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The more I study successful people, the more I am reminded of the obvious.  Whether it is someone in the business world, sports world, or whatever, the best at their professions are those who are "into what they are in." 

I am not sure why our society looks upon successful people at the top of their "game" and concludes that they are lucky, or that they should be criticized and picked apart.  If someone achieves something great the conclusion seems to be that that person had breaks others didn’t have or cheated to get there.  This tendency runs right along with the trends in our national politics that feed off envy and class warfare.  "If they had less, we’d have more."  "It’s not fair."  "Equal opportunity is not enough.  We want equal results."

The real answer is that the successful person was burning for success and achievement while the unsuccessful was doing less productive things or behaving in less focused ways.  Michael Jordan is almost universally considered the greatest basketball player of all time, yet he is also legendary for his incredible work ethic, drive and determination.  Even at the top, perhaps especially at the top, he worked out consistently, intensely, and purposefully.  Tom Brady has achieved what few quarterbacks ever have, yet he is also known as the hardest working player in training and in study on every team on which he’s played.  Do I even need to mention Tiger Woods and his robot-like practice schedule?  Andrew Carnegie was notoriously hard working, even as one of the world’s richest men.  Bill Gates long tenure atop the software industry was marked by persistent attentiveness and tireless workdays.  Stephen King’s prolific writings come not only from a gifted and imaginative mind, but from his habitual work habits in which he holds himself responsible for writing a certain amount of words every day.

So many lessons we try to teach our children still apply to us.  None can be more true than the lesson of practice.  Practice, practice, practice.  Doing what you do makes you better at what you do.  Being at it, early and late, consistently and persistently, is what builds greatness.  Put your whole self in, again, and again, and again.  Be into what you’re in.  And do it over the long term.

Does it sound like a lot of work?  It is.  Does it sound like it might not be worth it?  That’s an individual choice.  Does it sound like greatness requires fantacism?  It does.  It also requires focus and time.  That’s just the way it works.  The laws of success are not open to negotiation.  Pay the price or don’t.  The choice is up to each of us.  But when someone else makes the choice for greatness in their chosen area, we should neither envy their rewards, nor down-play their achievement by calling them "lucky" or "talented."

In the words of Longfellow: "Heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night."   

Life is a gift.  Each day is precious.  We have all been born with talents and abilities and a purpose to serve.  But life is also deceptively easy to squander.  We waste a few minutes and then notice that days have slipped by.  We count down the time to leave work at the end of a day and then watch our weekend blaze by.  We say "yes" to a lot of things that aren’t really aligned with our highest purposes in life and give away our time too cheaply.

We have clocks in our cars, on our hands, on our walls, and on our computers, but we always seem to be out of time.  We rush and hurry and scurry about but never really seem to get much accomplished.  We keep telling ourselves that we will slow things down, live our priorities, and make time for the important things as soon as . . . . 

That phrase, "as soon as," has enabled the slaughter of thousands of precious hours of our lives.  We use it to escape from the fact that we aren’t really doing all our dreams and purpose require of us, but "as soon as" reassures us that we will "some day" and keeps us wasting time. 

Then, at some imperceptible point along the way, "as soon as" becomes "if only I would have."  We see more in our past than we do in our future.  We begin feeling as if it’s too late.  We start thinking we’ve blown our chance to live the life we always felt, deep down inside, that we should, that we could, and that we would.  But time doesn’t stand still.  It waits for no man.  It rushes by us unmercifully.  "Some day" never comes.

What makes you come alive?  What do you feel deep inside that you can and should do with your time?  What is your great purpose, aligned with your obvious abilities, that God has planted within you? 

In the words of William Wallace in the movie Braveheart, "Every man dies, not every man really lives."

May that statement not be true of you.

May you live while you’re alive!

One of my favorite authors is the late Patrick O’Brian.  In an insightful description of one of his characters, he says that the person in question had made it to middle-age somehow without life "sanding the cheeriness" off of him.  I loved that depiction.  As with all art, it’s beauty comes from its alignment with reality.

You will find ample opportunity in your life to lose your cheeriness.  Life is hard.  There will be bad breaks and unfairness.  Things will happen.  Nobody promises smooth byways and easy streets, and if they do, run.  But life is also wonderful.  It is bright and interesting and full of the wonder of God’s reflected glory.  There is knowledge to gain, vast territories to explore, and ourselves to understand.  There are extraordinary people of strength and heroic spirit.  And there is the precious gift of time.

Romance, to me, is living life in full appreciation and awareness of the wonder of God’s world.  Romance means becoming, as Mark Twain said, "a prodigious noticer."  Romance is finding pleasure in the small things; like the rippling sound of water against dock pilings, warm sun on skin, and the whisper of a toddler in your ear.  Romance is notcing the sublime in big things; the danger and beauty of an ocean, the power and thrill of an airplane, the magesty and intimidation of a mountain.  Romance is finding the good in others; their thoughtful gestures, their warm expressions of care, their smiles, their humor, and their friendship.  Romance is shared experiences, memories, and inside jokes.  Romance is designing your own home, taking care in your photography, expressing yourself through music or writing, and finishing a piece of wood.  Romance can be the deposits of good into someone’s life, giving a well-deserved but rare compliment, and buying a thoughtful gift.  Romance is the greatful expression of our ability, talent, warmth, and effort, just because.  Romance is the steadiness of dependability, and the perseverance of the long-haul.  Romance is family tradition and proud heritage.  Romance is a choice.

