Being a good stand up comic is like being good at anything…you need ten years before you can even call yourself  a beginner. –Jerry Seinfeld

EXACTLY ten years ago we started together on this incredible journey known as The Resilient Worker.  Seems impossible to believe.  Back in 2015, I made a simple promise to my friends and family.  I would write one blog post every week for fifty-two weeks.  That’s it.  I had no idea what I was going to write about.  I had no idea if anyone was going to pay attention.  Leap and the net shall appear!

When I wrote my first post on February 3, 2015 (Welcome to The Resilient Worker!), I had fifteen subscribers and a couple of ideas knocking around in my head.  My children were all little munchkins.  Uber Eats was not a thing. Electric and self-driving cars were relegated to Jetsons fantasy.   I had not yet made the switch to the iPhone (late adopter!) and I created my weekly e-mails (initially sent out on Friday afternoon) by cutting and pasting from a Word document.  The horror!

Reflecting on ten years of growth, technical innovations, and blog iterations, I am both humbled and awestruck by how quickly the sand slips through the hourglass.  And how much life can imperceptibly shift with every trip around the sun.  But, specifically with The Resilient Worker, I also noticed five trends over this incredible span that provide even more life lessons on resilience.  In no particular order, they are as follows:

1) Accountability Matters

It is one thing to promise something to ourselves.  A goal.  A dream.  A wish.  It is quite another to promise it out loud to those in our inner circle.  The reality is that any sustained journey requiring time, sacrifice, and hard work is inherently difficult.  There will be moments when we will want to quit.  There will be moments when we hit the “messy middle” and cannot see a way forward.  There will be moments when self-doubt will creep in and paralyze our progress.

But articulating our goals to people we respect raises the stakes.  It is the same principle of promising to “love, honor, and cherish” our spouse in front of our family, groomsmen, and bridesmaids.  Now we are accountable!  I likely would have thrown in the towel, or skipped a few weeks, or mailed in my performance and effort had I not made the promise to my friends and family.  And the same is true for all of us.  If we want to make real change, if we want to conquer our fears and realize our goals, if we want to take a step forward toward greatness, we need to state our goals, wishes, and dreams out loud to our inner circle.  Accountability matters!

2) You Find What You Seek

Initially, sitting down to write the weekly blog was incredibly painful.  I would rack my brain for ideas and struggle to finish each week.  But over time, a funny thing happened.  The more I sought out resilient stories and lessons, the more the world opened up to me.  The more I found meaning and relevance in the simplest anecdotes.  And the more I realized that we all find what we are seeking.

If we are seeking someone to blame, we will find it.  If we are seeking a reason to fail, we will find it.  If we are seeking a reason to quit, we will find it.  We need to shift our perspective!  The universe will provide the answers, but they won’t always be obvious.  A great shooter in basketball doesn’t see the hand in the face, he or she sees the hoop.  A great lacrosse scorer doesn’t see the goalie, he or she sees the back of the net.  A successful entrepreneur doesn’t see the obstacles, he or she sees the opportunity.  Your eyes will never lie if they are focused in the right direction.  You find what you seek.

3) Just Do It

I look back on my early blog posts, and do you know what I see?  I see mediocrity.  I see some cringe-worthy platitudes and trite sayings.  And, if I’m being honest, I see a writer too scared to draw on his own experiences.  But over time, I see a positive transformation in style and voice.  I see the confidence that only comes from repetition and experience and slogging through long, laborious nights.  And that shifts the way I feel about my early blog posts. Instead of embarrassment, I feel pride.  We all have to start somewhere!

There is the old expression: “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.” But if we are not careful, we can spend our whole lives planning and not doing!  There will never be ideal conditions.  There will never be the perfect time.  We will never start something new and be an expert.  Our journey doesn’t begin until we take action. Even if that action is clumsy and awkward.  Even if that action makes us scared and nervous.  We have to move forward toward something.  And each time we try, we will improve and gain more confidence. And that is where the magic happens.   Just do it!

4) It’s About Me

In retrospect, I now realize that much of the advice and encouragement over the years was geared inwardly.  There were times when I needed to eat my own cooking and persevere through a difficult patch or fork in the road.  Over ten years, I can see a journey not just in my writing but in my life.  And that autobiographical element has kept the blog rolling through the good times and the bad.  And it has kept my inner fire burning bright.

Think back to any worthwhile pursuit or dream in your life.  What allowed you to press on despite the setbacks and obstacles?  Oftentimes, it is a deep-seated passion or personal conviction that propels us through the quicksand of negativity.  We need to find our “why”!  If we are going through the motions, we will ultimately fail.  If we do not wholeheartedly believe in the cause, we will eventually quit.  It has to be personal.  It has to be authentic.  And that hunger can only come from within.

5) It’s Not About Me

Accountability to my friends and family kept me going through the first year of the blog.  For the second year, I was driven by a quote from another blogger. Essentially, this person declared that if you kept writing consistently for TWO YEARS, eventually one of your blogs would go viral.  I pictured fame, fortune, a book deal, or maybe even a movie deal!  The world would soon know all about me!  My motivation had little to do with my audience.

But two years came and went and, despite my diligence and faith, fame and fortune stayed at bay.  In year three, I had an epiphany. What if the entire quest was about helping one person?  What if The Resilient Worker pilgrimage was not about the destination, but about the journey?  Wouldn’t the ride go much longer?  Wouldn’t it be so much more fulfilling?   In the words of the amazing Ted Lasso: “It’s not about me.  It never was.”.

And so The Resilient Worker will be back next week.  How much longer will it go on?  What adventures are in store for the coming year?  That is anybody’s guess.  But, suffice to say, we are only just beginning.  All we can do is continue to improve, continue to stay positive, and continue to believe.  Some journeys never have a final destination.