YOUR PROUDEST MOMENTS

There will certainly be times when life's troubling events appear to cloud (and perhaps even rain upon) your vision for yourself. We've all been there. Though the events may differ from person to person, the effects often share common threads:

• Lack of momentum
• Loss of focus
• Doubt about purpose
• Fear

What can you do? Well, for starters let's do something counterintuitive. I want you to look as far back into your own personal history as you can...look back into your childhood, if possible. Think about something unpleasant that you experienced, endured. And overcame.

Yes, as disconcerting as that old memory may have been, you can recognize that whatever challege it posed to you back then eventually passed away. All gone. You overcame the fear, the doubt. You regained focus and you created momentum. Heck! You're still here to recall it and it didn't kill you--even if at the time you thought it might.

I would propose that as much fun as it might have been to win an award, ace a test, receive a promotion, hold your newborn child...that some of your proudest moments in retrospect were the moments that you thought you'd never survive. Yet, I would go on to say that it was those very gut-wrenching, embarassing, painful experiences that forged the faith, love, drive and perseverence that you exhibit today. Celebrate your proudest moments...

TODAY'S QUESTION: What challening chapter in your personal past has proven to be the bedrock upon which you have lived some of YOUR proudest moments?