Brick walls

“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” – Randy Pausch, from his “Last Lecture,” 2007

This quote has motivated me for years. In fact, I highly recommend Mr. Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture. I’ve read it multiple times. His brick walls quote has helped me tremendously in two areas of my life over the last few weeks.

The first is in my role as a grant professional. You would think after more than 24 years of finding and applying for grants I’d be used to rejection, as it happens approximately 50 percent of the time. Nope.

Last week stung. One of my clients received three rejections in two days, and another received two in three days. Ouch. And I also made an error on a “pre application” task where I had to retract an email. I HATE retracting emails.

The second area is my author role. When I launched Happy and Solo at Church in April, I had visions of speaking to multiple groups and churches this summer. I declared to myself I’d have one speaking engagement each week. “I’m gonna be hoppin!” I said to my best friend.

As of this writing, I have a whopping two on the calendar for the summer. Turns out people are busy with other things (huh, weird!) and getting me on the schedule to speak to their organization or group isn’t a high priority. And the process to speak at a Catholic Church involves multiple, time-consuming steps – which I completely understand.

I bet many of you are facing your own brick walls. How often do we strive for something, envisioning success and everything turning out exactly like we imagined? I think that’s when God laughs and says, “Oh, no … that’s not what I’m planning.”

Just when I was feeling low, I received a phone call out of the blue asking me to speak to a delightful group of ladies in Castleton last week. I eagerly said “yes” and went on to have a marvelous evening and discussion.

Both my husband and best friend reminded me to have fun with this book and future speaking engagements. This is my calling, and I need to embrace it with joy. Things will work out, as they obviously did with the Castleton presentation.

In my fundraising role, I had to remind myself we had achieved some big grant wins with both clients in May. We’ll get more in the future. I’m dusting myself off and staring at that brick wall with a new determination. I’m vowing to improve in my grant proposal writing and strategies.

Readers, we can go around the brick walls of life with some determination and a whole lotta prayer. Whatever you’re facing, give yourself some time to step back, think, take a walk, and do anything else you need to see things in a different light. And finally, sleep on it. You’ll soon conquer that wall and be ready to take on the world.

Amy Shankland is an empty-nester, writer, and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John and two dogs. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.