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Archive for the ‘Guest Blog’ Category

For this posting, I have invited author Beki Propst to share a bit on her incredible story. Please check out her book , Absent Memories: Moving Forward When You Can’t Look Back. Can you imagine if her story was yours? Post your feedback as a response to this blog, and let Beki know what you thought!

The most effective way to overcome failure is to fail to recognize it. When I lost all memories of my life at age 47, I had no idea what failure was. I couldn’t remember any of my experiences or education; I couldn’t even remember the people I’d grown up with. All I knew was that I had to learn how to support myself. At first, I didn’t even know what kinds of jobs were “out there,” but I learned quickly and managed to find enough work to survive (by working two or three jobs at the same time.)

I hadn’t lost everything; I could still read. But I had lost all my social skills, so I was flying on instinct—and I soon learned that—for me at least—instinct is not intrinsic; it’s based on memories. I lost three jobs in the first five years of my remembered life. I lived in “at-will” states, so I still don’t know why I was fired. I guess some people might view those terminations as failures, but I believe them to be simply a natural result of my ignorance of appropriate behavior. I hadn’t yet learned enough to know how I needed to act and what I needed to do to keep a job.

The only way to fail is to give up. People who have read my book, Absent Memories: Moving forward when you can’t look back, tell me it’s helped them appreciate their lives—and their memories. They tell me I’ve overcome obstacles that would have caused others to give up.

Life is full of challenges, but the ability to learn keeps those challenges from being obstacles. I believe I have no choice but to continue to learn why things don’t always turn out the way I want and expect them to. If reaching a goal is seen as an opportunity to learn, missed goals aren’t viewed as failures, but as steps along the road to success.

Remember: Never give up…not even when you can’t remember what to do!

Learn more about the author at her website: Absent Memories.

Allow me to set the stage with this excerpt from a recent BBC.com article (view it in its entirety here) emphasis added by blog author:

Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer’s Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced.

The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi government replaced the country’s Olympic committee with its own appointees.

Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence.

Iraq had been planning to send a team of at least seven athletes to the Olympics which start on 8 August.

Two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer were in the frame for the trip to Beijing.

“The deadline for taking up places for Beijing for all sports except athletics has now passed,” said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

“The IOC very sadly has now to acknowledge that it is likely there will be no Iraqi presence at the Beijing Olympic Games, despite our best efforts.”

She added: “Clearly, we’d very much like to have seen Iraq’s athletes in Beijing.

“We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government’s actions.”

My thoughts:

• Were the original Iraqi Olympic committee more or less corrupt than the new ones?
• This country has been ravaged by years rule under a rabid dictator (since removed), has been in a state of war for years…can’t they catch a break? For heaven’s sake, it’s the Olympics!
• (Read the words in RED above, then consider this)- If the only sport left to qualify for is “athletics” and Iraq has “athletes” – that’s just puzzling, right?
• Go read the memoirs of ANY person who has ever spent time near the International Olympic Committee and/or it’s governing processes. IT’S ALL POLITICAL.
• Zeus and the gods of Mt Olympus have to be thinking “What happened to the spirit of competition?”

What’s your opinion? Post it below!

Here is an excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt’s Citizenship in a Republic address delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910. The quote below is one of his most famous, referred to as “The Man in the Arena”.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

[ Read the entire address at Leadership Now.]

In what arena do you stand each day?