"This is a test"

A difficult conversation may not seem like a big thing, but a challenging conversation is challenging because there is something about it that makes us uncomfortable. It's easy to gear up for that Big Event on your calendar, but handling that thing that just pops up requires a different kind of preparation. It's not the presentation to the potential client or acing the interview that separates leads to success.We'll be judged by that new client or our new boss by how we handle those little things that nobody likes to do. We're the baboon out there chasing away the lion while the other baboons are hiding in a tree.

Getting better at doing the things that we don't want to do is the difference between settling for what we've always been and growing into what we want to become. The trick is recognizing when we're faced with an opportunity to challenge our limits. We're so accustomed to having the big moments presented to us in a formal and predictable manner in our organizations that we forget to practice how to handle the big moments of life. Big moments usually looks small. Their bigness only emerges as time reveals their impact. You can't study for every test, but you need to ace them all.