Ascend
Split Head
Welcome to another episode of the Ascend podcast with Curtis Vickery. This past week, I was at an open gym with my basketball boys. At the end of it, we decided to play some three on three. It was going pretty good. I was guarding the guy and he went to make a move and I had kind of anticipated where he was going and I made a counter move. And I felt like it was going to put me in a good position to either steal the ball or to get him to carry or travel, so have a violation. So as I moved into position, he made a counter move. And because of where I was at and the move that he made, we hit heads and his head hit me right above my eye, on the bone there, split it open, a little bit of blood, didn't have to get any stitches or anything like that. But I bring this up because I feel like it's a good kind of representation of life. Both this player and I were both trying to play a similar game, right? He was offense. I was on defense and we both did things that were legal and we were both trying to do the best that we could. And I don't know if he really got hurt, but I got hurt and I feel like this happens in life too, is that even when we're not really actually doing anything wrong, we can still get hurt. We can anticipate things and try to be proactive and do the next move. It may not work out the way that we thought and it may hurt us actually. And we can either allow that to keep us down. We can allow it to destroy us emotionally, maybe even ego-wise. But just like my head being split open, it'll heal. It doesn't happen immediately, but it starts that process and I would encourage us that when we're trying to do our best and something doesn't go our way, or even when we didn't really technically do anything wrong, but something happens that's a hurdle. We can chalk that up to that experience and know that it will heal because most of the time, we get a chance to play again. And I'm really excited too, again. I don't hold any ill feelings towards that athlete and I still love the game of basketball and I'm going to seize other opportunities that I have to do it again. Hopefully, with a little bit more awareness of maybe if I'm going to do something like that again, I may need to adjust either how high or hello I am, or my approach or when I do it. And that's a good thing because I'll have a chance to practice. And so I hope that if you encounter hurt or something going wrong, that it's okay for it to impact you. Put know that it will heal and then as you seek to intentionally move forward with the idea and hope that you'll be able to get that chance to get a rep again, that you'll be excited and ready for it. And then we also don't hold bitterness towards others that yes, maybe they're a part of what happened yet at the same time, we don't need to villainize anyone for them really not being a villain. And sometimes we just look for people or things to blame and that doesn't actually help us heal and be ready for that next opportunity that may come up. So I hope you can look for that in your life, be ready for it and know that it's okay and that's good. And you'll likely get that chance again. And hopefully it goes well for you. This has been another episode of the Ascend podcast. Keep climbing and join me again next time.