How to Be Successful at Anything in 5 Steps

1. You must be willing to give up something to get what you want.

2. You must be willing to push through pain and discomfort to get what you want.

3. You must be willing to receive help to get what you want.

4. You must put in the time to get what you want. (See #1 and #2).

5. You must be give everything you have risking heart breaking failure.

Failed that Quiz

You know, I have a set of ideals I try to live by and many people think they may be unattainable, but I don't.

They are harder than the average person, I am sure, but they are nothing out of the realm of possibility of happening.

But I fail often and though it may feel good to do so sometimes, ultimately, I feel badly.

I feel badly because I am trying to be a good example for many especially when hostile situations occur.

The other night, I reacted in a way I am not proud of.

I reacted in a way that probably deserved the way I reacted, but not with the words I used.

I believe in righteous anger, I think some of my reaction was done because of that, but I should have chosen different words.

People may say bad things about me, they may think bad things about me, and I don't really like it, but I understand it can happen; however when someone attacks those close to me, I see it as something to horrific that it must be confronted.

But there's a better way than I did the other night.

And I feel such a hypocrite.

R.I.P.

You want to truly know what it's like to live? To be alive?

Be diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Every single breath becomes a gift.

Every experience, no matter how small, becomes the most important experience ever.

Food tastes better, love becomes stronger, and you care about everyone deeply.

But here's the thing, no one gets out of this alive.

"Seat belts save lives!'

"Say No to Drugs...to save lives"

I could go on and on about what "saves lives", but nothing that "saves lives" actually saves lives.

It only delays the inevitable which is the unpleasant truth that we will all die.

So why is it usually only those who appreciate life are one's who have been diagnosed with death when we all have been diagnosed with death?

Shouldn't we strive to have every breath to be a gift? Every experience to matter? And for everything to taste better, for us to love strong and care deeply?

Of course we should because you've been diagnosed with death, we just don't know when that time will come.

We burn the days up when we are young as if we will live forever, but we won't.

In fact, I have friends who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses and many people feel bad for them, however, I have other friends who will actually pass before that person does, heck, it could even be me.

So get up off the couch and live life.

Experience what this life has to offer and help those who have less than you.

I believe that there is a heaven and I believe it will be a better place than here.

So I will continue to enjoy this life and I will attempt to help those with less...so they too can enjoy this life.

Highs and Lows

I love to read.

I love to write.

But sometimes, I feel like I just can't.

It's because nothing interests me at the moment or because nothing has given me that nudge to write.

I'm in that moment write now.

I'm in that moment where I I don't have the patience to read anything.

I barely have the patience to write this entry.

But this time will pass soon enough, it has before and I will go back to reading and writing.

Until then, I will enjoy the nothing that I do.

Because when that time comes again, it seems I cannot get enough of reading and writing.

We Are Not Meant to Live Like That

I love to travel.

I love to travel and do mission work.

Because of those two loves, I work a lot of side jobs to try and raise money to travel without it affecting our usual income.

Next summer, the plan is for the entire family to go to Australia. I usually go by myself on my travels, but while planning this, my wife showed an interest in going and that means our children will go with us.

One of the side jobs I have taken up is working at Amazon in Jeffersonville and it's been a long time since I have worked in a factory.

For the last 20 years, I have taught and coached and I realize how blessed I am to do something that I enjoy, I really do.

But it has been reinforced by walking the aisles of Amazon.

So many of the people there seem to have the "life" sucked out of them by doing what seems like meaningless work.

I look at aisle after aisle of "stuff" that Americans are buying to be shipped to them and wonder what does working here bring to their life?

Money to pay bills?

Extra money to travel?

Or to just exist?

I don't know, each person is different, but I can tell by the conversations I have had and the reactions to people when I say "hello" is that they are no overly happy to be working there.

It would be nice if there were more things that could encourage workers there, but they just do not seem to care about that sort of thing.

So people will work there and quit because human worth is more important than filling some quota.

It's unfortunate, too because Amazon could be so much more.

Their CEO, Jeff Bezos, is worth $150 billion. He has to spend $28 million per day to NOT make money on his already historical sum.

What I would do with that much money would effect so many people.

But who am I to judge?

Maybe he is doing the same things I would do, he just doesn't make it known.

But I can tell you, as a sociologist/psychologist it would help so much the morale of his workers if he did something outrageous because we are not meant to work/live like that.

Fill the Void

“He [God] has also set eternity in the human heart…”  Ecclesiastes 3:11  

“You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

– St. Augustine 1

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”

- Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)

We search for so many things in this world to fill a void that we all have.

We fill it with money, cars, our house, women, men, friends, basketball, drugs, alcohol, work, music, our family, and even church itself.

Yet without a genuine relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we are empty.

Many will deny this until they are so empty that they cannot go on.

From there they look up or they will give up.

Recently, I attended my 30^th high school reunion and there I saw some people that I saw in bars 20 years ago.

They are still doing the same things like the drinking, the pursuing, and the emptiness.

Outwardly, they look like they are having the time of their life, yet when you get on Facebook, you will see that they have been divorced multiple times, they have children by many different women, and they have a DUI or two.

Yet, on Friday, there he is again with a drink in his hand and a smile on his face pretending to fill the God void.

Without God, we continually search for meaning and fulfillment and we may actually have it for a short amount of time, but it disappears; too quickly.

The filling of the void by God will drive you in a way that you no longer feel fulfilled by the world, but by living for Jesus; being his hands and feet and doing the work he created you to do.