Recent Adversity Turns Sowing into Legacy

For those of us who are fast-paced and task-oriented, those high D’s if you’re familiar with the DISC Model of Human Behavior, slowing down long enough to truly reflect on an adversity is tough enough. Sitting still to search for every possible seed to equal or greater benefit hidden within it can be excruciating. Here’s the good news: we don’t have to pretend that we like it, we just have to develop the discipline to do it! I like french fries, greasy New York style pizza, and chips and salsa - but each of those played a direct role in me weighing 260 pounds even when I was working out at least five days every week. I didn’t like making the choice to (almost) completely give up all of them. The result, dropping more than 50 pounds in the two years that followed (and keeping it off), was worth it. And so is forcing myself to reflect. 

Pushing forward to continue sowing, even when we really want to take a break after an extremely rough patch, is exactly how the leadership attributes we’ve built along the way compound. Reflecting on the relationships that were actually one-way streets rather than being as solid as they appeared is a necessity for identifying any potential lesson we can pull from a tough situation and fight off the bitterness that inevitably comes when we feel betrayed. The harvest that follows grows exponentially through the influence we earn; that’s what outlasts any given crisis.

Recent adversities often feel like they should be easier after everything already survived, but they are the real exam of whether the sowing was genuine. Making the best of these situations isn’t about collecting a prettier story for the end of the book (figuratively or literally)—it’s about choosing to keep planting for people who will harvest later. When we treat the latest disappointment as more soil instead of proof that the earlier stands “should have been enough,” influence compounds into legacy.

The most recent adversity we faced is nearly always what reveals our next need. Courageous consistency plants the next seed, unseen extra effort and cooperative relationships (the ones that are genuinely reciprocal) nurture the seed. Making the best of recent reflections isn’t about writing a neater ending. It’s intentional preparation that turns a lifetime of bad situations into a chain of purpose-, values-, and relationship-driven readiness others can walk. Before I give you a set of questions designed to help you mine your most recent adversities for legacy seeds, look back at each theme we’ve worked through to this point - how early adversities create a foundation for profitable leadership, the importance of purpose in pushing through the more significant adversities we face over time, how strong values shape our response to each adversities, and the role relationships play in those adversities - and identify how just making just one pivot can amplify the leadership impact you want to leave (not just the results you want to see in the next quarter).