Relentless pursuit of resilience

Relentless – dogged, determined, unflinching, unappeasable, unyielding. Relentless: Michael Jordan with a basketball; Jason Pierre Paul chasing a quarterback; Mother Theresa defending the poor; Nelson Mandela standing up for equality; a mother protecting her child; a lion chasing its prey.  Relentless is – teeth clenched, fists balled, heart pumping, all pistons firing – push to a goal. Relentless is – move or get run over, don’t get between me and what I want. Relentless is awake at 5 AM and getting out to chase a dream. Relentless is studying, practicing, eating, sleeping, drinking, and repeating in chasing a dream. Relentless is passion.

Resilience – potency, power strength, persistence, flexibility, adaptability, malleability. Bounce back, come back, stand up, recover, rehabilitate, survive.  Standing firm, arms crossed, smirking – come at me, bring it! Knock me down – I’ll get back up. Break me and I’ll come back stronger. Put me in a storm and watch me come out the other side.

Relentless pursuit of resilience is my “IT”.  It’s my defining purpose, my driving force. If you see me running and sweating, or calculating calories, or reading and writing, pretty much anything I’m doing – it is in my relentless pursuit of resilience. It’s what I think about while warming up or before clipping into my bike. It’s what drives me to grab a weight bar. It’s what makes me go back and read something again and again – to make sure I get it.

The relentless part explains itself.  Resilience is the most vital property of my life. If I can’t adapt; if I can’t bounce back; if I can’t recover, I can’t survive.  In pursuing resilience, I am pursuing survival. That needs to be a relentless endeavor.

Resilience is bounce-back and adaptability. It’s the ability to take a punch and stay in the fight. To fall down and get back up. To change the rules and adapt. My resilience stretches beyond the physical domain and includes emotional, spiritual, and financial. Each domain requires work to keep sharp. Resilience goes well beyond merely throwing up weights and ticking off miles.

My resilience is directly linked to my partner’s resilience. That connection is an open line – with each of us bolstering, leaning, and guarding each other as needs arise.  An old Clint Black song – “Back to Back” – captures it pretty well:

“Behind every good man stands a good woman. Though they might be looking a different way. While she’s dealin’ with one thing. I’ve got another thing comin’. If I’m lookin’ at tomorrow, she’ll be thinkin’ ’bout yesterday. Back to back, we face each other. Still together all alone. We’d be the last to turn to one another.”

Cherry, pecan, chocolate, mince meat – there’s all varieties of pies out there (blueberry is the best though). It’s the same with the concept of stating a purpose or goal; there are infinite variations, applications, and names. Vision and mission statements, mottos, battle cries, slogans, jams… For my personal purposes, I use Mark Verstegen’s “IT” model – out of his book Every Day is Game Day.  My “IT is my purpose. Verstegen lays out an excellent exercise, in his book, to do some self-examination and evaluation. It got me to my “IT” – my motivator and driving force.

This is how I’ve chosen to slice MY pie. Everyone will see it differently. Your “IT” should be tailored to YOU and YOUR life. I certainly endorse resilience but that may not be what revs your engine. “IT” may not even be what you want to call your statement or war-cry. What’s your “IT”? It’s enlightening to take yourself through an exercise of self-examination and figuring out a direction and purpose – gives you a reason to put your feet on the floor every morning.