Categories
motivation

The Price of Greatness

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

Winston Churchill from Brainy Quote

This quote would mean less if Winston Churchill didn’t live it. Here was a guy who stood up to Hitler when the rest of Europe fell. He remained defiant and encouraged a nation when it looked like all hope was lost. He held out until America entered the war. Because he was responsible, Nazi Germany was beaten.

No one has ever become great sitting on a couch, watching TV, and waiting for something to happen. No one has ever become great by looking the other way when challenges come. No one has ever attained greatness by seeing a mess and just assuming someone will take care of it.

If you notice something on a job is wrong, and you just assume a supervisor will take care of it, you have forfeited greatness. If a customer complains the job isn’t right and you blame everyone else who had a hand in it, you have forfeited greatness.

Every day, we have opportunities to be great. It takes courage to be responsible and to rise above the average to the great. We may not encounter a dictatorship. But we may be faced with the choice of speaking up when things aren’t right or relinquishing our chance for greatness.

Categories
cartoon

Cartoons, Memes, and Stranger Things

Cartoon of a pastor and a sound technician

The cartoons I have posted on my site are considered single-panel gag cartoons by the industry. (Yes, there is still a cartoon industry!) But when memes came along a couple of years ago, I realized the single panel cartoons I have drawn over the years would fit in that category.

The other day, I came across this article that reinforced my conclusion. While it focuses on political cartoons, it also applies to single-panel, gag cartoons.

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/05/17/political-cartoons-are-relics-replace-with-memes/
From The Daily Cartoonist

Technology has made it possible for nearly anyone to make a single panel gag. No, I don’t mean something so bad it gives you a gag reflex! I mean a gag as in a joke.

Cartoon of a pastor and a sound technician

Thanks to image programs like Photoshop, and scores of others, anybody can take a photo and add a clever quip to it. I realize this may rub many fellow cartoonists the wrong way. After all, today is nothing like the glory days of magazine gag cartoons in The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, or Esquire. Back then, a magazine cartoonist could earn a living with sales from these magazines.

I don’t think today’s trend is such a bad thing. While anyone can do this, it still takes creativity to match an image with the text. Sure, the cartoon industry has changed and declined. But other industries have gone through similar changes. We learn to adapt and move on.

So a gag cartoon is a meme before there were memes, it seems. It may be strange, but I am fine with that.

Categories
motivation

Emphasize the Good

When criticism is minimized and praise emphasized, the good things people do will be reinforced and the poorer things will atrophy for lack of attention.

Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People

Why is it so easy to see the speck in another person’s eye and ignore the log in our own? We like to pick apart those that are close to us and ignore the self-improvement we could make and have the control to do.

I am the oldest of four kids. Unfortunately, that meant I was really good at seeing the faults in my siblings since I had at least a two-year head start on them. I’d say none of them benefited from my years of “constructive criticism.” They are wonderful, healthy adults today in spite of my influence rather than because of it.

Criticism is too easy. It lets us off the hook of our own self-improvement and focuses on the improvement of others. Sure, employees need to be accountable to bosses and managers. But look for ways to do it that inspire good behavior rather than place an undue emphasis on the bad.

Categories
motivation

Failure is Success if…

Failure is success if we learn from it

Malcom Forbes in Brainyquote.com

That is the whole key to success. Success isn’t about doing everything right the first time. If it is that easy for you, then you probably aren’t living up to your potential. After all, how do you know what your limits are if you’ve succeeded at everything you’ve set out to do?

The challenge is to learn from it. We humans can get stuck at doing the same foolish thing over and over again. Addictive behaviors, negative thinking patterns and unhealthy habits can make us believe we can never escape from failure.

It reminds me of the verse found in Proverbs 26:11. As a dog returns to his vomit… what a repulsive image! Yet when we don’t learn from our failures and repeat unhealthy behaviors, whe are like the dog and the fool who returns to his folly.

Let’s learn from our failures. They don’t have to hold us down. We can use them as a springboard to success.

Categories
motivation

The Opportunity of Change

Winter scene with snow on branches

This weekend, I made my way out into the snow. The roads were slick. So I wore ice cleats. The wind was stiff, so I wore a jacket. Cars and SUV’s were out, so I had a bright orange cap. The winter weather didn’t bother me. In fact, I enjoyed the change of pace.

It would have been easy to chuck it all. It looked frigid outside. The coffee was already brewing and I smelled breakfast. But I knew I would enjoy it more after I went out for a run. The scenery was beautiful, after all. It reminded me of a quote from a book I am reading.

Above all, effective executives treat change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive, Page xviii

I could have decided what was outside was a threat or an opportunity. I am glad I took the opportunity and I got some great views out of the venture. the trees and bushes were covered in snow. By the afternoon, it was all off the branches.

  • Winter scene on a roadway
  • Snowy scene
  • snowy scene with a pedestrian bridge and a creek
  • Winter scene with snow on branches
Winter scenes on a January, morning run

Circumstances are changing all the time, like wet snow on a January morning. Do you see it as an opportunity or a threat? In order to be effective, choose to see the changing environment as an opportunity.