Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: courage

  • Quote to Consider: Steve Jobs on Living True

    quote-to-consider“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”  Steve Jobs

  • Quote to Consider: Counter-Intuitive Yet Wise

    quote-to-consider“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

    Phillips Brooks

  • Loving Monday: Dreading Monday

    loving_mondaySome Mondays don’t seem worth getting up for.

    Some Mondays hold nothing but dread for us. It could be the dread of facing a seemingly insurmountable problem. It could be the dread of enduring another day of intolerable boredom. It could be the dread of overwhelming volumes of work.

    In apparent contrast to all this column stands for, a reality no amount of perspective, wisdom, or encouragement can erase is that some days simply feel impossible.

    What does one do? From what source do we muster the courage to show up in spite of how we feel?

    I’m not going to even pretend there is an easy answer. But I will dare to suggest a two-pronged approach.

    1. Give yourself permission to feel crappy.
    Instead of talking yourself out of these feelings… Instead of pushing your way through these feelings… Instead of judging these feelings as immature, pathetic, weak, or any other put-down you tend to use…

    Instead of fighting the dread, acknowledge it. Affirm it. Congratulate yourself for recognizing it. Pat yourself on the back for being honest with yourself.

    2. Pick one thing you will address today.
    Give yourself the gift of focus. Take one thing at a time. If everything is overwhelming you, then select something.

    Yes, maybe in an ideal world you would be able to sort and prioritize, multi-task and juggle. But today is not ideal. You are dreading today. So you need an (more…)

  • Quote to Consider: The Difficult Curriculum of Courage

    quote-to-consider“You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.”

    Barbara De Angelis

  • Loving Monday: Remembering The Truth About You

    loving_mondayFor too many people these days, Monday morning does not begin a new week at work. Monday begins a new week of looking for work.

    Having a bad job can wear one down, but having no job can wear one out.

    The experience of repeated rejections is difficult not to make personal and internalize.

    We lose confidence. We lose energy. We begin to think that we might be the problem and not the economy.

    It is in this situation that Monday becomes a weekly opportunity to pause and remind ourselves of the truth. The truth about ourselves, our skills, our capabilities and our character. The truth about the job market. 12% unemployment is unparalleled in our working lives. This is no ordinary cyclical recession that we can wait out.

    The title of the column, “Loving Monday,” almost sounds like someone is mocking our pain. How can we love beginning another week of hustling ourselves to a working world that has curled up into a fetal position in the corner until some undisclosed future time when it feels safe to make commitments again?

    The truth, though, is that you are a valuable professional. You bring a marvelous set of skills, perspectives, experiences, personality, attitude, and competencies.

    Regardless of the economic reality by which so many businesses find themselves constrained, you have value. Enormous value.

    This fact is the truth that needs to be reengaged each Monday morning as you launch another strenuous week of telephone calls, letters, emails, coffees, lunches, networking efforts, and interviews.

    While always tiring, while sometimes discouraging, while occasionally depressing, our continued job hunting efforts nonetheless give credence to the larger truth. The truth that we have value.

    If you need a more personal reminder of the deeper truth of your value, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

  • Quote to Consider: Believing in Oneself

    quote-to-consider“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires… courage.”

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • Quote to Consider: Too Many Hurdles?

    quote-to-consider“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

    Samuel Johnson

  • Question of the Week #14

    What important issue are you tip-toeing around?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • No Teasing Whore, This Angel

    Inhaling deep wafts of the morning mist, I push my way into the day—that now familiar mix of courage and impotence coloring each step.

    Foreign are the airs of confidence and self assurance that others seem to wear so effortlessly. But I press forward. Destiny’s beckoning promise continues to visit in the night, dancing gracefully along the horizon of my imagination. My appreciation for this encouraging angel erases every suggestion that she is but a teasing whore.

    I am different. I am different for a reason. I am different because I have something to do. I have something I must do.

    First published in Nuance Alley, April 2004.

  • Courage to Face the Day

    Face the DaySome mornings it requires nothing less than courage to face the day.

    Our stresses are many. Pressure comes from unexpected quarters. Projects are not turning out the way we planned. Sabotage seems more common than support. The political winds shift against us. Money dries up and options seem scarce. No one answers when you shout, “Where’s the love?!”

    Some mornings we simply need to be our own best friend. Say to ourselves,

    “Hey friend. I believe in you. As daunting as the day threatens to be, it will be worse for all involved if you don’t show up.

    No one else can give the contribution that is yours to bring today. No one.

    I know you’re weary. I know you feel assaulted on multiple fronts. I know it’s not fair. But I know you. And you don’t give up. You can’t stop caring. You won’t allow those around you to settle for less than best, and you won’t allow yourself to in this case either.

    Someone, maybe even God, has given you to this day as much if not more than given this day to you. It’s time now to face it and engage it. I believe in you.”

    What do you say to yourself to muster the courage to face the day?