Years ago, when my son played youth football, I remember the coach constantly asking the kids after they complained of injuries this standard question:
Are you hurt or are you injured?
Now in case you don’t know, there is a BIG difference.
Hurt means you feel pain. Injured means you have a condition that means you can’t continue.
Since so much of football is a mental game, the choice pushes a player past what they THINK they can’t do and gets them back in the game. It’s probably why there is a whole generation of football players now with CTE, but that’s not my point here.
For those of us whose days of competitive athletics are long over, the choice between hurt and injured are not quite as distinct, yet they are more than ever most important to sort between.
All of us experience rejection, disappointment, and failure in our professional lives. The question is:
Do these rejections, disappointments, and failures hurt us or injure us?
If I’m “hurt”, I then have the choice to get my mind and emotions back together and give it another shot. If I’m “injured” then I might have some serious retooling to do in order to get back in the professional game. When I was first turned down for the Navy Medical Service Corps Inservice Procurement Program back in 1994, I was hurt. Then I heard that every single candidate selected had a Masters degree. That meant I had two years of retooling to get over that career “injury”. If I had quit because I was hurt, I would have never grown professionally. The Masters degree never did get me in the program (hurt) but it’s lead me to the rewarding career I have today (overcoming injury)
This week, take stock of your most recent failures. Are you allowing “hurt” to prevent you from trying again? If you’re “injured” are you doing everything you can to rehab yourself back to success?
In many ways, professional life is a game. If that’s true, you have to play hard to win. Separate hurt from injured. Get your mind right, Go full speed. Never quit. Those football colloquialisms are just as relevant in the workplace as they are on the field. I’m still in the game. Are you?
Great article! I have to evaluate myself for getting nowhere fast and make a change. Don’t know if I’m injured or hurt.
Mack, I can relate. I was a non-select for the MSC IPP 3 times before I finally got picked up. Third time was not a charm in my case. It was back in the day when we had to take an 8-hour exam before we could even submit a package. I didn’t have a graduate degree at the time, so I did have to do some rehab. I like the football analogy and the contrast between injured and hurt. You’ve adapted, overcome, and succeeded very well.