Categories
accountability motivation

Anything Goes… Until it Doesn’t

“A life in which anything goes will ultimately be a life in which nothing goes well.”

Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 (Developing the Leader Series)(p. 34). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition.

We all have at least some autonomy to do whatever we want. We can…

  • Spend work goofing off because the boss is out today
  • Eat that full bag of chips… along with an entire pizza
  • Cheat on those financials because only you know the data
  • Lie about what happen since you were the only witness

Yes, we have the freedom to do what we want. And in an anything-goes-world, there is much more beyond my imagination that any of us could do.

But sooner or later, we will suffer the consequences of bad decisions.

  • The latest employee evaluation criticizes your lack of productivity
  • You suffer a health crisis because on your eating habits
  • The auditors are demanding the data because something is definately off
  • There is evidence that proves you lied

Anything goes is a poor strategy for going forward. We all need boundaries. We are accountable for our actions. John Maxwell had this quote concerning planning our daily-to-do list. It’s a reminder to me that even the decisions that may not appear to have large consequences can come back to affect us.

Categories
motivation

Failure Over Excuses

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.