A long time ago in a land far, far away there was a man who accepted quite a peculiar job. He was asked to push against a large boulder that had fallen directly into a well-traveled pathway. Day after day, he pushed and pushed. Yet, each day there was no progress. Hoping to not disappoint his boss, he continued to raise early in the morning, push with all of his might all the day long and repeat each and every day. Finally, after weeks of repeating the same motions with no result, he just couldn't take it any longer! He approached his boss...
"Why am I doing this ridiculous work??? I've given my all, every day, for three weeks and I have nothing to show for it! It has not even moved an inch. I think you've asked me to do an impossible job!"
"Oh my good working man, how little do you understand. You see, I asked you to push against the rock, not to move it. I've done this, without hope that you'd actually remove it from the pathway - for that would be an impossible job - but rather to help you grow and develop. You see, your skin has bronzed in the sun, you've strengthened, built and refined muscles ranging from your lower calves to your neck. You've developed persistence, a strong will and a depth of endurance that few hold. Truly, you've grown in so many ways!"
As I reflect upon the 2016 year, I believe that I have been this man many different times. I've pushed against the impossible, working very hard, getting frustrated and sometimes even loosing all hope. Looking back upon these experiences now, I can see that it was the hardest, the most aggravating, the toughest adversities that are my sweetest joys, as I've gotten so much from them. True - what I got was not what I expected, but so much more.
A wise mentor of mine once mentioned, "Set your goal - you have to have a goal! Then, map out how you are going to meet this goal in meticulous detail. Next, realize that most likely how you get to this goal is going to be very, very different than your plan and you need to be OK with that. They key is to have a plan, to work hard and to enter doors when they open to you."
As you ponder this previous year (and you should take time to ponder), perhaps the following formula which summarizes this blog post can help:
