The Gift of Challenge

"Our finest hours are not born of comfort but of moments that challenge us to do more than we thought possible." Anonymous

My sons Ray and Reed once invited me to play a popular video game with them. For the record, I was all in. But my brain wanted to toggle left when I should have been toggling right and soon my game avatar was floating along in a pink bubble, bobbing behind them until the end of each round. Pleasant enough, but unsatisfying. They found the simple game, and my struggles with it, entertaining. My brain saw it as counter-intuitive and backwards. Now if they were taking on a word game, or a design project, look out.

Frustration can go two ways. Shut us down, or open us up to new possibilities. I didn't become good at that game but I have learned again and again that our differences, including our weaknesses add up to important strength. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and it is in being courageous and curious enough to identify both aspects within ourselves, while being open to try new things even if it means a bit of frustrating “bubble time”, that inspires new considerations, learning, resources, and partners for change. But somehow it is easy to fear new and diverse learning and people.

Today our world is facing many challenges. We need our best thinking and leadership in every sector.?

Taking on our greatest challenges often requires new viewpoints and resources, but greater still is the need for new perspectives. What if we considered our differences as a positive? What if instead of giving up, we proposed even bigger and more meaningful questions and solutions. What if we saw the challenges as big enough to merit listening, learning, and considering new things? What if we all came together for good??

Once space exploration was a fictional proposal, until we did it. And it wasn’t easy, in fact President John F. Kennedy said at the time, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”?

Big challenges are big opportunities in disguise. They inspire new kinds of action. So the next time you hear about a troubling environmental, political, work, or social issue, please consider challenging yourself, your team, and our world to stay calm and think bigger. Consider brand new visions. Visions big enough that they demand new thinking, new passion, and recognition that we can change things if we dare to go big and go small. We don’t have to float along in a bubble. It is not the size of our steps, but the scale of our actions that matter most. And that means every one of us is part of the keys for change.

What actions can you take in your community or business?