Inspiration - Continuous Effort

Inspiration - Continuous Effort

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd

The quote today comes from Sir Winston Churchill, who says “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.”

Really not the words that I wanted to hear at this time in my life I can tell you! 

I have, of late, been struggling with personal issues (that I won’t go into at this time).  Suffice it to say, that I thought that I had worked through them all and come to an amicable solution of sorts – silly me!

You see on a logical level I work through stuff and usually deal with it and then walk away.  That’s all very well, but it seems that things also have to be dealt with on an emotional level as well and herein lies my challenge.

Without going into too much detail, as a child growing up I lost the ability to deal with many things on an emotional basis.  That part of me was shut down and for many years the ‘emotional’ side of me was dealt with in pure anger.  Not to good for the psyche or the soul – but that was the only way that I could deal with it. 

As I am sure you can imagine, this did a great deal of damage to me and today I still pay huge dividends in my sometimes inability to deal with things on an emotional level.

Pain on any level is not an easy thing to deal with, yet somehow I have learnt to just ‘shut’ it out, and here is where the problem starts – you see it comes back to bite me in the butt!

What I had thought had been dealt with has come back to haunt me and now I really have to sit down and go inside of myself, to the emotional side of myself and feel that pain and then work through it – I have to make myself vulnerable to that pain and really feel it, in order for it to go away completely.  No wonder Vanessa always tells me that my greatest strength lies within my vulnerability.

I have no doubt that I will come out on the other side a much stronger person for the experience and I know that I will have to go back there continuously in order for me to deal with the issue at hand. I also know in that place deep down inside of me, where you instinctively know the truth when you hear it, that in order for me to move forward it has to be done, so in essence I understand that it has to be done.

I guess it gives the other saying that Vanessa keeps telling me a lot more foundation too – those words being “Difficult and challenging experiences precede all worthwhile accomplishments”.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za.