Only the brave make the dangerous tenable! –JFK
Most of us saunter through our lives, never having to deal with our moment of truth. A moment of truth is defined as a most severe test of your skills, courage, abilities, and potential. It reveals, in an instant, who you really are in your most true manifestation. In so confronting such an encounter can not only ruin you, but it can even kill you. On its flip side you’ll be held as a hero by the world that surrounds you if such an event involves or touches other lives. If it were a private and personal episode you would have discovered who you really are in the quiet of your own privacy. Such is the power of the moment of truth!
Examples of public encounters with the moments of truth are many. President Barack Obama and others recounted the most recent ones at the 911 Memorial during its dedication ceremony in New York this week. The people showcased in those stories are true heroes in every sense of the word. Not all of us are that fortunate to have encounters in our lives that require that level of sacrifice, courage, and selflessness.
So, how do we prepare for such a moment leading our everyday lives?
In my humble opinion how one fares in a moment of truth is a combination of inner character and your own preparation. The former is deeply ingrained in your DNA and the latter, how you apply yourself to prepare for a challenge. Preparation for a specific task mobilizes our character and makes us brave to overcome adversity, which an unprepared mind cannot. So, how do we prepare ourselves to face our moment of truth? Here is my list:
- Find what you love to do and engage yourself in that endeavor with all your energy. If you do not know what that is it is worth some effort to find out.
- Surround yourself with the most inspiring people as you engage in your endeavor and continue to improve your own performance. Do not compete with others; compete with yourself.
- Keep pushing yourself by taking on greater challenges in your pursuits. As you conquer progressively greater challenges it will increase your confidence in your abilities, creating a virtuous cycle of challenges and abilities.
- When you fail as you keep pushing yourself to attain greater levels of achievement learn from those failures and evaluate what you need to change. Codify that learning and continue your onward journey to excellence. A defeat is not a failure; giving up is.
- Do not shy away from out-of-the ordinary challenges and jump in to test your mettle. Develop your confidence to deal with any adversity that confronts you or the one you are undertaking on purpose.
- Once you have reached this rhythm of ongoing success and learning you are now ready for YOUR moment of truth.
- When you do encounter your moment of truth jump in and show to yourself who you really are! If the world notices it you will be its hero; if it does not you will have discovered a hero within yourself!
Good luck!