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First Down And Goal To Go

Time out on the field is called. It is 1st down and goal to go from the five-yard line. Twenty seconds remain on the clock. The team breaks the huddle and lines up. The running back takes the handoff runs left but is stopped for NO GAIN. Fifteen seconds remain with the home team trailing by four points. A field goal will not do anything. The ball is snapped and handed off to the running back who runs straight up the middle for NO GAIN. Ten seconds remain in the game. Time for one more play or two if they go into a hurry-up offense. Here we go the ball is snapped the quarterback keeps the ball after play faking to the running back and tries to sneak into the end zone. He is stopped for NO GAIN. This is the last play of the game with five seconds remaining in the game. The quarterback takes the snap and drops back to pass. He spots his favorite receiver who is wide open in the end zone.  The catch is made. TOUCHDOWN! The home team just pulled off a stunning upset. What a game! Nobody could have foreseen this frantic come from behind win. We’ll have the players reactions from both teams in a minute.

We love to root for the underdog to win especially when nobody thinks he has a chance. In his beating heart, he feels he can do it. The naysayers will always say no way is this possible. They do not know the power of resolve or the will to win.

For everything that comes naturally for some may or may not put them into life’s winning circle. To not have to fight creep and crawl through the mud will extinguish any fire they may have had burned within them. Who wants it more? What price is either willing to pay for lasting moments basking in the sunshine?

Can you taste the sweet honey on your tongue when you have pushed the ball past where it needs to be in order to SCORE? Score over mediocrity, insecurity, hopelessness or limitations physical or mental. Score for your family, your community, your faith in G-d. Forget images of gold paved road as they don’t exist. Live for the thrill of the challenge that sits before you. Your daunting challenge can lift you higher if you let it. Let there be no naiveite that there will be success even if you give up your last ounce of blood or the sweat of your labor pours out of your body but you have nothing to show for it. Nothing is guaranteed you, they or I. Water may nourish the roots in our souls but will the flowers sprout proudly display their dazzling display of color while swaying hither and yon with every breath of the breeze? Nobody knows. Nobody can say for sure.

Grab ahold of my hand then walk with me one more mile. Listen to my stories of personal trial, tribulations, suffering, pain, and despair. As your spirits begin to sink hear as I tell you about what came next as a result of what is possible. When my legs failed I was iron-bound in a wheelchair. Today few can keep up with the rapidity of my legs in motion as they propel me past the crowds making it safely onto the sidewalk way before an onrushing car came close. The lights went dark. A shadow was all I could see. A walking stick with a white rolling ball on the bottom tip guided my way. Sounds provided signals of safety albeit not always accurate ones. Today neither the bright yellow fire in the sky nor the darkness of darkness that is night elude my piercing glares. Yes, I can see. From handicap to full functionality. These truths can catapult you if you inhale them.

The folklore of failure is strewn with stories of those who could but did not. Cataclysmic catastrophes that need not have been. Hapless hopefulness that was turned inside out. Undaunted doubters cast sidelong snickers at you born from their own obscured insecurity. Futile foot soldiers with dusty worn-out now soleless shoes fresh off the gravel pit roads that persuaded them to march down deep into the depths desperate disheveled and disparaged. What modicum of morsel can you add to this fable?

In front of you in full view of your line of sight, a blessing or a curse is purposely presented to you for your perusal. Behold the behemoth balance beam from which your future or lack thereof will emerge. The banality you wish to bequeath awaits at your ready. With your bravado intact mount this challenge with gusto. Pivot turn and stop mid-stride with one leg hanging in the balance. Rekindle your confidence to go forward. Fate has no faith in failure. Sequester all feelings wrought with doubt. This time is your time now. Plunge headfirst into the stacked pile with your muscles manipulating the movement to score the goal.

