 pull ups so it is no small attempt.
And after each failure, he became a little stronger, and smarter, after each attempt.
One of the things I didn’t have in the past, like Goggins and a decent pull up bar on his first attempt, was a piece of property, a place of my own. There is plenty of public hunting area in Wisconsin, but I never had, “my spot.”
This time though, I had my spot. I found it. Scouted it out. And picked the tree.
With some encouraging input from my oldest son, and some other younger guys, who have been using compound bows since they were kids, I was feeling really good about “my spot.”
All of that put me in a position to be successful.
Being willing, and able, to identify what needs to be fixed… is a sign of maturity.
I’ve been tremendously blessed by this experience.
Imagine if I would have harvested that buck? On only my second night in that stand? In my spot!
Pretty sweet image!
BUT… I can’t shake the feeling of… if I did harvest that buck, and telling the subsequent story, over and over, the telling of that story would be tainted with a splash of ARROGANCE.
God may have seen fit to humble me at some point in my joyous celebration… BUT… this way, the way it happened, He has knocked any vestige of arrogance right out of me concerning hunting… of any kind… OR… success… even failures… yep, you can be arrogant in failure too.
Everything leading up to the shot that night, was a first for me.
And like David Goggins or Ryan Michler… failing on their first attempts, and subsequently coming back stronger, my initial failure, at the moment of truth… has been reviewed, and reviewed, and reviewed…
I can’t help but come back stronger next time.
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