Yesterday, as I took a break from work to gaze out the window the line of Rudyard Kipling‘s poem, If ran through my mind: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs..” Lately, my thoughts often turn to words of the past. Unlike so much of our grab and go culture, the words of yesteryear continue to resonate with relevancy and timeless wisdom. If was written in 1865 but seems so appropriate for these times.

If you can keep your head...when stocks are falling and experts are predicting disaster

when all about you are losing theirs…as panic and fear displace reason and focused intent

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…standing steadfast in your beliefs and uncompromising on your values…But make allowance for their doubting too…because listening to others is a virtue of great leadership. No man knows it all and the input of others provides perspective, a gut check to ensure the path you have chosen is the right decision.

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,…you can achieve your dreams and have a life of meaning, purpose and balance. IF…

Wishing you all the best today!

Karen

IF – Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!