Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Hello, and welcome to Imagine the Possibilities. I'm Skip Pogue. The title of this episode is the Door that Courage Opened.
[00:00:22] Sometimes the most important journeys we take in life don't start with a plan. They start with a single step. A step fueled by courage. Today I want to share a personal story about one of those moments and the door that courage opened for me.
[00:00:40] You've heard me say, I've always believed that for me to be successful and get the things I wanted out of life, that I have to help all those around me be successful and get the things they want. And when I say all those around me, I. Including you. And my favorite tool to do that is encouragement.
[00:00:58] I need to fully address the act of encouragement before we move on. But first, I need to talk about courage.
[00:01:06] The Merriam Webster dictionary defines courage as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, or withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.
[00:01:16] In the same dictionary, we find the definition of encouragement is is to make someone more determined, hopeful, or confident. To inspire with courage, spirit, or hope, to attempt, to persuade, to spur on, and to give help.
[00:01:33] Think about that for a moment. Courage affects how we manage things. It doesn't really matter what we're facing or what's happened. Courage will help us get through it.
[00:01:42] It's courage that allows us to face most anything and everything that comes at us.
[00:01:47] Having courage allows us to accomplish remarkable things.
[00:01:53] For me, finding my courage allowed me to become an encourager.
[00:01:58] It's also allowed me to begin sharing my stories with you.
[00:02:03] Some years ago, several of my business associates, along with family and friends, started encouraging me to become a customer service instructor. They all told me I had the skills needed to do the job. The fact was, I'd spent much of my adult life involved in customer service in one form or another, and they just felt that I needed to share the knowledge and experience I'd gained.
[00:02:26] After retiring from IBM, I went to work for another technology company where I spent several years managing a site with over 400 employees. They were customer support agents and they support at all levels, multiple hardware platforms and all the associated software.
[00:02:43] I moved from that mission to a director's position supporting multiple customer sites around the country. You remember I talked about travel. That's when I was doing all the traveling.
[00:02:54] From there, I moved to the position of Director of Help Desk Quality Management.
[00:02:59] It was during that time that people started encouraging me to get certified to do all types of customer service training.
[00:03:06] With all the encouragement, I decided that that was something I wanted to do.
[00:03:12] So I took the next step. I began spending time going to classes.
[00:03:17] I needed to hone the current skills I had.
[00:03:20] I needed to develop some new skills, and I needed to get certifications required to teach customer service at all levels.
[00:03:28] The day finally came when I received my certification as an instructor for everything from entry level help desk to management programs.
[00:03:38] Now, in addition to all the training I got, I had hundreds of real world examples of both good and bad customer service.
[00:03:48] Since I'd always presented stuff to people at every level, from new hires to corporate presidents, I didn't foresee my getting up and teaching in class would be any problem.
[00:04:00] The truth is that I thought it'd be easy.
[00:04:04] Little did I know my preparation took the better part of a year.
[00:04:10] During that time, I realized something about myself.
[00:04:13] I realized that I had a real passion for teaching and for encouraging others.
[00:04:19] I really wanted to do it. I needed to do it. I needed to give back to help others. I needed to help them be the best they could be in in every aspect of their life.
[00:04:30] I knew I could make a difference in their professional life by sharing better ways to do their jobs. I wanted to make their personal life better by providing them with tools and ideas to balance home and work life.
[00:04:44] I also felt, based on my personal relationship with Jesus, that I could encourage them if they wanted it, to make their spiritual life more fulfilling.
[00:04:57] With all the groundwork completed, I scheduled my first class.
[00:05:03] Something happened between my scheduling that class and the date of that class.
[00:05:10] A friend of mine, he was a business associate and I respected him very much.
[00:05:17] But he started telling me that since I'd only worked for IBM during my entire career, that I didn't have enough real world experience to be teaching this class.
[00:05:30] They really didn't think I was equipped or ready to teach others.
[00:05:35] I don't know why they decided to share it with me, but they did.
[00:05:39] And I still don't know to this day. I don't know why they did it. Without realizing it, I began to internalize some of what they said.
[00:05:49] The day of the class came, I was ready. I knew I could do this. The class was for help desk analysts at one of our customer locations.
[00:05:59] I arrived on the site early, set the room up, made sure everything was where it needed to be and it was ready for the students.
[00:06:07] Now, after I got done doing that, I decided I just needed to sit down and wait.
[00:06:13] I sat down and in all honesty, I don't think I'd sit there 10 seconds before everything that my friend said to me started going through my mind.
[00:06:29] I was literally sweating.
[00:06:32] Then I Developed a knot in my stomach. It hurt.
[00:06:36] Then I developed these feelings of being anxious and flustered.
[00:06:41] And I did what most people do, I assume. I got up and walked out of the room.
[00:06:50] As I was walking down the hallway, I ran into the manager for the account.
[00:06:54] It was his people that were going to be in the class and he was going to take care of seating those and introducing me.
[00:07:01] We chatted for a few minutes about the class. I told him everything was ready to go. But I didn't tell him about my feelings.
[00:07:10] I agreed that I would wait at the door. I'd crack the door open just a little bit, let him see me, and then he would do the introduction. And on cue, I'd entered the room. When we got done talking, I just walked off hoping that I could clear my head.
