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“Emotionally strong people do not expect immediate results.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2017-03-07) from his book, No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity (p. 71). Center Street. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now I wish that I could go to sleep at night and believe that I will lose 10lbs by the next morning but that is not the way it happens.  In order for the weight to stay off, it needs to come off slow.  And emotionally strong people understand that.

John says, “As they approach life, they know they are in it for the long haul. As they face struggles, they do so with energy and fortitude. They understand that genuine success takes time. They try new things and fail. They run into obstacles but persevere. They keep going, keep working. They focus on the right decisions they need to make and make them quickly. They realize that they may change their direction overnight, but they won’t arrive at their destination overnight. They keep their eye on the big picture, and they don’t quit.”

He then quotes Eric Greitens, author of Resilience, who wrote, “You will fail. Especially in the beginning. You will fail. And that’s not just OK, it’s essential. Without resilience, the first failure is also the last— because it’s final. Those who are excellent at their work have learned to comfortably coexist with failure. The excellent fail more often than the mediocre. They begin more. They attempt more. They attack more. Mastery lives quietly atop a mountain of mistakes.”

John goes on, “Greitens believes that as human beings, there are some things all of us must do to live well: breath, sleep, drink, eat, and love. But he also believes that we struggle. We need challenges to master and problems to solve in order to be at our best. We can do that only when we master our emotions and appreciate our struggles.”

John then says, “Being an emotionally strong person who has high emotional capacity is about being able to start fresh every day and function with a clean slate emotionally. We can’t hold on to old emotional baggage and remain emotionally resilient at the same time.”

No, we can’t.  That is one of many reasons why I start each day in my Bible.  It gives me a fresh perspective and a new challenge for each new day.  

So how are you doing?

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