Do you feel like giving up? Did you think you had some traction, only to discover you were on ice and sliding downhill? In those times, it can be tempting to give up, throw in the towel and sulk in a corner. It may feel hopeless. But it’s not over until you say it’s so!
Yogi Berra was famous for his yogiisms. Even the BBC noted while some of his sayings were silly, this one has become quite helpful:
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Yogi Berra
In 1955, Earl Nightingale recorded a spoken word album that became a bestseller called The Strangest Secret. He asked and answered the question, “What is the strangest secret in the world?”
I heard parts of the recording many years ago. In August 2022, Dan Miller on the 48 Days podcast issued a challenge to listen to the recording for thirty days. I decided to take the challenge. It couldn’t have come at a better time for me!
Here is a link to the original recording:
This last month has turned out to be one of change for my wife and me. She has been offered an amazing opportunity. As a result, we will be moving soon and starting a new chapter in our lives.
The challenge also involved writing how the recording affected me. The following is my response to The Strangest Secret Challenge. I took the challenge. My answers are below.
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try and cheer somebody else up.”
Mark Twain
We can get so inward-focused, can’t we? If we’re not feeling right, if we get caught up in the world’s drama, we can get find ourselves in a downward spiral of doom and gloom. How do we get out of a deep funk? Cheer someone else up!
A few weeks ago, I got to write an article about a church that is embracing a new name and renewed mission. It is a great example of why renewal is always possible.
I love writing about these articles because it shows that it is never too early for a restart. Here’s another great example from last year. In each case, because someone had hope, a vision, and the courage to begin again, good things began to happen.
Listen first, speak last.
Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive, page xxiii
I did not expect to find “listen first, speak last” in a book on business leadership. But there it was. Peter Drucker elevated it to a rule for executives to follow.
This didn’t play into my stereotype of the brash, bombastic, self-assured, influential executive. Aren’t leaders supposed to be the boss and have people do their bidding? At least that was the excuse I used when I tried to reason why some are leaders and others are followers.