Categories
motivation

Unless Everything is Perfect, Embrace Change

Have you achieved everything you ever dreamed? If not, embrace change.

Does everything around you work exactly as it’s supposed to and could never be improved? If not, embrace change.

Even if things are perfect, can you guarantee they will stay that way in the future? If not, embrace change.

There is always something about our lives that can be improved. People, places and things change whether we want them to or not. Successes bring new challenges. We can embrace the change that will inevitably happen, or we can become bitter and live it a past that was never as great as we remember it.

Embrace change! It’s good for you.

Categories
motivation

Is it Your Destiny or Destination?

They both are from the same root word. They come from the Latin word destinare which means to stand resolved, determined, secure.

However, destiny implies a fate we are assigned. But destination suggests a goal we are striving for. Could it both can apply in our lives?

We may not know the future and what blessings and hardships await us. But we can also work toward a goal that shapes our future. After all, what we do today can shape our future for good or for ill.

While we cannot fully know our destiny, we can have a destination. Both are valid.

Categories
motivation

Why Give up Too Soon?

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas Edison

Could it be that tomorrow is the day you will succeed? Could it be that the only thing keeping you from success is your temptation to give up?

I ran my first marathon in 2016. I was tempted to give up in the middle of my training because my shoes gave me heel blisters. I was also tempted to quit during the race on the twenty-first mile when my hamstrings gave out.

Each time, I was determined to keep going. It was only because I had faith I could finish the race. In spite of the obstacles, I reached the finished line.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison

I like Edison’s quote with one exception. People are not failures. People take actions that either succeed or fail. But as long as an individual keeps going, she cannot be considered a failure.

I don’t know what you are going through today, but I encourage you to have faith to keep going. You may be surprised and grateful to find your success is just around the corner.

Categories
motivation

Failure Over Excuses

Quote: "It's easier to go from failure to success, than from excuse to success." John Maxwell

In John Maxwell’s book, Intentional Living, Maxwell encourages us to live each day with intentionality instead of merely good intentions.

One of the biggest regrets I’ve had was that I never attempted to become a newspaper syndicated cartoonist. I sent plenty of magazine gag cartoons and I had modest success. I even put together a submission to send out for syndicates. But I never took the first step and mailed that packet.

On the other hand, when I took a risk and went with my wife to Arizona, I felt I failed because I only got steady work just weeks before circumstances made us head back to the Midwest. Yet, I don’t regret it for a minute. We made good, new friends and I learned I could do what it took to make a living without the aid of old friends and family as support.

Maxwell is right, I regret the excuse I made for never submitting a syndicated comic strip more than the failure of trying a move that didn’t quite work as we expected.

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Book Review

Creativity in the Young and the Old

"Creativity is not the sole province of the young." Rich Kaarlgard
From "Late Bloomers" by Rich Karlgaard

When I heard of this book, I had to check it out. In the beginning section, Rich Karlgaard makes the case society places too much of an emphasis on achievement at too early of an age. Not only does it devalue older people but places extreme pressure on the young.

I love this quote in page 43 of the book:

Creativity is not the sole province of the young. Some of us simply need more time.

Rich Karlgaard

When I took art lessons as a teen, one of my best memories was watching retirees paint beautiful paintings. Karlgaard gives many examples of people that achieved success later in life. One I didn’t see was Grandma Moses. Here was a woman who didn’t begin her painting career until she was 78 years old.

Whether it is work or the arts, never count someone out because they appear too old, or even too young. This book is a reminder patience and perseverance are more important in a productive, creative life than a person’s age.