Everyone has pain. We have situations in our lives that can make it difficult to function. It varies for all of us. For some it maybe a difficult family situation for others a learning disability or a simple but crippling lack of confidence. Whatever your Achilles Heel is I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about. One of my “situations” relates to the month of July.
I absolutely hate July. If we could just skip the entire thing I would be very relieved. July is so difficult for me because it was the month a few years ago when a stroke virtually took away my mother. It’s even hard for me to write this now without feeling myself tense up. I was still a very young adult when this happened. Jon and I were newlyweds and I was about to start graduate school. I’ve had to live with the pain everyday since, but July always becomes almost unbearable.
Still, life goes on and I can’t just lock myself away like a hermit for 30+ days. The world keeps on demanding, so I have to keep going. At times, we all have to carry on when our worlds are crumbling or just with something small that doesn’t feel any less surmountable. We all have to work through the pain.
How do I function through this? Honestly, sometimes I have no idea. If only there were some magic pill that could make it all better. What I do know is pain makes us who we are as people. It defines our characters like nothing else. Pain inherently makes us human and it allows people to connect to us in a way that no other emotion can come even close.
Some would advise you here to just bury the pain, pretend like it’s not there – pain is not professional. I say use the pain. Turn it into passion when you pitch. Use the those strong emotions to show how much you care about the people you’re talking to and business for which you’re presenting. Use it to connect on a personal level that’s more than just business.
In the end I think that’s all we can do. Try to use the pain for something positive. In my experience no matter what we do it’s still there. No matter how much we try to deny or bury it, it’s still there. I’d rather have that pain expressed on my terms instead of coming out in some unintended way that can have negative consequences.
I’m very glad it’s now August and quickly moving into September. I feel better than I did a few weeks ago, but I next year awful July will come again. All I can do is deal with it the best I can and try to convert the most horrible emotions I’ve ever experienced into something I hope would make my mother proud.