success in life

Spiritual resource to share: persistence

Tonight was parent's night for all those parents who have been supporting their sons' and daughters' wrestling activity. So, before the matches, all the parents got to parade in front of the crowd, and be greeted by their wrestler who gave them a hug and a flower. But I think the flowers should also go to the coaches. (See my post last year on "Wrestling defeat into victory")

These men have been so consistent in coaching and encouraging these young men into becoming solid and strong athletes. I admire them. Their basic premise in coaching is based on a number of ideas:

• We believe in you.
• You can always work harder.
• You always improve with each match.
• Don’t let discouragement win.

There is a lot of metaphysical truth to those ideas. My son and I talked about this and this is what we came up with.

Discouragement is like admitting that nothingness is real. This is best explained with an example. OK, you lost a match. Your first thought might be one of discouragement– 'oh I am such a loser'. Well, a loser is defined by NOT winning. So the definition of a loser is a definition of not doing something; a nothing – no thing. But there is no substance in NOT being a thing. What needs to happen is to get thought to focus not on what you are NOT, but what you are.

And what are you? Constantly growing, constantly progressing. Accepting this does not take time or educational processes. You are the reflection of all that God is. RIGHT NOW. Now with that – you can take a loss totally on its ear – you can learn and be strengthened with what you have learned. Each match and each practice is an opportunity to let all of what is good and strong to be expressed. And when each kid accepts this potential, the way opens up for him to express that.

Coaches are great at making sure discouragement doesn’t take a hold of anyone's thought. If a wrestler loses a match, they are right there making sure the wrestler knows what needed to happen, showing how to do it, and spending as much time until the discouragement has been dissolved enough to let the light in - and the wrestler goes away learning the important lessons.

In other words, they don’t speak to the nothingness – the loser, but they speak to the good, the potential and the strength - encouraging that and bringing it out of each wrestler. They see the potential in each kid. They know that with work and persistence, the strength and skill will emerge in everyone. That's what they speak to, and that's what shows up in the kids' performance.

We know from our study in Christian Science that our potential is always growing; our abilities, strength, agility, intelligent capacity to strategize movements and anticipate actions – all this constantly improves. Why? Because we reflect the Creator - that ongoing creation of all things good.

Failure sometimes happens. But those who achieve great things know how to persist beyond failure to use what God has given them. MBEddy says it well in Miscellaneous Writings p. 230:

Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other one thing.

photo by S. Justad

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.