“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same…”

Impostors…

Isn’t it interesting that he personifies and names these events in our lives as impostors? Relatively speaking, both of these things quickly fade away. They are impermanent, fading with the next sunrise; already in the past. And since they are impermanent, they become impostors. What we attach to it is what lasts. In both, the meaning and repercussions can be long lasting, provoking action, change, improvement.

That High School Football State Championship, the moment you walked across the stage to receive your hard earned diploma, the day you made Partner, that million dollar deal you booked… all gone as soon as they came.

Do you want to entertain Triumph longer than his stay is welcome, becoming a glory-days couch captain of what you used to do?

Or…

Do you want to enjoy it for what it was, thankful for the experience, suck out all the knowledge and wisdom you can from that experience and move on and grow?

On the one hand, you are looking back, “Look there! Look what I did way back when….” On the other, you are looking forward and asking yourself in a positive manner, “What’s next for me, what else can I do?”

Disaster can be just as, or even more personable in her interactions with you than Triumph.

That day you found out the marriage was dead, the call you got saying you no longer had a job, the day you were cut from the team, the day you proposed and was told ‘No’… those, too, are gone as fast as they came.

But it seems so much more personal, doesn’t it?

And it is, in many ways. Compared to the fleeting moments in the limelight that slowly fade. It seems as if disaster keeps you in the gutter of pity, despair and hopelessness. But she, too, is an Impostor. Neither Triumph nor Disaster are everlasting.

Do you want to allow Disaster to, vampire like, drain you of your energy and potential? Constantly blaming her for all your woes, believing the self-authored, ego-invested stories you tell yourself of the “if this would’ve never happened I could’ve…”?

Does that sound appealing to you?

Or do you want to objectively look at why she came to visit, understand, learn, accept, take responsibility, and bid her farewell as you move on with new direction, purpose and frame?

The choice is yours, of course, but men who entertain these impostors are never appealing to their peers, their honor group or those they wish to attract.

It’s a repellant.

The question remains until answered: So what? What are you going to do now?