I’ve thought of Albie a lot during the last several weeks, as our BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE podcast series Second-Act Significance has unspooled. The beats of what he went through – discovering that there was a richer life on the other side of what occupied years of his attention and effort – has echoed in the stories our guests have shared.
We’re in the midst of our most ambitious series yet on the podcast I host, Beyond the Crucible. It’s called “Second-Act Significance” and features interviews with nine men and women who recast their visions after a first act that was either undone by a crucible experience or proved to be an unfulfilling pursuit — even if it was a successful one.
It is easy to feel discouraged these days. War has broken out in Ukraine and threatens to destabilize relationships among nations globally. The COVID pandemic, while it has lessened in severity of late, has brought much stress and even tragedy to our day-to-day lives the last two years. The economy continues to struggle, leading to uncertainty about the future for many people.
There are some days when we day dream of being a great inventor or a great visionary. Look what we could accomplish if our idea became reality! We lie in bed at night dreaming of what could be, of what might be. But then we wake up, and reality hits. Who are we kidding?
Sometimes life can feel like the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, in which Murray lives the same day over and over again. No matter what he does he cannot seem to get out of this repeating time loop. Sometimes our identity is like this.
Like any good Christmas movie, Die Hard ends on a festive musical note – the yuletide favorite “Let it Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” Along the way, cinematic flourishes associated with The Most Wonderful Time of the Year abound: a big holiday office party, family traveling to join each other to celebrate, characters wearing Santa hats and other clothing that spotlights the season, plastic explosives blowing off the top of a newly built skyscraper.
With the release of my book Crucible Leadership: Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance on Oct. 19, I have been speaking a fair amount these last couple of months.
The experiences and travails during my days at John Fairfax Ltd. have affected me in many ways. They have affected my view of myself, my view of vision, and my understanding of what it takes to make vision a reality. They have also affected how I help others.
We live in a very divided world. In fact some would say that our times are as divided as they have been in years, even decades. Here in the U.S. we have recently had a divisive election that led those unhappy with the result to storm the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Maybe you think of your favorite Christmas TV specials as inspiring, celebratory fare that set the tone for the season. That’s certainly true – but so is the fact that just about every Yuletide classic we tune in to this time of year features about as many crucible moments as it does presents under the tree.
