Have you ever thought what would happen if the number one thing you relied on or enjoyed doing disappeared forever? Imagine if that savior or privilege were snatched right under your nose, how would you react?
This happens; especially within professional sports, an athlete will dedicate their life to a sport. An injury will occur that will sideline them for the remainder of their career. That must be a hard pill to swallow; everything you’ve worked for and wanted has vanished, turning from a somebody to a nobody.
I had a wake up call recently; a situation has put my life and motivational speaking into perspective. I had a whole day of running 5 back-to-back 1-hour motivational sessions, this is never a problem and something I do on a regular basis.
I approached this day not feeling 100% with a sore throat. I had no choice but to persevere, the school and 800 students were relying on me. By the time I reached the 4th session I was struggling, I continued and made it through.
However, on the drive home I realized I had completely lost my voice. My throat was in agony anytime I would try to speak and it was apparent I needed some serious time to recover.
This made me think about how dependent I am on my voice; I would be broken if this was taken away and I wouldn’t be able to deliver my sessions with the same passion & style I am renowned for.
2 questions then popped into my mind; putting the speaking to the side what makes me unique? & What else do I offer?
After brainstorming for 10 minutes; I came to the conclusion that my experiences, knowledge and personality separates me from everyone, we are all unique in our own way. Therefore just because I couldn’t speak it doesn’t mean I won’t be able to deliver my message. I would need to find other resources, for example writing books, blogs and online programs. This will and is still happening but what I believe it comes down to is the value you add.
This can be through the results you receive, the experiences you have had, the information you have learned to even the way you communicate and help people. The more valuable you are the more you will have to offer, therefore if one thing doesn’t work out, with a little change in direction you will have your focus on something else with the same mentality and intensity.
My final words are that we need to appreciate what we have, not taking things for granted because sometimes things change and we can’t do anything about it. But instead of thinking what would happen if the number one things we relied on disappeared forever? Or how we would react if things were snatched from us?
All we need to know is if something unexpected happens we need to have a flexible approach, by reacting to the situation that has happened to us, accept, create a plan and move forward.
