I had dinner last night with a colleague of mine who is a top leadership coach. He was telling me about how he had entered a high profile race which took place over several days. Due to an injury at the end of day one he could not complete it. So after months of gruelling training that was it. Can you imagine how he felt?
I asked him what he had learnt from the experience. His reply was that the courage that it took for him to step forward and do it was far more powerful than the actual result. One thing that had helped him enormously was an extract from a speech. Here it is:

THE MAN IN THE ARENA

Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic”, delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Reading it really reminded me that one of the things that is very obvious in people who get noticed at work is that they take thier courage and step into the arena. That is the most important thing. 

What steps do you need to take?
Here’s to your success.
Hilary