When was the last time you were humiliated?

The Ultimate Humiliation

What would you consider to be the ultimate humiliation? Is it when your team losses a game to your rivals or is it when the person you trusted most turns against you? Is it when you are unable to deliver what you promised? When I think of humiliation, I think of Nelson Mandela who tells numerous stories of twenty-seven years of humiliation without any sense of anger or pride. Humiliation is an intensely emotional experience and I doubt anyone can go through it without the pain of being misunderstood.  

A friend tells me of how he was sacked and dismissed in front of his colleagues at an office function. He left the room discouraged and distraught. His friends dissociated themselves with him in case they came to face the same fate. Humiliation is a humbling and isolating experience that calls on all your mortal reserves and spiritual core to withstand. It is a wound that feel like will never heal.

Unlike Mandela, some people may not outlive their humiliation, but all of us must overcome and not allow it to stop us from moving forward. There are mothers and fathers, men and women, boys and girls in all stages of life who will never get to tell their stories of humiliation and how they overcame. But today I want you to know, though I do not know your name, you are heroes in my hall of fame. With tears in your heart, give up the pain and in the name of all that is good, get up and stand again.

Don' t get stuck in half-time!

The first half of a rugby game is a good indicator of which way the game is likely to end, but it is hardly the determinant of the final score. Any number of incidences and opportunities may arise in the second half that can change the course of a game from an obvious result. The fact is the first half has to be played before the second. This means that half time is only a marker of progress towards an outcome. Some people go into the changing room with a sense of destiny, while others come out of the mid-term with an attitude that the game has just begun! How do you use your talk time at half-time. Do you call it quits, recommit or just take a rest? Your discussion will either prepare you for defeat or condition you to come out a winner. Kofi Annan was set to leave the UN on retirement just before he was appointed Secretary General of the world body.

What we are talking about here is not a game. It is about life. When you move from one job to the next, when you retire at the end of the day, when you are fired or when you are hired. Halftime can come around when you are retired or take time to consider your future. I have looked around me and noticed that half time is a mode of existence. It is a neither here nor there for many people considering their future after the first half of a life struggle of one kind or other. My challenge to all half-timers is that it is limited. Lick your wounds quickly, but don’t dwell on the past because the future awaits and the game can actually restart without you. If you are stuck in halftime recognize that that was just the first half. The second half is do or die - so give it your best!