Triumph and Disaster...

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We grow as business people, make mistakes , learn... fail, succeed.

Today is the most special day of all my ten years on the warrior forum... So exciting!

I wanted to share a line from Ruyard Kiplings Poem "If". Many times a line from this poem will be a theme for something Im experiencing. This poem has served me well through the years...and I have passed it on to many, and it has done many others well.

The lines in red are the ones that the inward man reminds me of today. On a particular day when its difficult to contain my excitement. "Balance".

" IF" - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too
;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Orwatch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Originally Posted by John Durham View Post


    Today is the most special day of all my ten years on the warrior forum... So exciting!
    Sir John, may I ask why?
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      Sir John, may I ask why?
      WSO OF THE DAY! Can You Believe it?

      It reminds me of the line "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostures just the same..."

      Be excited but be balanced, and in time of exultation allow love to bring to your remembrance the times of failure... and have humility.

      Very Humbling, and very exciting!
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    Very Kewl, John.
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    Sal
    When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
    Beyond the Path

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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    Thanks Sal. Its quite an honor. I feel really great today! I am such a fan and HUGE advocate of the warrior forum (cheer leader even)! Its really a cool feeling!

    Just gotta keep on listening to the primal voice!
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    • Profile picture of the author HeySal
      Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

      Just gotta keep on listening to the primal voice!
      Sounds to me like you have it literally screaming now. Um...couldn't settle for a subtle whisper, eh?
      Signature

      Sal
      When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
      Beyond the Path

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      • Profile picture of the author John Durham
        Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

        Sounds to me like you have it literally screaming now. Um...couldn't settle for a subtle whisper, eh?

        Lol. No, its either all or nothing with the primal... the subconscious, that mysterious source which never sleeps and causes us to act in ways which we cannot comprehend...".

        Uh.... Yeah, that one.
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        • Profile picture of the author HeySal
          Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

          Lol. No, its either all or nothing with the primal... the subconscious, that mysterious source which never sleeps and causes us to act in ways which we cannot comprehend...".

          Uh.... Yeah, that one.
          Hahaha - and I thought it was just me. Only problem on my end is I understand it. Then I'm just an animal anyway, though. LOL.
          Signature

          Sal
          When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
          Beyond the Path

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  • Profile picture of the author waterotter
    Congrats John, here's to another ten years!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Congrats John. Hope it's the first of many great things for you this year.
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author WD Mino
    Way to go John! I wish you much success this year
    cheers
    -Will
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    "As a man thinks in his heart so is he-Proverbs 23:7"

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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    Now I can say for sure that Im so glad I have ingrained these bits of inspirational literature through the years... because; What a triumph it was to label my ad "wso of the day" !!!

    But then, how painful the next day to have to take it back off the ad... right?

    Wrong... because I reminded myself "Meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same..."

    So when you dont exult yourself too high in times of triumph , you also dont judge yourself so harshly in times of disaster... and you know both of them are outside circumstances... "neither affect the real person you are inside...unless you let them"

    I have come to understand that the circumstances are a result of who I am and not the other way around, so they dont move me!!! Wow how cool to be almost 42 and to have finally come to that place of understanding!!!!

    In short, when you arent too moved by a major success, and you arent too moved by a major disaster, you are on an even keel viewing everything "objectively" and keeping it all in its perspective...

    What does this do for you?

    It enables you to keep being in vibrational harmony with success...

    You view success only as "my just reward" and nothing more or less.

    You view failure and disappointment as "Its just the cycle..." nothing more nothing less...

    It enables you to stay on the road and not veer off course in either success or failure...

    So instead of saying "Man I will never get a break like that again" you say:

    "I am doing well , and every now and then I get an extra good break... they're nice, and cool and they are to be expected when you are staying on course... but these spikes they come and go... another will come... and it will go.... I am staying on course either way through all of it. Circumstances change... but I am the same person who brought myself here...".

    Many things will come to pass... more brilliant victories are to come... more failures are to come... thise are just small pictures.

    In the BIG picture, I am consistently not moved from my main course by any of it, and thus I am always successful.

    In other words "spikes" are the gravy... what I AM and what I do daily is the meat and potatoes... if I keep focused on that then sometimes there will be gravy. sometimes there will be potholes...but in the BIG picture I am consistently succeeding... lol

    I dont know if Im saying this right for people to understand...

    But it all comes back to this


    "meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same".

    Yesterday was a brilliant victory, and today is back to normal, still victorious... so because I know these things I can say

    "Yesterday was a brilliant victory, and I got a gift... but today (normal) isnt bad either"!!!

    Managing the highs and lows in life is what Rudyard Kiplings poem is all about.

    I hope I communicated this clearly and it inspires someone.

    I hope someone can learn something from my sharing this experience here...

    More highs coming, and more lows... but I have to tell you...even if they werent: John is fine even on a normal day!!!

    Thanks Rudyard!!!


    Another one, thats invluable about learning to stay on an even keel is this one:


    On Joy and Sorrow
    ~Kahlil Gibran


    Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.


    And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
    And how else can it be?

    The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
    Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

    And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

    When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

    When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

    Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."


    But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

    Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.


    Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

    Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
    When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.



    So in closing my fellow warriors...

    What is all this?

    Its an "experience"... and should be viewed objectively as such for best results!!!

    Thanks for indulging this humble servant on yet another soap box tangent, meant to inspire!

    Just thought I would use this experience to share growth with my friends.

    -John
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