Today is July 10 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often are you able to adjust at the last moment in order to overcome an unforeseen obstacle?”
Successful people who navigate the chaos understand that in the pursuit of their goals life can, at any moment, place an obstacle in their path they never would have imagined.
Jim Thorpe had to figure out how to adjust at the last moment and in so doing became an Olympic champion.
Considered by many to be one of the greatest and most versatile athletes to ever live, this picture of Jim Thorpe is testament to his determination amidst many of life’s challenges he had to overcome.
Shortly before it was his turn to compete in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, someone stole his shoes.
He managed to find some in a garbage bin. They were different sizes and didn’t fit perfectly, but he made it work by wearing extra socks on the one foot to make up for the ample room in the shoe. Thorpe would go on to win the gold medal in both the pentathlon and decathlon.
The prolific English author Agatha Christie wrote “There is no telling what a human character is. Until the test comes. A man is confronted quite soon with the necessity to stand on his own feet, to face dangers and difficulties and to take his own line of dealing with them.”
Thorpe figured out ‘his own line of dealing’ with last minute obstacles. Do you?