February 2012 – Chatman Lewis Consulting

Adversity

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Adversity
as defined by

The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:

A state of hardship or affliction: misfortune. A calamitous
event.

That said, we have all faced adversity and if you
have not, you will. I do want to give you a word of comfort with regard to this
very topic and that is, Adversity is not the end to your means. It is the
beginning of your journey. Your journey begins by staring adversity in the
face, (dead on in the eyes) and know without out a doubt you have not been
defeated. Adversity is merely a bump in the road of your life. Sometimes we
ride over the bumps and hardly notice them and other times we hit the the bump
so hard it jars us physically and emotionally.

When your life takes that emotional or physical turn
form adversity, don’t wallow in self pity! Embrace adversity and put a choke
hold on it that a world champion wrestler would appreciate. What that means is
push and fight through the adversity. You have to love it a little and hate it
a lot. To the extent that you will come to understand it. You will know how and
when to push your adversity back. Thus, you should embrace it when it comes
because it is not the end to your means.

Your life is incredibly complex, I get it…been there
done that (so to speak). But, I know I am resilient and not easily broken. And so are you, it’s in our fiber. Resiliency
is an acquired gift that only others that have walked the path of adversity can
tell you about. And so it is that I tell you, there is an inner strength in you.
Learn to challenge your deepest fears and by all means don’t blame others for
your adversity. This is your path, your journey. Buck up and go about life
realizing, all that glitters is not gold! This is your life and believe it or
not, others are looking to you to be better or worse. Yes, there are people who
deliberately look forward to your negative reactions in adversarial situations.
Yet there are others who look to you for encouragement. I advise you to be
proactive and not give a lot of attention to the matter of negativity.
Remember, this is your journey!

In closing, if this can be of comfort to you…I have
been through chilling adversity. In that cold walk, I stood with proper
posture. I am inspired to NEVER give up. I keep my inner circle small in light
of minimizing chaos. I am convicted and I deeply Believe!

Life is Beautiful.

Get on with it and
be all in.

Smile a lot, and be
kind, these actions will sooth your soul.

All the Best,

Bridgette

What is “One Throat to Choke”?

According to two very good definitions of the phrase, “One Throat to Choke” means:

One throat to choke is an expression used in business to describe the advantage of purchasing goods or integrated services from a single vendor. That way, when something goes wrong, there is only “one throat to choke.”

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The expression is sometimes compared to “putting all your eggs in one basket.” The advantage of putting all your eggs in one basket is that it makes it easier to carry the eggs. The disadvantage is that if the basket is dropped, there is the potential for all the eggs to break at the same time.

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That said, sometimes we use the term lightly and or give it new meaning. Because we give established phrases new meaning, that phrase takes on a ‘new normative’ embodiment of that new meaning. Whether explicit or implied, “One Throat to Choke” does not necessarily mean, finding the person responsible for a bad decision and sentencing him to a public stoning.

What the phrase actually means is this:

Whatever fall out comes of a bad decision, the throat to choke should be the throat of the entity that caused the decision to head south, and when you (as a decision maker) make a critical decision with no Plan B, be prepared to take the onest for dropping the basket and ruining all the eggs.

The question then becomes:

Are the eggs to blame, the basket or you as the decision maker?