“Power is revealed not by striking hard and often, but by striking true.” Honore de Balzac

Yesterday morning we all woke up to a slight change in the balance of good and evil. Some of us celebrated, some of us were sober, just about all of us recognized what it took for President Obama and ultimately those twenty-four Navy Seals to “strike true.” I’ve had my differences with the President at times, but as I looked at that photo of him watching the operation, I saw the unedited focus and poignancy of a man striking true, and I felt grateful.

In our own ways today, each of us will have a chance to bring an appropriate calculated risk to an opportune moment. To “strike true.” Maybe it will arrive in the pause of a conversation that could use a powerful question. Or a hard truth. Or a public acknowledgment of someone’s character. Those times come to us most days, quietly and steadily. We just have to keep breathing, preparing, listening and then pray for eyes to see and ears to hear so that we don’t let them pass unnoticed.

This ability is at the practiced and prepared heart of any great coaching.