Try Harder

This post was inspired from one of my most inspirational places, Facebook. At the beginning of Michael Jordan's career, he was not chosen to be part of a basketball team he wanted to play with. His mom told him "Try harder", I guess he must have listened to her as he went on to be one of the most successful basketball players on the Chicago Bulls. 

My great niece recently graduated from High School and is going to university to get a degree.  I wrote in her card, if you feel like giving up, don't, "try harder".  

I had the honor of working with student nurses for thirteen years.  I have always said I would let a student care for me any day.  They know more about your health than you do. Students were so diligent in their preparation for clinical.  I would say to them "if you think you are prepared, prepare more".  In other words, "fail to prepare, prepare to fail".  When I reflect on situations that didn't turn out like I had planned, I probably failed to prepare.  In age and wisdom, I have noticed that I do try harder to be prepared for meetings or other events that I am now involved in.  Being prepared is my responsibility and hopefully makes others think I am credible and have an invested interest, it simply shows respect.     

This is and always has been, one of my favorite student stories and fits nicely into the "try harder" post.  The graduating classes from the nursing department would always raise money for their graduation.  One year the class had more money that than required. They had raised that money one dollar at a time, through sheer hard work such as a bake sale. They decided to give back to the staff at the Department of Nursing and they made a large donation in our name to the Murray House, which is Brandon's Ronald McDonald house. I can go right back to the moment they announced the donation and still have the same emotion as I did those many years ago.  The emotion comes from a variety of reasons.  It was the first time I was involved in a monetary recognition that large to a cause so dear to me.  I felt overwhelmed at such a kind and generous gesture. I am sure the parents that were watching couldn't have been prouder of how they raised their child to think of others and to do the right thing.  The students had tried very hard to make their graduation special and they were successful, I still am talking and writing about it. 

                                                       

One thing I have come to realize is that it takes very little effort to have something not work out. in fact, we should almost expect it to end badly when we don't invest. Having things work out as we planned takes considerably more work.  We simply are "trying harder" to make it a good experience.  Success is probably achieved because of the detailed lists that were made.  Contacting others when help was needed, to answer questions and simply making sure every detail was taken care of. There are times when things don't work out like we wanted, for one reason or another.  We make a decision to turn that around and come away with a lesson or at the very least feel better about the experience.  It takes a tremendous amount of hard work and perseverance to do that. We try to protect ourselves from the feeling we had when something doesn't work out. Be it disappointment, shame or disbelief we don't want to feel that again. I am sure you will agree that our best life lessons and personal growth come from things not working out.  

I have had so many influential people in my life, my dear Aunt Joan used to say, "I just had a talk with myself".  I have had many a chat with myself, which is usually productive, or at the very least, I come away with a better frame of mind.  I think what prompts a self-sit-down talk is when I feel sorry for myself, nothing is right in my world.  It is defiantly a try harder moment.  The chat often creates clarity and I develop a plan and implement it.  I learned a long time ago that no one but myself will show up at my pity party, so why have one.    

I just love it when a generous donation is made anonymously.  Very often the success for these people is all self-made and they want to help others by giving back.  As, I look around Brandon and see places named for the biggest donor it saddens me.  Other people have given what they could and have also been part of making that building successful.  I guess what is important to me is different than to others and I try hard to understand it. 

I have to admit in retirement I got lazy staying connected to people in my life.  I have come to realize I have to "try harder" to connect or re-connect with people.  I just recently had lunch with a dear friend that I hadn't seen in over a year.  We have been through a very similar life and have helped each other through some very dark times in our lives.  I came away from the lunch with so much more self-awareness.  We agreed we were not going to let this happen again.  In other words, we are going to try harder to keep each other in our lives.  With today's technology it is very easy to stay connected.  One quick text can make someone's day.  

As I write this, I think I need to try harder to have a sense of accomplishment. I am pretty sure that after a few blogs you realize I love to purge.  It gives me the greatest sense of accomplishment.  A new season is coming, and my closet is not ready for the change of weather.  I have a knitting project I have to finish as it is a gift.  That will be a huge sense of accomplishment when it is done.  The trouble lies in the things I have to do that I really dislike.  It has always been "doing books" or "cleaning up my computer or phone".  I dislike them so much I don't even put them on a to do list.  I guess I have to try harder.  A co-worker told me once, "well stop talking about it and just do it".  I was speechless because I had done nothing but talk about it simply no action.  Maybe, I need to remind myself of her words more often or better yet just do it.  As we all know, tasks we put off only take a few minutes to complete and a sense of relief is what we feel when we know we did it.  

As with all of my blogs I hope you take something away to help you in your life.  This blog is for you to try harder to be happier, have more contentment in your life and to inspire you to do one job you have been putting off.