You Are Still Here

If you're reading this, you're still here.

I need you to sit with that for a second, because it's bigger than it sounds. The same circumstances and situations you've overcome took someone else out. What frustrated you and made you upset broke others and forced them into submission. You're still standing, and you're still building.

Maybe you read that and thought, Neal, I'm not still here because I want to be. I'm still fighting because I don't have any other options. If that's you, you're to be commended, because in not thinking you had any other options, you chose the correct option.

That's what resilience looks like from the inside most of the time. It looks a lot like just not quitting.

A principle you can learn

In my book, The Affluent Negroes, resilience is one of the seven principles for creating wealth, and it's there on purpose. Without resilience, it's unlikely that you or anyone will experience long-term success as an entrepreneur, parent, spouse, or any other role you occupy.

Here's the good news. Like every principle in that book, it can be learned and honed. You can reinforce it the same way you'd reinforce a wall, a little at a time, before the storm shows up.

What the research found at West Point

A psychologist named Angela Duckworth spent years studying something she called grit, which she defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

One of the places she studied it was West Point. The first summer there, which cadets call Beast Barracks, is deliberately built to test the limits of a person physically, emotionally and mentally. West Point admits cadets using a composite score of everything it knows about them, and that score did not predict who made it through the summer. Grit did. Cadets who scored a standard deviation above average on grit were more than 60% more likely to finish.

Read that one more time, y'all. A room full of carefully selected people, measured every way the Academy knew how, and the best clue to who would still be there at the end of summer was whether they'd keep going.

You do not have to be the most skilled or the most talented to succeed. You only need to possess grit and refuse to quit.

The day I came in last

I learned this at nine years old, at a 4-H public speaking contest at Troy State University. I skipped one word of a speech I'd rehearsed for weeks, and the whole thing came apart in front of a packed room. I looked out at my mom and dad expecting them to wave me off the stage. Both of them motioned for me to stay up there and keep going.

I kept going. I came in last. And that day, in my failure, I became a student of communication, which is a big part of why I get to do what I do now.

By then my parents couldn't do anything about that contest. What they could still decide was what I'd learn from it.

Look at who Job really was

Most of us know Job for what he lost. He faced unimaginable suffering and loss, and he still declared, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." (Job 13:15)

So instead of hearing the story of Job and focusing on the pain, the loss and the unfairness of it, what if you only highlighted his resilience and the rewards that followed? God restored his fortunes and blessed him with even greater prosperity.

Then there's Joseph. Sold into slavery by his brothers and later imprisoned unjustly, and he still rose to become the second most powerful man in Egypt, and saved those same brothers from starvation. I love my brothers Steven and Curtis, but I'm not totally sure I could be the man Joseph was. That's, for lack of a better term, WILD!

The great news is that Joseph has already shown us it's possible. If he can be that strong, then so can we.

I firmly believe that God will not bring you to something He doesn't intend to bring you through.

How to reinforce it this week

Here's what I want you to do with this.

Get one victory under your belt. When a setback hits, a lot of us start to spiral. We miss a goal, the self-talk turns on us, and then we attempt smaller and fewer tasks with less energy and excitement. You break that spiral with a win, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Send the invoice. Make the one call you've been putting off. Finish the proposal that's been sitting open for a week. Then let that win carry you into the next one.

Ask yourself which one you've been. Up to this point, have you been a Professional Problem Solver, or only a Professional Problem Spotter? There's a HUGE difference. Everybody in the room can spot the problem, right? The werk is in solving it.

Thank somebody who's shown you resilience. Within twenty-four hours, call, text or email someone who's been an example of resilience to you and thank them. It'll benefit both of you.

Your resilience is somebody's example

Never underestimate the value your resilience adds to the lives of the people watching you. Your team sees it. Your family sees it. Your clientele sees it. Your refusal to surrender emboldens somebody else who was right on the edge of quitting.

The example of resilience you're setting right now may be the greatest example someone will ever see.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)

You are still here, my friends. So keep going.

If you're in one of those stretches with your business right now and you want somebody in your corner, you can book a complimentary discovery call with me here: https://www.worldrenownedcoaching.com/consultation

And if you want the whole framework, you can read a free chapter of The Affluent Negroes at https://www.theaffluentnegroes.com/

And remember, God Loves you, I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it. Don't be average, Be World Renowned.