It doesn’t matter what you want to achieve. Nobody gets there by happenstance. Nobody drifts to success. Sure, we hear stories that may convince us this is the case. Some are born with silver spoons in their mouths, but nobody drifts into doing something meaningful and successful.
Show up and do the hard work. Every Monday, be the one who faithfully puts in the hours and the effort because drifting isn’t a strategy. It’s a recipe for failure. I would rather make the effort and fail, than fail by default because I have never tried.
Let’s face it: it’s too easy to drift. The good news is that you can wake up and correct your course once you realize you are drifting.
Tag: motivation
What is the Strangest Secret?
In 1955, Earl Nightingale recorded a spoken word album that became a bestseller called The Strangest Secret. He asked and answered the question, “What is the strangest secret in the world?”
I heard parts of the recording many years ago. In August 2022, Dan Miller on the 48 Days podcast issued a challenge to listen to the recording for thirty days. I decided to take the challenge. It couldn’t have come at a better time for me!
Here is a link to the original recording:
This last month has turned out to be one of change for my wife and me. She has been offered an amazing opportunity. As a result, we will be moving soon and starting a new chapter in our lives.
The challenge also involved writing how the recording affected me. The following is my response to The Strangest Secret Challenge. I took the challenge. My answers are below.
It was great to see nonprofits and volunteers help ease the pain through the coronavirus pandemic. It’s safe to say most people don’t volunteer for the money like our guy in today’s cartoon. But do you volunteer for the right reasons? And does the motivation matter?
Some volunteer projects can be gross. Others have nice perks like donuts. There are projects that put a spotlight on the volunteers while others faithfully serve in the background. As this article shows, Our motivations to volunteer can be quite varied. Do these factors matter?
As long as something good is coming out of volunteering, motives may take a back seat. However, we know of stories where someone appeared to be doing something for altruistic motives and they ended up embezzling or taking advantage of someone or a group of people.
Anybody who knows me, knows I love to run. I’ve tried to get others involved in my love, to no avail. An incident with my wife and a very hot and humid morning inspired this endurance race cartoon.
My timing was horrible! she wanted to try running and I was excited to have her along as a running partner. Unfortunately, the heat index was well above ninety degrees on a hot and humid, July morning. It was not the best day to introduce someone to the love of distance running. We made it! but we have never run together again. And I can’t say I blame her!
School is almost out for the summer around the USA. Kids will be rejoicing for a good five minutes or so. Then they will attempt to establish a “new bored record.” Five minutes may seem a bit ambitious, but it can be done!
I remember the days when I was bored out of my skull during the first few days of summer break. After all, there were only three or four channels to watch.
We have more channels today, but the kids still have to suffer from nothing good to watch on TV. Come to think of it, when was there something good to watch on TV?