Author: Kevin Spear

I am a content creator and storyteller based in Florida, where I work for OneHope. I love digital and content marketing, writing, and the occasional doodle.

Categories
motivation

How to Keep your Interest Strong

melancholic woman watching video on laptop at home
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When we start a project, we are excited about the possibilities. Something new can give us a jolt of adrenaline and give us a new passion for the days ahead. But how do we keep our interest strong when we are in the middle of a tough, drawn-out slough?

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.”

Horace Walpole

This time of year, high school seniors are well into “senioritis.” They can see that the end is in sight, but the distance between March and May feels like a million miles away. We have all been there. I was probably thinking about this when I wrote this post on postponing school for lack of interest.

Boy asking why can't school be postponed?

How do you keep your interest strong when a project takes longer than the enthusiasm it initially produced?

Focus on One Thing

In the book The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller, the author states that the reason many projects fail is that we don’t focus our energy on the one big goal that matters.

Distractions can take us off course very quickly. The tyranny of urgent matters gets in the way of the big goal that is important but doesn’t seem as urgent when the result is months out.

Focus on the one big goal and visualize what it will be like when we hit that goal.

Remember the Why

Why is this project or goal so important? What results will it bring when it is achieved? When we achieve it, how will it make us feel?

We can get bogged down in the how of a goal and lose sight of the reason we started it in the first place. In Start with Why, Simon Sinek reminds us that when we know why we are doing something, it is tremendously motivational.

Acknowledge the Messy Middle

Every long-term project has a messy middle. We get excited at the beginning and rejoice when the goal is achieved. But in the middle are many obstacles, detours, and frustrations. If it was easy, someone else would have done it already, right?

Any worthy project will have a messy middle. We can acknowledge we are there, focus on the goal and remember the why. It can get us through challenging times.

Keep Your Interest Strong!

Today may be messy. We may be distracted for a moment. But keep going! Whether we have senioritis, a cumbersome project, or a life stage that seems to drag on forever, we can keep motivated and keep moving towards a worthy goal.

Categories
pet cartoons

Cats vs. Dogs: The Epic Battle of Pets

Some of us are dog lovers. We love the faithful, enthusiastic way they greet us when we return home. Others love the aloof, playful, purring ways of cats. Since I’ve owned both, I have personally witnessed the epic battle between cats and dogs.

Several years ago, I drew a cartoon about one such battle. It was probably inspired by our own pets. We had one dog that loved to play with the cat. The feline was older and not very impressed with the young canine’s enthusiasm. Frequently, the cat would escape to a nearby piece of furniture, or if outside, a tree.

Cartoon of a dog and a treed cat. The dog says, "Come down! All I want to do is talk about taking a bite out of crime."

Each pet has its differences as well as advantages. My kids benefited from seeing the personalities of each of them and even imagined what their pets would act like if they were in a movie called Cats vs. Dogs came out in 2001.

Peace Between Species

Somehow, the two pets learned to get along. When our cat passed on, the dog learned to live with another cat. Though they didn’t always get along, the two pets learned to live with each other.

Whether it is pets in a household, people in the workplace, or even leaders of other countries, peace can feel elusive. Often, we antagonize each other. We can turn small problems into big deals. If we are not careful, we can find ourselves in a battle before we know it.

Yet if we are patient, if we choose to extend an olive branch, peace is possible. The battles of cats vs. dogs can sometimes appear comical. Yet real battles happen all the time with less than comical results.

Am I saying we should be like cats and dogs? Hardly. Our personalities may lean toward one species or another. Yet, we can still learn to live together. I hope you don’t find yourself in a tree today. And may you learn to get along with the person that ever so slightly just showed his fang today!

Categories
creativity motivation

Creativity as a Fountain of Youth

One of the ways a person can stay young in their thinking is to pursue creative endeavors. I love this quote by Sophia Loren about creativity as a fountain of youth.

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

Sophia Loren

This reminds me of a blog post I posted twelve years ago. In it, I commented on another blog post that claimed age is no excuse when it came to creativity. Twelve years later, I am even more convinced of this.

The temptation to believe we know it all and have seen it all makes us older. However, when we consider creative endeavors and begin thinking about how to do things differently, our thoughts can rejuvenate our minds.

woman in gray tank top writing on white paper
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

Creativity Frees Us

When we are faced with a situation that makes us feel stuck, we get impatient and myopic. If we are convinced there is no solution to a problem, then we are prone to give up.

However, if we consider there is a solution to a problem, it frees us. When we use patience and determination to address the issue, creativity can free us from being stuck.

And if we have the audacity to believe there is more than one solution, that enables us to find the best one. Our minds have the capability to do more than we realize.

Patience and Creativity

Have you seen a situation where someone gets flustered easily? We are working on a new system and software at my work. It can be hard to learn something new when the old system has worked for many years.

I have noticed the biggest challenge to learning this, or any new system is having the patience to continue. I have heard, “The old system works fine! Why are we changing it?” But the truth is the old system is clunky and is far less automatic than it should be.

The transition is hard. But change comes whether we adjust or not. Patience and creativity go hand in hand. And when we decide to embrace these qualities, a side benefit is we can see creativity as a fountain of youth.

Categories
Bible Book of James motivation

Why it’s so Hard to Control the Tongue

Every time we say or write something, we are in danger of starting a fire. In the book of James, chapter 3, the apostle gives us a big warning on why it’s so hard to control the tongue.

“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”

James 3:5 (KJV)

There are times I wished I followed the actions of this kid.

Cartoon of boy with his mouth taped and a girl

As I get ready to teach kids today, I’m thinking about how important it is to choose wise words. I pray I will do okay, or at least avoid damage. A flippant or insensitive comment can cause a lot of damage.

So I’ll keep it short today. Let’s use our words carefully and wisely.

Categories
motivation

The Line Between Good and Evil

person wearing white high top lace up sneakers standing on white line
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This week has been full of international turmoil. We see images of war and destruction coming out of Ukraine and wonder how people can be so cruel to others. It reminds me of a quote Aleksander Solzhenitsyn said about the line between good and evil.

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart —and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged))

The Line We Cross

person wearing white high top lace up sneakers standing on white line
Photo by Dương Nhân on Pexels.com

Each day, we have a choice on which side of the line we cross.

  • Do we waver to the side of good or evil?
  • Do we make our own world better or worse?
  • Are we part of the problem or solution?

Good is worth fighting for! Throughout history, we have seen violence and barbarism directed against others. And unfortunately, we have seen individuals hide behind the actions of their country and claim they were only doing what their leaders told them to do.

Yet, all nations are made of individuals. Each of us has the choice between good and evil every day. While we can justify any actions, in the end, we are all accountable for our individual actions.

Too often, we ask, “What can I do? I’m just one person.” Indeed, what can we do when there is so much evil in the world?

When each of us chooses to do good towards others, we sow seeds of goodness. Consequently, when we sow seeds of evil, we reap what we sow.

Solzhenitsyn paid a price for choosing good and standing up against evil. We too can be part of the problem or the solution. Each one of us is required to make the choice as we stand on the line between good and evil.