What spearheads success? E=energy=effort=self sufficiency. It is you at home plate with your BamBoo Bat waving as it anxiously awaits contact with the filthy split-finger fastball darting downward towards your feet. It is the bottom of the ninth with the score tied. The stadium spotlights shine on you alone. Swung on “it is high it is far it is gone”-John Sterling (New York Yankees Radio Play-by-Play Announcer ) You win! You win! You won the game. Congratulations on your unequivocal unparalleled success. Who can you now bring into the winner’s circle on your coattails?

The watch in your time and the mirror in your reflections is the culmination of achievements made along with those yet to come. You are not what you thought you weren’t. Instead, you are what you thought you could not be. Man in his most essential essence should always be extending his arms beyond what can be felt, seen, or known. What you steadfastly held to be impossible or unachievable the truth you being you inevitably try to elude is embedded deep within the clouded self-consciousness ming that you are in perfect clarity with.

Reject the rambling mumbling of pale-faced people with painted on smiles whose major want is to see you muddled in mediocrity while flailing for the untainted air of success but not getting there. Accomplish does not by nature come easily. As the dawn of thankfully begone days greets so to you must reject and repel its advances. Was it where you were really you wanted to be?

Did you happen to perchance hear the roar from the crowd who now shower you with their adulation that rain down from the rafters? As you stand raised up how did it feel as a red white and blue ribbon with a gold medal affixed to it is placed around your neck hold your entire head pridefully erect.  Flashbulbs from cameras who want to permanently enshrine your image for inspiration to those not yet born who will carry the mantra of your success into the future world. Your place is now amongst the best who tried to preserve against the fury of hurricanes of doubt and did so.

Take a pause for a moment to reflect on what has happened. What has happened your objections to your potential notwithstanding is that you made it. Any venue that you sheepishly wandered into could have been the one! Therein exists the power of evaporated self-denial. To want it to need it to realize it is the epitome of the resounding defeat of defeatism.

The mission of self-doubt is to tear your hopes, dreams, and aspirations asunder. It is singularly selfish in its pursuit of the misery hatched from the ability to eradicate the talent you have. Quitting or half-hearted efforts are the hallmarks of those who wish to but won’t do. What will be the defining moment of your life? When the innocent eyes of the children probe what they perceive you as what do you want them to see. Long after your life has been transcripted what is the legacy you want to leave behind for those who never knew but certainly are aware of who you are along with what you stood for.

When you do depart pack your bag with the positive values you espoused. You made yourself better than before. Now take it all with you to set it free to touch for all who long for its touch. SCORE! SCORE! YOU SCORED! YOU WON! YOU WON! You knew it all along that you could so you did.

Joel Elveson
Joel Elvesonhttps://jelveson.wixsite.com/recruitersite
INDEPENDENT Executive Recruiting By Joel is an "up and coming" Executive Search Firm formed and headed up by Joel Elveson whose visionary ideas, leadership & creativity have brought to life a more "user-friendly" approach to recruiting. His clients and candidates form powerful strategic partnerships that we use to help you. Joel’s Firm offers Permanent, Temporary (case by case), & Temporary To Permanent staffing solutions for all of your Human Capital Requirements. Contract IT/Consultants are available if needed. Above and beyond they are experts (by way of their personal industry work experience) with mortgage, mortgage banking, middle-market banking, accounting, along with many others under the vast financial spectrum of disciplines. Their business goes beyond candidate recruiting as they also train, mentor and develop your internal recruiting staff with an eye towards helping you reduce the cost of hiring. They will also work in areas such as compensation, effective onboarding processes and alike. In other words, their business is to help your business by becoming an extension of you by filling in gaps that cause delay or waste. The recruiting methods employed by Joel’s team are time tested that results in a high rate of successful placements. Joel was trained in the art of recruiting by some of the top staffing industry executives in addition to the best recruiter trainers who to this day drive me to exceed the lofty goals he has set forth.

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10 CONVERSATIONS

    • Thank you to whoever wrote this very kind comment. You have captured the meaning of my article while adding your very astute observations.

    • Johnny, you captured the essence of my article.
      Success without hard work and wisdom is not generally within reach.

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