The Brick Walls Are There For A Reason

photo credit: visu­alden­sity

“Obsta­cles are nec­es­sary for suc­cess because in sell­ing, as in all careers of impor­tance, vic­tory comes only after many strug­gles and count­less defeats.” — Og Mandino

What are the brick walls you face? How do you han­dle them?

If every­thing were easy, what kind of joy would we really get? The obsta­cles we face help us. The help us by chal­leng­ing us to think dif­fer­ently, or try some­thing new, or work with new (and dif­fernt) peo­ple, or change that per­spec­tive we have. If the brick wall we face is really worth it to us, then we’ll come out stronger for hav­ing tack­led it. Some­times the brick wall will win. But some­times, we’ll con­quer that brick wall. And in both cases, it’s a chance for us to learn and grow.

My son’s soc­cer team was los­ing pretty badly a cou­ple of weeks ago. We quickly fell behind by sev­eral goals. The kids on the team started blam­ing each other. Some kids weren’t try­ing as hard as they could. As a coach, I was frus­trated. Brick wall. At half time, we regrouped. We focused on what had went well, and talked about work­ing together as a team and trust­ing every­one to play their posi­tions. We played much bet­ter, every­one was hav­ing fun, and team­work was evi­dent. In the end we lost, but only by a two goals (after being down by many). So, the brick wall won. Or did it? We may not have con­quered it. But, because of it, we became stronger as a team. And the next week we went on to have our best game of the sea­son, play­ing with inten­sity, and really show­ing the team­work we’ve been attempt­ing to get to.

So, don’t view set­backs as fail­ures. Con­sider them oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn. We can learn much from the brick walls we face. Embrace them! Wel­come them! Grow from them!

Lance writes sto­ries from his heart, aim­ing to inspire and moti­vate, as you align more fully with YOUR true peak. When he’s not here, you can find him hang­ing out with his fam­ily, rid­ing a bike, or just gen­er­ally act­ing goofy.   Sign up for the Thoughts from the Tree­house newslet­ter and get addi­tional inspi­ra­tion in your email inbox!

Lance Ekum

View all posts by Lance Ekum