When Stress Is Actually A Good Thing

Wow, what a night! On Wednesday, I had the privilege of seeing Eric Thomas live. For those that know of him, you’ll understand how I walked away feeling totally inspired and empowered.

It was a seminar packed full of energy, passion and motivation, so I thought I’d share a few messages that I walked away with. If you’re an ET fan, you may have heard this before, but he asked us to think about a diamond. Diamonds are shiny and precious, have unique properties and hold significant value because everyone wants them. However, they don’t start out this way, going through intense pressure and heat to be formed, before being cut to size and into its best product.

While this may be a tough and lengthy process, this is when a diamond truly becomes unbreakable. This is a representation of our lives, and what we have to go through in order to be the person we want to be. No matter how hard we try to avoid it, we will face pressure, we will face heat and we will be cut. ET is an example of this himself. Eating out of trash cans and living in abandoned buildings at 16 years old was just a taste of the battles to come, as his mother-in-law’s cancer diagnosis rattled his family. It wasn’t until he was cut with losing five aunts to cancer and multiple cousins being sentenced to life in jail for crime involvement that he gained a formidable resilience. He could’ve crumbled at any one of these stages, but these events shaped his life and the person he is today.

We often think of the challenging events in our lives as things that will break or harm us, but really everything is a building block to move forward. If we accept that not everything will be smooth sailing, and learn how to deal with these events, we too can become unbreakable.

Image courtesy of Wildcat Scratch Post

Another aspect he focused on was the concept of giving 120% in all aspects of your life. ET used an example of his friend who is getting a divorce after nine years of marriage. After being shocked by his wife’s decision, ET asked his friend to compare his relationship now to when they first started dating. There were vast differences: not communicating with each other regularly, not appreciating each other, and not putting 120% into the marriage. Sure, he might be a fantastic employee or boss, but there’s no point giving 120% in your job if you’re coming home and only giving 70% to being a father, mother, partner, or whatever it may be. It is in this area that you will fail.

Bring everything up to 120% and you will start succeeding and living your ideal life. It’s also important to create this culture around you. If you’re surrounding yourself with people that are only giving 70%, that will be your standard. Go beyond this. Surround yourself with people who give it all they’ve got (like our awesome Assist PT Champions!) and you will rise to that level also. Give 120%.

Take a look at your life in comparison to the life you want to live and work out the tasks that need to be done in order to get there. You will face obstacles but it is how you deal with these that will map your path forward.