Seahawks Superbowl Defeat and Praying for Turbulence

I’ve had some feedback on my blog I wrote on February 2^nd about the Superbowl and how the Seahawk loss may be a blessing in disguise.  As you can imagine, most who are avid fans do not care much for the post nor do they believe losing could possibly be a good thing and I certainly can understand why. In the moment, defeat is never easy nor does it guarantee any sort of eventual triumph. The idea however that challenges and even defeats can be some of the most important events in our life that propel us to success is interesting.         

In life, our natural instinct is to hope and pray for smooth sailing.  We believe if the waters remain calm than all of our hopes and dreams will come true.  The reality however is that smooth sailing rarely gets us to where we want to go.  In fact normally just the opposite is true.  Those who do not encounter or who do all they can to avoid rough waters usually end up feeling empty and dissatisfied at the end of their journey. 

Recently while attending a leadership conference one of the speakers suggested that we pray for turbulence.  The audience laughed nervously after this comment only to realize the speaker was serious!  The speaker shared that turbulence does two things from a business perspective.  First, it eliminates the weak and those who would prefer not to deal with turbulence, leaving only the truly committed to compete.  Second, it forces us to cling tighter to our values and pushes us to remain humble and hungry for success.  During the presentation the speaker shared several examples of organizations who had smooth sailing from the beginning and eventually failed and others who endured severe headwinds, even to the point of bankruptcy, before succeeding tremendously. The speaker concluded that despite our nervousness in the room, turbulence is a good thing!

I admit the idea of praying for turbulence is a scary prospect!  Rarely is it enjoyable passing through it but the reality is that time and time again it has proven to be the best way to help us reach our potential and be successful.  So, let’s brace ourselves for the ride and be prepared to meet turbulence head on knowing that adversity and struggles create the opportunities for us to be better than we’ve ever been before.