As we enter a new calendar year, we may feel a variety of emotions and thoughts. Some are reflecting back on 2025, and some are looking forward to the possibilities of 2026. The start of any endeavor, whether a project, a relationship, or simply the continuation of previous efforts, offers you great excitement coupled with risk and rewards. At the onset, we might have done our very best to plan and execute to a successful result. Throughout the process, we will inevitably face challenges. This is where individuals, leaders, businesses, and communities separate themselves from one another.
The push to continue to pursue in the face of loss or destruction is one of those traits or fabrics that can absolutely separate the ok from the best-in-class organizations. This constructive underpinning is like the structural pilings beneath a skyscraper, supporting it all the way to bedrock. Without this foundation, the multifloor building would collapse under its own weight. As it is with the building, it is also true for individuals, leaders, businesses, and communities. The weight of pushing forward in spite of challenges absolutely separates the wishful thinkers from the action-oriented doers.
Being fair, even the best-in-class doers must deal with the possibility of failure and feeling overwhelmed from time to time, which can lead to considering throwing in the towel and quitting. It is at this very intersection of quitting and pushing through where so many lessons can be learned, culminating in current and future success. The setback of the thought refuels the energy to pursue the initial objective even more fervently than at the beginning, when the challenges were only ideas. Now, those challenges are very real and are affecting progress.
Our nation is obsessed with sports. From a very early age, children are exposed to various athletic activities. Some are pushed into them by their parents, and others gravitate to this or that sport from interactions with friends. Sports can play a very valuable role in nurturing the ability to push through challenges when the odds are stacked against you. There are some places in this country where sports have been diluted to the point that the result is neutralized, so everyone succeeds. This is an unfortunate state of affairs, as this is not real life. Life itself is not fair, equal, or even a guarantee of success at whatever level you want to place it. The key is that whatever is placed in front of you, you must jump over it, get around it, crawl on your belly under it, or, as some do, just QUIT.
When you toss in the towel and quit, you not only stop forward progress on the endeavor itself, but you also stop self-worth development, which is an even greater price to pay for the future. This is where the real failure happens. The project, or whatever endeavor, can and will either be picked up and finished by someone else, or it will be scrapped because it should never have started in the first place. The individual, leader, business, community, etc., who quits sets in motion another internal challenge that they must overcome as they move forward. They will need to reestablish their own self-worth, their value to themselves, so they can tap into it when the going gets rough.
As we roll into 2026, make your commitment to yourself today that quitting is not an option. It is not a plan “B.” You might need to tweak your original plans to incorporate new challenges, but keep your eyes focused on the goal line. Don’t let obstacles be a barrier to your success. Jump over them, go around them, or crawl on your belly to get through them.
Need a Promise Guide to be on the journey with you? Call JKL Associates to invite us along on your success journey. Call us at MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246.
Journey On!
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Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