Dissected or reduced to its component parts, romance disappears like a shy muse.  Courted and summoned, romance sparkles and lights softly upon its caller.  Clear thinking, pure motives, honest communications, and the service of others fuels the power of romance and appreciation in our lives.  Selfishness, pressure, short-term thinking, and materialism wilt its wings and ruin its ability to please. 

What I am talking about is the passionate expression of ourselves into our whole lives through the things we do, the people we touch, and the principles and the God for which we live.  God has given us one life to live.  It is given to each man once to die, and then the judgment.  The world doesn’t need any more dour Christians, but it doesn’t need silly ignorance of our true condition, either.  The world needs true joy that expresses itself in a spark in our eyes, suggesting that we have discovered the truth about life, ourselves, our Creator, and our purpose.  It is then that they may call us romantics.  May we take it as a compliment!

What personifies this concept in your life?  What small things, or large, bring it into focus for you?  At what moments do you feel the most "alive" and in touch with the cheeriness of your life?  What gifts do you see around you in your life that remind you of your divine spark?   

"The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.

I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set;

Only there is the agony of wishing in my heart."   by Rabindranath Tagore

How many people never stop to consider that they came to sing a song? 

Of those few who are aware of it, how many of them waste their days "stringing and unstringing" their instrument? 

People are experts at "getting ready" for things; getting ready for college, getting ready for the wedding, getting ready for their first home, getting ready for vacation, getting ready for football season, getting ready for the holidays, getting ready to hit their goals, getting ready to build their business, getting ready to go on that diet, getting ready to get ready to live, once and only once they are ready.

But we will never be "ready." 

There is no "ready."

There are only days of our lives. 

"Ready" is the devil’s trick to steal from us the wonder of God’s gift of time.

You were born a magnificent creation to begin with.

So stop getting ready.

Play the song you were born to play.

Now.

            There is a spirit of enterprise distinctive of all true leaders, who see what needs to be done and do it, without hand-holding or waiting for orders.  Action is a keystone of leadership.   

The very concept of initiative stands upon the platform of accepting personal responsibility.  Leaders function while called upon to make decisions in often confusing situations, in possibly dangerous environments, without adequate time and/or information, making decisions to the best of their ability, then striving to make those decisions right. In short, leaders must be able to decide, and then take full responsibility for their decisions. 

The initiative of a leader also births creativity and ingenuity as the objective remains frozen and the means are bended toward its purpose. 

            Further, great leaders must have the grander picture in focus, being sure to serve the vision while serving their own interests and keeping the two aligned.  This happens automatically when a leader acts according to the convictions of his or her character.

            Finally, initiative should never be confused with recklessness, which results from either ego or ignorance.   

Friendship is a lot like art; we find it difficult to define, but we know it when we see it, or more accurately, we know it when we feel it.  The width and depth of friendships in a person’s life can have a lot to do with overall happiness and sense of well-being.  But a term so common that we all assume we know what it means may, for that reason, be worthy of a deeper look.

Some people have a lot of friends.  Some have few or none.  Some friendships last a long time, others are fleeting and only for a season.  And while no one should or could define the depth and quantity of friendships for another, there is a certain amount and quality that is required for all of us as part of the overall picture of happiness and fulfillment in our lives.  We ignore this truth at our own peril.

Friendships are a special kind of relationship where two people, for whatever reason, develop a bond.  Perhaps they have something in common, or they enjoy an activity together, or they just seem to "click."  Over time, the predictability, comfort level, and mutual gain from the relationship strengthens and the bond of friendship is formed.  It requires nothing formal, nothing so much as even an admission that it exists, but it exists nonetheless.  Friendships grow, as all good parents should know, on the truth that love is spelled "T-I-M-E."  As time passes it allows the connections of friendship to strengthen.  Memories are made, events are encountered together, and an overall environment of trust and predictability is fostered.  There must be some degree of openness and honesty for anything real to develop.  Unselfishness and some amount of mutual respect are also required.  In the end, both parties must somehow be "served" by the connection for it to last.  Friendships, then, grow quite naturally out of a bond that develops between two people for their mutual enjoyment and gain.

But friendship is not so clinical as all that makes it sound.  Real friendship is something quite special, something to be treasured, something to be respected and maintained and provided for over time.  Real friendship can become one of the most enjoyable portions of our time on this earth. 

How does one become a friend?  How does one attract and maintain friends?  Friendship is an art of the heart.  The more you have a heart for other people, and the more you are able to express it in ways sincere and creative, the more people will be attracted to you on a level of friendship.  I have been blessed with many deep and lasting friendships in my life.  I attribute these to the Grace of God in bringing them into my life more than any ability or worthiness of my own.  Nevertheless, I cherish them and seek to foster and strengthen them as if they were entirely my responsibility.  These people are special, and they have provided so much for me over the years that I want to give back into their lives as well.  In other words, I want to be worthy of their friendship. 

A quesion we should consider is whether we are good at making friends?  Are we the kind of people others are attracted to?  Do others know that we care?  Can we be counted on in a time of need?  Is our heart right toward others?  Do we have a heart for people?  Are we unselfish and focused on others?

A good exercise is to make a mental list of the poeple in your life who you consider to be your closest friends.  Then, consider who might put you on such a list!

You may like the results of this thought process, or you may not.  But it would be wise for all of us, whether we feel successful in the arena of friendships or not, to make some careful assessments of our ability as artists on the canvas of frienship.  We could all stand to pick up the brush of "service to others," or of "patience and understanding," or of "encouragement and expression of affection," or of "listening without judgment," and apply them to the relationships in our lives, remembering that the best way to gain a friend is to be a friend.