Meeting with Triumph and Disaster: Treat these two imposters both the same

I am paraphrasing here but that is a line from Rudyard Kipling’s brilliant poem, “If”.

I say this poem is brilliant but I wasn’t always of that opinion…!!

There was a time where I looked at the poem with disdain. The reason being is that the hostel that I spent my formative years, the punishment for minor things such as speaking after lights out or being late for some event was having to write out this poem in many different fashions. I knew other kids who had to write it out in technicolor, mirror images and duplicates…

I was recently watching a rugby documentary on the 1976 Lions tour to SA where the captain was the monstrous, tough as teak, legend of Irish rugby, Willy John McBride where he quoted that line as something that both spurred  him on and kept his feet on the ground through-out his rugby career - enduring both  exhilarating high’s and devastating lows.

Those words have stayed with me and been very powerful in my life. I have, like you,  have enjoyed some incredibly brilliant times but then also suffered some soul-destroying  lows.

On all those occasions, these words have come back to me and reminded me that I should  never take anything too seriously. Never beat myself up too badly for things that I wasn’t  able to do to the level I demanded and to never congratulate myself too much when I was  enjoying a moment of success.

I guess any situation we find ourself in, means absolutely nothing, except for the meaning  that we attribute to it.

This is particularly important to remember when we are doing something way outside our comfort zones in an attempt to better ourselves or our situation.

Anything that is worth while doing and a bit of a “pipe-dream” when you initially set out to conquer it, is going to provide you with HUGE knock-backs.

It’s going to give you times when you slip and fall. When you doubt yourself. When you want to give up ….When you meet with disaster.

Those times will come and those times will go but if you keep moving forward, you will meet with triumph.

In all of those encounters, its critical to meet with the depression of disaster or the elation of triumph – experience that feeling, whatever it is and then go back to remembering to “Treat those two imposters, both the same!”

To your Health, Wealth and Happiness 

PH