We all need challenges to keep growing
Do you remember your childhood?
Of course you do. Close your eyes. Travel back in time with me for a moment.
Think about what your house looked like. Remember how large the dining room table felt, as your legs would swing from the chair. What about your grandparents? Did you ever go to visit them? I would visit my grandparents on the weekend. Take in a deep breath. Do you smell that? Its grandma’s cooking for Sunday dinner. She is in the kitchen cooking and grandpap is sleeping away in his recliner. No? Well I guess that’s my memory.
I can even see what dishes my grandmother is using. Grandpap is on his way to the table. Its funny, I even remember my grandfather’s scent. He passed away over 20 years ago, but my nose has never forgot what he smelled like.
The cologne he wore, the perfume my grandmother used and the Mary Kay make up she wore — I remember. I also remember my grandma’s wallet. A reddish brown leather wallet with room for credit cards, cash, change, and her checkbook. Neatly organized but held together with a stretched rubber-band or as grandma would say, “a gumband.”
I have no idea why I fixated on that rubber band bound wallet. I’ve never forgot it. I think I might have been amused by the fact that my grandmother would keep a wallet that had outlived its purpose and/or value. In awe and maybe dumbfounded that she would use a rubber band to hold her valuables in a tattered piece of leather rather than purchase a new one.
I was a smart little something. I’m sure I bought her one at s Santa Secret Shop. Matter of fact, I am confident of it. But she didn’t use it. She’d rather keep her rubber band bound wallet. I think that there might’ve been value in the rubber band than in the leather it was holding together. I wonder.
In 1957, William Spencer, an inventor and entrepreneur living in Alliance, Ohio, developed the Open Ring Band — what we now know to be the rubber band. Thirty years earlier, Spencer had launched his rubber business, Alliance Rubber Co. And now, after almost a century, Alliance is still a family owned business where their mission is “holding your world together.”
I wonder if in 1923, when Bill was cutting rubber strips out of his Goodyear tires, if he realized he would save Betty’s wallet from death and destruction. I wonder if that’s what he had in mind when he articulated his desire to help fellow Americans hold their world together. I wonder.
I wonder if my grandmother ever considered that her rubber band bound reddish brown leather wallet would remain with me throughout all these years. I also wonder if Mr. Spencer realized that a rubber band could teach us some many things about life, personal growth, and resiliency. I wonder. One thing I do know for sure – I am confident that neither my grandmother nor Bill Spencer would have guessed that their influence, near and far, would impact my writing today.
John Maxwell finds that in life, there are laws to everything. In his 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John notes that the Law of the Rubber-Band says, “Growth stops when you lose the tension between where you are and where you could be.” Grab a rubber band. Go ahead. You know you have one somewhere in your house. Check the junk drawer in the kitchen. Better yet, look in your office. Not there? Can’t find one? OK, just pretend. Take your right index finger and hold one side of the rubber band with the band wrapped around your finger.
Then, take your left index finger and hold the other side of the rubber-band with the band wrapped around that finger. While holding the band as directed, try to pull your fingers further apart from one another, keeping the band wrapped around your fingers. What is happening? The band should be stretched between the two fingers. Do you feel the tension in the band? Hmmm. (you know the lesson is coming…wait for it.)
Remember my grandmother’s wallet? Considering my grandmother, I am sure that she felt that the wallet still had plenty of use — it just wasn’t able to hold all of her valuables together without assistance. She used the rubber band to secure the wallet and to extend its life. Hmmm.
Now lets consider the rubber band. Before it is stretched or wrapped around anything(s), it is just a ring of rubber. An un-stretched rubber band has no use. In order to be used effectively it must be stretched. When it’s stretched, it holds things together. A rubber band sitting next to my grandmother’s wallet, had no value. But a rubber band wrapped around her wallet, fulfilled its purpose.
Whoa. Your mind is blown. I know it is. My mind was blown too, once I realized the value in a simple rubber band.
Our lives are like the rubber band. If we live a life, unchallenged, never stretched, we most likely won’t fulfill our purpose. To live a life in the comfort zone is to live a life of mediocrity. Mediocrity is not a worthy goal. Maxwell says that “Life begins at the end of our comfort zone.” Living an average life is easy. It doesn’t require much of you. And for some of us, we’d rather live comfortably in our unstretched life. But for those few of us who want to stretch, we must begin from the inside out. We must take inventory of our strengths, talents and gifts and stretch in those areas. We must stretch against the tension of life and never fear breaking.
As you set forth your plan to stretch, remember this quote — “You are exactly where you should be, given all you’ve done to get here.” Your life is a sum of your choices — good and bad. Did we already pull a “Boyz II Men” and reach the end of your road? Or is there much more to your journey than we see? Will you invest in yourself and stretch to get to where you want to be? Lets stretch ya’ll!
Gina Jones is a life-long resident of Fayette County and serves the community as an encourager, educator and advocate.Learn more about Gina at www.gmarieproductions.com.