Sometimes You Have to Hit Bottom
Sometimes You Have to Hit Bottom
A year with the most ‘highs and lows’ for me
was 1996 – being declared elected MLA by TV and radio only to lose 45 minutes
later certainly seems about as ‘high and low’ as you can get, at least in
political terms. Yet the year had more
to come and I learned quite a bit about myself and my approach to challenges.
I had been Chair of the Capital Regional
District for five years when I stepped down as Chair and as a Director for the
provincial election campaign. I had been
on Saanich Council for ten years and here I simply took an unpaid leave of
absence for the election period. Thus
when I returned to Council after my provincial defeat there was an election for
regional director – yet since two of my colleagues had been elected MLA’s, my
voting bloc of a 5-4 majority was now in a 4-3 minority. As the Clerk asked for candidates my seatmate
whispered ‘don’t run Frank, you’re just going to lose.’ I said ‘sometimes you’ve got to hit bottom’
and I ran and lost.
The summer of 1996 was a long one for me but I
did gather my thoughts after grinding the frustration out of my system (I think
I cut the lawn every day for a month!)
I’m a fan of the small motivational book “Peaks and Valleys” and my
takeaways are: you rarely get to jump from ‘peak to peak’ - that you usually have
to spend some time in a valley before you even get a chance to climb another
mountain, or challenge; and if and when you do get an opportunity to climb
another peak, your success will depend on how you behaved in the valley, how
you treated others in the valley, and in fact, how much you made the most of
your time in the valley.
So that summer was time well spent in the
valley and I determined that provincial politics wasn’t really such a good fit
for me but that local government was – the independence, the opportunity to
achieve tangible results and to do so as a ‘community builder.’ I chose my next ‘peak’ or challenge and was
elected Mayor that Fall.
My life in and out of politics has had many
‘peaks and valleys’ and even to this day, I’ll have setbacks – such as with
clients I consult for or corporate boards.
I resist the urge to react spontaneously and instead find ‘my new
valley’, enjoy where I’m at and give some serious thought as to whether I want
to regain what I’ve lost or move on to another ‘peak.’ In almost every case, I choose to move on –
partly because I no longer have the time or patience with any kind of politics,
even in a boardroom, and I don’t want to go through the ‘same door twice’, that
is if I decide I’d like another challenge I want it to be a new one.
My lesson is that ‘sometimes you’ve got to hit
bottom’, that you need to catch your breath, appreciate all that you have and
take some time before tackling your next challenge – that way you ensure it is
the right one and that you’re better equipped to succeed because you’ve made
the most of your time ‘in the valley.’