Reaction to challenges shapes attitudes

  • Published
  • By Col. Bradford Johnson
  • 571st Contingency Response Group
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  There's a ton of junk on the Internet on which you can waste hours of your life.

Occasionally, you run across something that resonates.  One that I found truly profound was a link a co-worker shared about a presentation a professor by the name of Randy Pausch gave called "The Last Lecture."  I'm paying that favor forward to you.  I'll be quite honest I won't do it justice, but I'll highlight a few parts.  Google it, though. It's worth your time.

At the time it was filmed, Dr. Pausch was living under the realization that his time on Earth was coming to an end.  It's that way for all of us, right? But most of us don't approach life in that way.  His optic was different.  For him, a team of doctors and the cancer spreading in his body were telling him how his story would end and that it was imminent. 

I can't imagine how I would react if I were given the same information about my life.  What Pausch did with the news was inspiring.  As an academic, he did what came naturally to him.  He gave a lecture.  His lecture was titled "The Last Lecture" and the audience was his Carnegie Mellon peers, students, friends and his wife.  He spoke of what mattered most to him and through humor and introspection, passed along some salient thoughts about life and resiliency.  Here are just a few.

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."  How we choose to react to challenges and adversity, whether at work or at home, is where we should focus our energy, rather than languishing on the "why me'" or questions about fairness.  This speaks to character and to pull from the title of a book by former Navy aviator, POW and current U.S. Sen. John McCain, character is destiny.  There's nothing like adversity to bring out one's true character.

"When you're screwing up and nobody's telling you that anymore, they've given up on you."  What we do with honest feedback and how we treat those who gave it to us matters.  If someone is taking their time to help you grow and improve, it's because they care about you.  Take it to heart and take it for action. 

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."  In my 23 years in the Air Force, I've gained a lot of "experience" this way.  Like the lyrics in The Rolling Stones song go, "You can't always get what you want, but ... you get what you need."  Grow where you're planted, make a difference and do awesome at the jobs you're given. 

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things."  Taken a different way, obstacles can weed a lot of the competition out who didn't really want it badly enough to put in the time and effort required to get it. 

I graduated college with a pilot training slot, but the Air Force took that opportunity away eight months later because of a pilot glut. It took me nearly three years, I had to pass two separate "we want to weed you out" flight physicals and overcome one busted T-41 flight screening checkride before I eventually got my shot at undergraduate pilot training.

In the end, I appreciated my wings a lot more when I finally earned them, as well as my beautiful wife for her enduring support and sacrifice while I chased my dream over those years.  I also became a better officer for the experience. What do you want?  How badly do you want it?

What's important in your life?  What are your personal goals?  Where are you headed in your career goals?  What is your plan to get there?  Are you investing your time and energy accordingly?  If not, why not?  Invest in yourself and in the relationships that matter most to you. 

Google Pausch's "The Last Lecture." It's well worth your time. And if I lost you midway through with the Stones reference, Google them too while you're at it.