"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."
Aristotle Onasis
How often do we lose focus or passion in our lives? We become stuck in a rut or become under-appreciated within our organization. As a leader, the absences of focus and passion can dangerous. The symptoms cannot only affect the leader but the entire organization. Worse, the lack of focus and passion could ultimately ruin an organization. It is in these dark times that a person, especially a leader, is shaped.
However, these dark times are often a common experience for many people. This could be the result of failed or unmet expectations, personnel issues, or poor business decisions and outcomes. It is a part of our personal and professional life that marks our journey and can feel like a “death blow” to our hopes and dreams. To some, it provides an opportunity to bounce back and learn from the experience by refocusing, reevaluating, or reenergizing but this provides only temporary relief. Often many decide to let it consume them and it leads them to a life of mediocrity and stagnation.
To those individuals that do recover the passion and focus, their success does not come from refocusing, reevaluating, or reenergizing. It is in the reengagement and recommitment to the core principals and values of their original vision. It is often easy for us to move on when we lose our passion and focus to a “new” vision but it can lead to a loss of passion and focus again. The successful individuals realize their core principles and values and begin to reengage and recommit to their vision. The learning in the dark times brings about the biggest success in our lives. Failure is not a “death blow” to a personal or organizational vision but an opportunity to learn and grow to succeed.
The question for each of us is what “re” will we use to regain our passion and focus?
"That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning."
Richard Bach
