Blind Resolve

“Life is not about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.” – Lolly Daskal

Blind Resolve

“It’s interesting that you used the word quit.”  Steve said.

That’s because Steve Maranville has heard that word for more than sixty years.

“My forty-fifth-year high school class reunion is coming up soon.”  Steve continued.  “I’ve been in contact with a few of my classmates over the years, but not very many of them.”

So, he decided to begin to reach out to more classmates so he could discover what his peers had been up to over these many years.  It would allow him to enjoy a reunion with more depth centered on personal connection.  What he didn’t anticipate was an illumination.  An enlightenment concerning the difference between living with goals compared to living with resolution.

“One of my Classmates said something interesting to me.”  Steve elaborated.  “He said, ‘if anyone had a reason to quit it was you!’”

While attending high school Steve was legally blind.  But, he still had some vision in his eyes as well as a vision of who he could become, something the eyes of others couldn’t see, inside himself.  He also had something to prove to the world.  There was something, a feeling, deep in his core, his very soul, that propelled him toward proving himself to everyone, most importantly to himself.

“My Classmate’s comment about having a reason to quit brought a key distinction to my mind.”  Steve explained.  “There is a difference between living a goal focused life and living with resolve!”

Steve was once a professor in a prestigious university business school.  Now he’s a highly regarded and sought-after advisor to entrepreneurs seeking to build “unicorn” companies.  And, he is foremost and will always be a master teacher.

“Everyone will face moments in life when they want to quit.”  He imparted. “That’s the moment when a person has an internal confrontation.  They have a choice at that very moment.  Do I have a goal or do I have resolve?”

Here’s a brief description of what Steve calls “Blind Resolve.” 

A goal is just something out there on the horizon.  It hasn’t occurred yet.  It’s something you may accomplish in the future.  “I call that living with hope!”  Steve explains.

A resolution is very different! “I call it living in real-time, faith, knowing, right now, that you've already done it, become transformed.  It is an immediate change. It is a made decision!”

Living with resolve is the definition of living fully in faith.  It is Blind Resolve.

Blind Resolve means being blind to all of the hurdles and reasons you can’t or won’t become the person you dream of becoming.  You only see that you’re already that person.  It’s who you are now, in this moment.  The option of quitting has passed.

“It’s interesting that you used the word quit.”  Steve said as we talked about events and circumstances that had become the stimulus of immense personal transformation that had occurred in our lives over the past year.  The statement was Steve’s precursor; an introduction to a master teacher’s lesson about the distinction between living in hope and living in faith.

The difference is Blind Resolve.