One of the highest compliments anyone can pay about your work is that you make it look easy or effortless. In all but the rarest situations, this is not the case. It takes a hell of a lot of work to make anything look easy.
A good example has been the Virgin Strive Challenge, which has been organised with supreme skill by the team, led by my son Sam and nephew Noah.Aside from the incredible physical and mental effort of travelling from London to the Matterhorn entirely using human power (more on that soon), the sheer logistics are mind-boggling.
Everyone from the Big Change charity team back in the office to the
volunteers on the ground, the core Strive participants to the doctors,
the film crew to the cooks, the press team to everyone at Virgin, has
worked their socks off to make sure everything is running as smoothly as
possible.
When months and months of planning come off, and an
incredible challenge gets into full swing, a few wonderful things
happen. All the pain the body goes through is more than worthwhile due
to benefits such as making friends for life, as well as raising money
for a great cause, The Big Change.
There was a moment during one of the hike stages I will always remember. We were approaching the end, after eight hours in torrential rain and tough uphill terrain, and finally reached the peak. We came out into a valley on the other side, and the sun miraculously came out. It was magical.
There was a moment during one of the hike stages I will always remember. We were approaching the end, after eight hours in torrential rain and tough uphill terrain, and finally reached the peak. We came out into a valley on the other side, and the sun miraculously came out. It was magical.
The writer Lawrence Weschler, interviewed by Robert S Boynton in the excellent The New New Journalism, explained how these special moments acquire a certain grace that cannot be matched:
“Grace comes into play in those situations in which you work and work and work at something…then that happens all by itself. “It would not have happened without all the prior work, but the prior work didn’t cause it to happen. The prior work was preparation for receptivity. But then there is something beyond that which is gratis, for free. That is ‘grace’.”
“Grace comes into play in those situations in which you work and work and work at something…then that happens all by itself. “It would not have happened without all the prior work, but the prior work didn’t cause it to happen. The prior work was preparation for receptivity. But then there is something beyond that which is gratis, for free. That is ‘grace’.”
Strive has been full of grins,
determination, fun, graft, grit and grace. They are values we can all
use every day, in every situation.
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