Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Believe

I hope today is an indication that things are starting to really look up. The last year has been really tough, primarily due to some health problems that have proven to be quite difficult to diagnose and treat effectively. My blogging scarcity has been a side effect.

Over the past couple of months, I have seen glimpses that real improvement was possible, if not probable. I have been struggling with feeling that there was little or no hope.

Today at work was one of the best days I've had in quite a while. I proved to myself—my worst critic, although it seems there have been many others vying for that title lately—that I still "got" it. I am still capable of performing to a level approaching my expectations (at least within sight of that).

To celebrate, I am watching the 2009 US Open on ESPN2. I was inspired the other day when I saw a bit of the match where Melanie Oudin played beyond her years against the highly favored Nadia Petrova. Enscribed on her shoes is "Believe." Tonight her coach and others in her entourage are wearing black shirts with "Believe" written across the front in bold yellow. Although she has just lost the first set, that has not proven to be too much of an obstacle for her thus far.

Even if she does not win tonight's match, she has every reason to "believe" she is well on her way to a successful tennis career. She's only 17, and as she gets stronger (and improves her serve), she will also gain valuable experience that will give her even more confidence.

I hope Ms. Oudin will allow me to also adopt that simple mantra: Believe.

1 comment:

Yogi said...

Hi Steven,
you happened to appear in my Yammer inBox tonight and I briefly read your blog.
Other than both of us working at IBM, I don't know anything about you, but your reference to health problems tells me that you have been struggling with health issues, so I sincerely wish you continued speedy recovery and improvement.

If I left it at that it would of course be a nice gesture of good wishes, however, I want to share with you something related to new insights into health and human biology (that I just recently learned and found quite transformational in how I relate to health) that could quite possibly have a significant impact on , not only how you view your health but also how it could transform your health.
Dr. Bruce Lipton, Microbiologist, has a 2 part lecture on YouTube called the "Biology of Belief"
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=biology+of+belief&emb=0&aq=f#
I hope you will take some time to view it and hope it will give you new insight and personal benefits on all levels.

Kind Regards
Yogi Golle
IBM EUS Tools Team - Lead Application Developer