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motivation

The Freedom to Make Bad Choices

Cartoon of a boy with a big mouth about to consume a birthday cake. The caption reads, "This choice make come back to haunt him."

Ooh! That choice may come back to haunt him! But I can relate. My inner child likes to make gluttony an Olympic sport. I’ve been called a cookie monster fairly recently. I have made my way through scores of cakes, pies, and assorted baked goods over the years. They would probably fill an Olympic size pool.

Cartoon of a boy with a big mouth about to consume a birthday cake. The caption reads, "This choice make come back to haunt him."

We have the freedom to make bad choices every day. Of course, there is always a price to pay. If I didn’t attempt to control my appetite and never exercised, I could be facing a much heavier body with chronic illness. But that would be my choice.

I could choose to weigh thirty pounds heavier as I did twenty years ago. It would be my choice, because as Zig Ziglar said, “I never accidentally ate anything!”

Some bad choices are made knowing there are consequences. Some are made out of ignorance. We can be foolish and choose to ignore the wisdom that can save us from heartache. Some bad choices are made out of entitlement. We think we deserve something so we feel justified in making that choice.

But when we make a bad choice, let’s be honest enough to admit it was our choice. It does no good to blame others for our bad choices. It reminds me of this proverb:

The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.

Proverb 19:3 KJV

Yes, we have the freedom to make bad choices. But we also have the responsibility to own up to them. The next time I see a plate of cookies (especially chocolate chip cookies), I will probably indulge. But I won’t blame anyone but me if I gain a few pounds.

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motivation

You are a Masterpiece. Handle With Care!

Cartoon of a coach pointing at a chalkboard that says, "you are a masterpiece. The coach says, "Lets go over this one more time!

The Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. But it wasn’t always considered so. It intrigued me when I first learned it was stolen in 1911 from The Louvre. It was missing in action for two years before it was recovered. By then, it had become the most famous painting in the world. 

Before the theft, the verdict wasn’t that clear that it was a masterpiece. It was the hype that caused more and more people to declare it so. It only took 400 years for the painting to really hit its stride.

Cartoon of a coach pointing at a chalkboard that says, "you are a masterpiece. The coach says, "Lets go over this one more time!

You may not realize it, but you are a masterpiece too. You may be a little rough around the edges and have had some bumps and tears. But it’s the imperfections that make a masterpiece shine. You may not have been told how great you really are until now. But that doesn’t change that you were a masterpiece all along. It just took someone speaking truth and life into you.

So let’s go over it one more time: You are a masterpiece! If you haven’t treated yourself as one until now, it’s high time you did.

  • Handle yourself with care
  • Give yourself grace
  • Slow down enough to breath and get some self-care
  • Treat others around you as masterpieces, because they are too
  • Masterpieces look different.
    • They’re different colors,
    • shapes
    • sizes
    • styles (cultures)
    • media (beliefs)

It’s time we treat ourselves and those around us as the masterpieces we all are.

Categories
motivation

Change Comes When You Accept Responsibility

Cartoon of a dog retrieving a laptop

The other day, I had a conversation with two people at different times in the same organization.

One said, “Things aren’t the way they used to be!” And I suppose they are right. Things always change. I’ve also noticed our perceptions change over the years. We look at the past as the good old days no matter how hard or brutal they were.

The other person said to me, “Oh, that’s just the way things are here! It’s always been that way. They’ll never change!” Wait a minute! They can’t both be right. Either things have changed or they never have. They were both looking at some challenges, but had two very different perspectives.

Yet, both views had a few things in common.

  • They were frustrated and didn’t see a solution
  • They weren’t taking responsibility for a solution
  • They decided the challenges were someone else’s problem

As a person who has worked in publishing, I’ve seen many changes. I have also seen businesses that have had trouble adjusting to change. Newspapers are a big example of that. I get that the glory days of newsprint are gone. And it’s just not the same.

Cartoon of a dog retrieving a laptop

But at a certain point, organizations (which are the people within an organization) must change. The past is gone. We need to deal with the present, not live in the past.

At the same time, if a challenge has always been in an organization, it is the responsibility of each person to change for the better. Everyone has the ability to grow, adapt and improve. When each person accepts that responsibility, businesses, and organizations grow with the new and improved workforce.

We can all be change agents. Let’s make it happen!

Categories
motivation

Who’s Going to Bring Good News?

Cartoon of a coach and teachers

There is no shortage of good news. Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of bad news either and media seems more and more enthusiastic about the latter. I’ve noticed more headlines that have this format: Such and such happened. Here’s why you should be terrified!

It doesn’t take much courage or imagination to find bad news. People will be more than glad to share theirs. The media loves to share the latest tragedy locally, nationally and internationally. It’s not hard to find. And it is easy to find someone that agrees with how bad things are.

It takes much more courage to share the good news… especially to preschoolers!

Cartoon of a coach and teachers

In the last two days, I’ve heard a lot of moaning, bemoaning, and groaning. I’ve heard that things aren’t the way they used to be, not will they ever be again.

It takes a lot to say, “Maybe things aren’t that great, but there is hope and there is faith.” It takes even more courage to say the obstacles and challenges are actually the way to a brighter, better future.

So who is going to bring good news? Do you have the courage to make a positive difference instead of chiming in with the prophets of doom choir?

The bad news is plentiful. Who needs to search for that? The good news is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey. It reminds me of Psalm 119. I think I’ll read up on that and take some good news!

Categories
motivation

Certainty Versus Infinity

Cartoon of two boys walking. One says, "Today at school I discovered there are an infinite number of ways to annoy a girl."

As a boy, I learned there were infinite ways to annoy a girl. Many times, my discovery would be purely unintentional.

One afternoon, I was riding the bus home from school. There was a girl in front of me with golden curls. At the time, my sister was too young to have curls that big. For some reason, I was fascinated by them. My second-grade, male mind had no idea the time it to create those perfect curls. I found them fascinating. I was like a moth to a flame.

Cartoon of two boys walking. One says, "Today at school I discovered there are an infinite number of ways to annoy a girl."

I found myself wanting to touch them as if I wanted to confirm they were real. I thought I could do so without her noticing. I was wrong! She turned around, glared at me, and scolded me for being so rude.

Part of me was crushed. I had no intention of pestering her. But the other part was satisfied with my scientific experiment. Yes, they were real. Those golden curls somehow defied gravity and spiraled into infinity, but they were real.

I like to think I live in a certain world. If I do A, B will naturally follow.

  • If I keep my head down and do my work, I will never get laid off
  • If I am a safe driver, I will never be in an accident
  • If I eat my veggies and exercise, I will be the first nearly immortal guy to compete with Methuselah.
  • If I am good and never do rude things like touch the golden curls of that third-grader on the bus, my life will go smoothly

The truth is, we have far less control than we would like to believe. Life is uncertain. There are infinite ways our lives could go today.

There are infinite ways our day can go wrong today. However, there are also infinite ways our day can go right today.

Instead of attempting to control everything, I will do my best to live a life of faith, hope, and love today. It may not make things any more certain, but it can allow me to trust that things will turn out all right no matter what curveball may come my way today.