[00:07:25] The fact is that my walk wasn't helping me much. In addition to everything else I'd been experiencing, I now had a raging case of self doubt. The thing is that this day was a long time coming.
[00:07:41] And up until about 15 or so minutes ago, I had no doubt about my ability to do it. Now I wasn't even sure I could go back into the classroom, let alone teach anyone anything.
[00:07:55] But I knew I had to do it.
[00:07:58] I walked for a few more minutes and nothing changed.
[00:08:02] I realized that I had now been gone for quite a long time and I checked my watch.
[00:08:08] It was getting close to time for the class to start. So I turned around and without much enthusiasm, I started walking back toward the classroom.
[00:08:19] As I was walking back toward the classroom, I realized that I had to do something. I began thinking about how I had gotten to this point.
[00:08:28] As I continued to walk, I started reflecting my training and all the previous successes I'd had. I thought about things I'd been able to accomplish in the past.
[00:08:38] I said a prayer.
[00:08:40] Then I started going through my list of positive affirmations.
[00:08:44] I arrived at that door and opened it slightly.
[00:08:48] I saw the students at their seat. The manager saw me, nodded and and started his introduction.
[00:08:55] With every second that passed, I started noticing that my level of self doubt was going down and my courage to do what I had to do was going up.
[00:09:06] Manager said a couple more things about my work history and experience and it was showtime.
[00:09:13] On cue, I opened the door and walked in. I thanked the manager for a great introduction. I welcomed the students and started my very first class.
[00:09:25] Here's the thing.
[00:09:26] For two days, I didn't miss a beat. I covered everything that I needed to cover. We went through all the material without a problem.
[00:09:35] I used a bunch of examples of customer service, which in turn led to many energetic discussions. The Right and Wrong Way to Provide Customer Service the two days seemed to fly by.
[00:09:47] My first class was over and I was feeling great.
[00:09:51] Now, just as an aside on this, all the students that were in the class had to take a test to get certified and every one of them passed their test on the first try.
[00:10:07] Anyway, thanks to the courage to walk through that door, I got the opportunity to help others and encourage them in so many different ways.
[00:10:17] Over the next seven plus years, I taught dozens of classes, had hundreds of students.
[00:10:23] I always told them about my belief that my success was a direct result of their success.
[00:10:29] No matter what type of class I was teaching, I always tried to provide as much encouragement as I possibly could.
[00:10:37] Based on the feedback I received over the years, it seems I was quite successful in doing that.
[00:10:44] We've got to remember that when we encourage others, it lets them know that someone cares about them and that they want to help them. Through our encouragement, they'll become better. Better today, better tomorrow, and better forever.
[00:10:59] And by being better, their life will become a bit easier.
[00:11:04] By our taking these small steps, we'll also make the world a better place.
[00:11:11] Hopefully you now understand the title the Door that Courage Opened.
[00:11:16] It took me finding the courage to step into the classroom to move forward.
[00:11:21] I don't think I'm alone when it comes to needing courage to become an encourager.
[00:11:26] There's something else that I need to say about encouraging others.
[00:11:30] It's about failing to encourage those close to us.
[00:11:34] I'm talking about our family, our kids, our grandkids and our friends.
[00:11:39] At one point I was doing a lot of classes and encouraging others, but I was failing. Miserable when it came to that group.
[00:11:47] I wasn't practicing what I was preaching.
[00:11:50] Once I figured it out, I fixed it. As an encourager, we need to make sure we never miss a chance to encourage anyone, especially those that are most important to us. We need now.
[00:12:05] We've got to make sure that in our day to day journey through life, we always strive to find ways and opportunities to encourage others.
[00:12:16] We've got to look for them, we've got to listen for them. And when we're presented with an opportunity, we've got to seize it.
[00:12:24] Through all this, I did discover something about myself.
[00:12:28] I needed encouragement just like everyone else.
[00:12:32] I came to the realization that the more I encouraged others, the more I received encouragement.
[00:12:40] So as you go through your day, I hope that you understand.
[00:12:45] I know you have the courage and I think now you understand how to encourage people.
[00:12:52] After spending some time talking about this, I feel like maybe you've got a good understanding of courage and encouragement.
[00:13:00] Hopefully you found some things in this that you can use moving forward.
[00:13:05] Maybe you'll be able to help other people while you're helping yourself and getting more encouragement from them in both your personal, your professional and your spiritual life.
[00:13:17] Thanks for your time. I appreciate your listening. Hopefully you found some things in this conversation that'll make your personal, professional or spiritual life better.
[00:13:29] If you have feedback about this podcast or you want to make a suggestion, or you've got something you just want to share with me, drop me a line, send me an email. The email address is imaginethepossibilities.lifemail.com I'd appreciate hearing from you.
[00:13:51] Until next time, live life to the fullest.
[00:13:55] Stay humble, be kind, love unconditionally and laugh often.
[00:14:01] Remember that your future belongs to you.
[00:14:04] I wish you much success.
[00:14:07] Have a super day and I pray that God blesses you in a super way.
[00:14:13] Thanks and God bless.
[00:14:26] Sam.
