Breakthroughs in the Rain to Bound and Determined

Recently a really good rain storm was brewing and I wanted to go on a walk.  So I gave Matt the puppy dog eyes and as we exited he said, “I wonder if we will make it to the end of the block before the downpour begins.”

We did not make it.

However, we had an amazing walk ending in having to literally wring out our clothes.

Have you ever noticed that some of your best ideas come when you are taking a shower?  Now there really is scientific testing done on why this happens, but that is for another article.  That walk brought out a bunch of ideas that will be implemented in my newest product for resolving conflict, so many that I almost struggled to remember them all upon our return.

As you might have guessed this was truly a walk of solitude.  Our normal path filled with dog walkers, joggers, bikers, kids, was abandoned, even the squirrels were in hiding.  As we merrily walked along, joking about how other’s perceived our refreshing walk as “crazy” it was about then that I started to think of all those in my circle that have done “crazy” things in business that paid off in big ways when it separated them from the pack.

Of course, this feeling of great accomplishment was dashed when I decided it was time to visit the DMV and trade in my Colorado driver’s license for a Texas one.  I was not disappointed, my expectations were met with 100% accuracy.  Of course it took two trips, and every paper I have that proves my identity (yes, every single one).  After my first trip I looked at my son, and said, “I am bound and determined to make this happen today.”

On the return of the second trip I looked around at all the assortment of people sprinkled around the waiting room .  Sitting on my hard plastic chair that was won through persistence.  As I sat there I looked at the lady to my left who reserved the seat right next to me for her purse.  Mind you this is a packed room of people standing all around and she is so insecure about having someone next to her that she defies the angry stares of those standing to audaciously announce her purse deserves a seat more than they do.

It was at this time I questioned my statement of being “bound and determined”, as I sat there next to Ms. Purse I looked up the meaning and the birth of the word “bound”.  As it turns out this word has a very fascinating journey that began c.1200 from latin meaning to “limit” and from the French bonde “limit, boundary, boundary stone.”  It wasn’t until the c.1400 that bound was used to mean “fastened” or in a figurative sense “compelled.”

The word determined has a much more straightforward birth in 1560s determined was used to represent “decided” later in c.1600 it picked up the meaning to be “characterized by resolution”.

Putting the two words together forms the strongest combination of decision.  Any goal that you want to achieve and you resolve to be bound and determined internally translates to limiting the result to what you define as success.

In the end it made me evaluate how easy it is to demonstrate determination of reaching a goal, but how I have left myself unbound to the result.  What a craftily constructed comfort zone.  The mere fact of having a goal in mind and the determination to achieve that goal is not truly set on fire until you also are bound to the result.

The next time you are walking in the rain, setting yourself apart from the pack, do so bound and determined for your vision to become a reality.  In that state, no one can stop you.








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