We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot. — Eleanor Roosevelt

I am helping a client prepare for the staff retreat in which they will present their strategic plan. As for many of my clients, the last 2 years has been challenging for this group — they had to do layoffs, have had several management changes, have felt the stress of financial uncertainty.

In presenting the strategic plan I wanted us to honor where the group has been while building confidence and optimism about where the organization is going. I wasn’t quite sure how to do that…so I decided to talk individually to members of the staff about their feelings.

After each call I was in tears. Almost universally the people talked about the surprising rewards they have obtained on the journey, the ways they have grown, the talents they have discovered, the experiences they have had (and learned from) because they couldn’t just thrown money at the issue or move on to something that wasn’t quite so hard. As several people explained, “I found out I was really good at something I would have been afraid to try if I hadn’t had to”.

This is the reward from our journey. It’s as if life refuses to let us be less than we can be. It drags us (sometimes kicking and screaming) into the very areas we are most afraid of or least confident in…and leaves us there until we HAVE to figure it out.

So…we can look at how hard the last few years have been…or we can look at how we have grown. You decide…