Go Back to School.

The girl spun on her toe for the last time, stopped, flexed and took a bow
as the audience burst into applause.
She smiled, curtsied and ran offstage into the waiting arms of her
classmates.
“That was sooo fun.” they cooed and squealed.

Outside, a bevy of family and friends showered her with kisses and
congratulations.
“A perfect performance,” her mother praised. “I didn’t see a single
mistake.”
The girl took it all in, graciously accepted the compliments, made nice with
the well-wishers and promptly forgot the whole thing.
Why?
Too easy.

The director chose her because she knew all the steps and would make the
academy look good.
No new challenges meant no mistakes, which led to a flawless recital and an
image boost to the dance crew.
The girl however, gained nothing;one more feather crowning a mane of
forgotten accolades; another empty ego stroke.
What a waste.

I recently attended a weekend seminar sponsored by Mark Victor Hansen of
Chicken Soup fame, and sat in on a lecture delivered by acclaimed speaker
and educator, Nido Qubein.
Nido stated the following:
“If all you have is information or knowledge, people will use you, then
discard you. What we need is wisdom”
Indeed.
Where do we gain it?

We find it in the solitary place where true learning takes hold–the school
of hard knocks.
Wisdom comes from experience.
Experience comes from failure.
We fall flat on our face, stop, take notice, sit on the ground and ponder
how we got there, internalize what not to do, stand back up and fumble our
way forward.

We don’t grow when we win.
We enjoy the moment, pat ourselves on the back and celebrate all valid
expressions of a job well done.
That culminating glory however, stems from a journey of bungling and
blundering, slipping and tripping, figuring out a better way based on a
series of errors.
We move from bad to mediocre to passable to competent to accomplished to
mastery; a condition reserved only for those willing to endure many lumps and
bruises along the way.

We need to bust out of our protective shell and take risks, with a clear
understanding that we will misjudge, mix up, make fools of ourselves and
face unpleasant, even scary situations in our quest to achieve anything of
merit.
Okay; consider that a given.
Those yucky, frightening encounters force us to pay attention, dig deeply
and discover sides of ourselves that we must reveal in order to mature and
flourish.
No one starts at the top.

What might you do to expand yourself?
Could you pick up an instrument, take art lessons, begin a business, tackle
a foreign language, write a children’s story, sign up for a trek in the
wilderness?

Ahead of you lies a path that only you can tread.
It extends far into the distance, fraught with bumps and potholes, heavy
undergrowth and steep hills.
At various peaks, your dreams wait patiently for you, exalting you to
fulfill them and look ahead to the next one.

Go ahead.
Jump out of that comfort zone.
Sow a wild oat.

The world wants you to win.  
You’ll have to fail your way there.
That’s A View From The Ridge - Ridgely
-Success Quotes-

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they
can’t lose.
Bill Gates
Let us endeavor so to live that when we die even the undertaker will be
sorry.
Mark Twain
  _________________________________________________________________

-Key Points-

Human beings have this amazing quality reserved exclusively for us: it’s
called “resilience”–which is defined as 1) the act of leaping or springing
back; a rebounding. 2) the ability to recover strength, spirits, good humor
quickly; buoyancy.

Other animals act purely on instinct.  This unique human trait, once
under-stood and embraced, means that we can suffer setbacks and recover from
them again and again–which in turn means that we can take risks to achieve
new heights, also again and again.
No one is impressed by the individual that takes no chances. No statues have
ever been erected to critics. In order to live a full life, exper-ience
growth and move to new levels of success and experience, we must step out
and take our shot–in whatever the endeavor.

For all those who aspire to higher plains, we must always remember that the
fastest way to success is to double our failure rate–as in take a few shots
at the big time, go after the filet mignon, leave the hamburger behind.
Then, in those moment of set-back that inevitably hap-pen on the course to
greatness, we can reflect on what we learned, add that to the success
repertoire (often of actions NOT to repeat) and go out and try again. This
process is unerring and perseverance will force the universe to ultimately
yield to our demand.

So live a little. Go for it. Don’t let a little fear or hesitation hold you
back. Step out. In those moments we will learn and grow the most.

And it’s okay. We’re human beings–which means that no matter how tough the
world may temporarily appear, things change AND we are all highly resilient!

Have a resilient Holiday Season!!!