My post will be a little short today because we had plenty of snow at my house this morning. This guy got to shovel a lot of the white stuff for my morning workout.
“Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
May the advice you receive be soft and help you make the changes you desire. I will strive to do that tomorrow when there is hopefully a little less snow to shovel.
“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room.”
Blaise Pascal
There is a time for everything. Unfortunately, we tend to not know when it is time to move and when we should sit still. We value action much more than contemplation, don’t we?
There is always a sales goal that we must meet. We have a production goal that has to be fulfilled. And who can forget that job that is very, smoking hot? And of course, there are plenty of distractions all around. How can our kids be so fidgety when we have work to do?
There are goals that need to be met. However, if there isn’t any time to sit still, we can lose focus on what is really important. It isn’t easy when we have so many demands.
Today, a winter storm is brewing where I live. Some of us will be forced to slow down and perhaps think for a while. It isn’t what any of us planned. But perhaps it is what we need to stop, sit still, and consider the bigger picture. May we all get a chance to stop and contemplate for a while. At the very least, it may be able to prevent us from some kind of human evil!
Six years ago today, my family lost a dad and grandfather that left a lasting, good impression on our lives. He was a man that left the greatest legacy to his kids.
In his last months, he was so concerned about leaving his family in good shape financially. Yet, he left more than most kids ever hope to have. Billy Graham’s quote says it perfectly.
“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”
Billy Graham
Billy Graham Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2022. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/billy_graham_626354, accessed February 2, 2022.
I have been blessed by two fathers who have shown me what character looks like. They have lived their values both in public and behind closed doors. The more I have lived and heard the stories of others, the more I know how rare that is.
One moment of indiscretion and ruin a person’s legacy. I am so glad my father-in-law was the real deal. I encourage all of us to live what we believe. Otherwise, what good are our beliefs?
My father-in-law lived his faith. He believed the future would be better even as he suffered near the end. His faith sustained him through many difficult times.
We would have numerous conversations about the future. Many of them were about the possibilities if we lived a life of faith over fear. It caused him to plan and take steps by faith. I am so thankful for his positive outlook.
My one regret is I would love to have a written record of those conversations so that my children’s children would know about his legacy. That is a project I aim to work on one day. Until then, let’s all work to live the greatest legacy to those who come after us.
All of us want to succeed. But very few of us want to take the steps to success if that means we fail at something. I get it. Who says, “Yes! Give me more failure, please!”
Honestly, until today I wasn’t aware of who William Whewell was. The guy was a renaissance man long after that era was over. He was an Anglican priest, scientist, polymath, and philosopher. Whewell gave us the words “scientist” and “physicist” among others. In short, he was a genius.
Yet, he also saw the value of trying, failing, learning, and trying again to succeed. We may be risk-averse, but without the possibility of failing, there is no path to success. Failure and achievement go hand in hand.
We each have a choice on whether to make something of significance or to avoid the risk of failure and appearing foolish. Each thought we have towards a goal has to be tested. Let’s face it. not every thought we have is going to succeed in the real world.
In a world full of manufactured goods, we are tempted to believe that since that product looks consistent and perfect now, there was never any failure involved. However, I have seen how much trial and error goes into a product and marketing campaign. No one gets it right on the first try.
An assembly line may create a consistent, perfect product now, but how did that product get to that point? Even the assembly line took some testing, failing, and readjusting before it ran smoothly.
Even then, it may not run perfectly one-hundred percent of the time. Has anybody heard of product recalls? Hopefully, a company learns and improves from each one.
So I encourage you to take some steps to achieve today. Be bold enough to try, make some mistakes, learn, and climb the steps to success.
My wife and I have a cat that is perpetually seeking the perfect lap. She wants the person whose lap she occupies to have her undivided attention. Her goal is to rest on top of our arms so that we can’t do anything but pay attention to her. She has a disconnect between ambition and happiness.
The cat is rarely satisfied. She leaves our lap not because she is content, but because she has given up on having us submit to her desires.
A lot of us are like that. We want something that is just out of reach. We are convinced we won’t be happy until we achieve a goal. Our ambition drives us to discontentment if we aren’t careful.
I too have ambition and If I am not careful, I can allow it to put off happiness. I can be so focused on the future, I miss out on what good things are happening today. A quote by Dale Carnegie reminds me how foolish this can be.
“Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don’t put off being happy until some future date.”
Dale Carnegie
We can get too busy to have fun. We try to hustle today to make things happen for tomorrow. But what if we are missing out on today’s blessings?
Don’t postpone happiness! We can pursue goals and have ambitions without sacrificing today’s well-being.
It is good to have ambitions. But don’t forget we have today to enjoy as well.