TIME WILL TELL
This week the WNBA season wrapped up as the Chicago Sky defeated the Phoenix Mercury to win the franchise’s first ever league championship. It was an especially sweet victory for Candace Parker, a Chicago native and one of the faces of the league who returned to the Windy City after a long, successful career in Los Angeles in hopes of bringing a title to her hometown. Parker and her Sky teammates did just that with a dramatic, come-from-behind victory that delighted the sold out crowd and set another highwater mark for the growing popularity of women’s basketball across the country.
In the postgame press conference, Parker was asked what message her team’s series victory might send to kids who were watching from home and following the team. Her answer was awesome - so awesome, in fact, that I wanted to share it with you here today. Regardless of whether you’re a diehard WNBA fan or you’ve never seen a game, I’m confident Parker’s words in this one-minute clip can benefit you and your pursuit of success today.
Candace Parker is right. You don’t always have to tell your story, because time will. Time will tell your story. Time will reveal who it is that you really are and how much you’ve sacrificed to achieve whatever lofty goals you’ve set for yourself. Time will reveal what you’ve gone through, what you’ve overcome, and what your challenges and failures have taught you. Time will reveal all the work you’ve done outside the spotlight, on your own in the dark, that’s really set you apart and put you in a position to succeed. Time will reveal exactly how worthy you are of winning.
That’s a great reminder for each of us today because we live in an age where it seems almost everyone feels like they’ve got to tell their story. There’s this pressure or expectation to post or share or explain to everyone who we are, what we’re going through, or how hard we’re working. Sometimes, of course, sharing our story can be a good thing. It can inspire others who may find themselves on a similar path, or it can serve as a reminder or a motivator for us as we continue moving forward.
But more often, it seems we’re motivated to share our story out of fear. Maybe it’s the fear that we won’t get the credit we think we deserve for the hard work we’ve put in, or the fear that people won’t acknowledge or appreciate what we’ve done or what we’ve had to go through. Ultimately, I think it’s the fear that time won’t tell - that our hard work and perseverance won’t pay off, and that we won’t achieve the goals we’ve set out to reach. Parker and her teammates in that interview admitted that they’ve had those moments where they felt like they had to tell their side of the story. That’s a real, common fear we all share.
But I think Candace Parker is right. I think time will in fact tell. You don’t have to post or share or make sure everyone knows every single part of your story. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound? If you put in purposeful work that no one but you ever acknowledges you did, does it still make you better? If you overcome some challenge or adversity that no one but you knows existed, does it still make you tougher and more resilient? If you take another step closer to achieving your goals today without any outside recognition, does it still matter? Absolutely it does. In fact, I’d argue that success honors that work we’ve done outside the spotlight, on our own in the dark, as much as or maybe even more than that work we post or share or make sure everyone knows we did.
So instead of telling your story, do what Candace Parker encourages each of us to do. Do what champions do. Just put your head down and continue to work. Do what’s right. Be a good person, work hard, and give energy, she says. Those are choices each one of us can make each day, and if we commit to doing those things - if we just focus on being our best, wherever we are and whatever we’re doing today - we should trust that the results will take care of themselves. We don’t have to tell people how worthy we are of winning. “Let time tell,” Candace Parker says, “and just enjoy the moment.”