A New Approach

     Sometimes things don't always work out the way you want them to or expect them to and when that happens, you can do one of two things. You can quit or you can step back and take a close look at the situation and figure out a way to make it better. In 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse seven it says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Sometimes things become old or stale and it is not only needful but necessary to throw it away. Sometimes you can change some of it and sometimes you have to start all over. Well this is the way I have felt about my blog. So instead of quitting, I have taken some time to rethink some things concerning my blog.

     I enjoy writing so I was definitely not going to quit. This was never an option in my mind. My problem was never my writing, but how do I combine my writing with my blog to make it more effective for those who read it. If you have followed the blog, I was writing a blog every day. Each day I would post a certain thought to try and help motivate those who would read it. For me, since writing takes time, this became very demanding of my time. To write a blog a day usually meant spending at least two hours (or more) in front of my computer. Soon I found myself feeling like it was too much work and I don't like or desire to have my writing become 'work'. So when I left on vacation, I took a few weeks off to not only rest my mind but to also think about a new approach to my blog.

     So after using the month of March to think things over, here is what I have decided to do. I am no longer going to write a blog every day but instead, I am going to write a blog once a week and post this blog every Monday (hopefully Monday morning's). Each weekly blog will have a theme for the reader to consider. For instance, I may have a theme for the week on 'TIME' and how we waste it and how we need to use it more wisely or I may have a weekly theme on 'PURPOSE' and how to find it. So then, since THIS blog posted tonight is about finding a 'NEW APPROACH' then this week I will be focusing on the theme of restarting or rebooting your life. I will endeavor to have each weekly themed blog posted by Sunday evening or Monday morning. With each Sunday/Monday blog post I will establish the 'thought for the week' and then I use this blog to launch into mini thoughts throughout the week and all these 'mini thoughts' will be centered around the theme blog that I originally wrote about on Sunday/Monday. I may post a meme on the thought . I may post a quote about this week's thought and add my own quick thoughts to the quote. I may throw some scripture in with a thought or two on the thought of the week. So every week we will have a new theme or 'thought' to discuss, learn about or to conquer.

     So to anyone and everyone who reads my blog. Welcome back Team 365 and get ready for a new and exciting approach. I will do my best to inspire you to overcome any of the obstacles that stand in your way to making your life healthier and better...both naturally and spiritually! 

Beyond Trivial Pursuit

"Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe." - Robert Service


How many times have we heard it said that we lose sight of the forest for the trees. It seems so easy in this image conscious world to lose sight of what is really important. We are constantly inundated with the superficial and the shallow, and if we are not careful, life ends up becoming less about purpose and more of a pursuit of the trivial. Somewhere along the way we must obtain the ‘purpose’ or sense of direction of our lives. We must forge out the answer to the question ‘what are we here for’? Yet, it seems, we are so easily distracted by little nuances and the mirages life’s petty lures. In the ‘to and fro’ of our swaying, we lose track of the true intent of life itself and fall under the manipulating barrage of societies impulses and tendencies. We turn mole hills into mountains and mountains into mole hills. We major in minors and minor in majors. Life is consumed with the he said and the she said's and valuable time slips away into eternity never to be had again.


Think about it. Before we are hardly out of bed and have awakened from a peaceful sleep, we are pounced upon by outside forces. Each force vying for our attention. Each entity telling us what is important and what is not important. The shout from the outside immediately steps into our morning stretch and demands our full attention. From the weather to apparel, food to money, buy here and go there, the voices cry out for our touch. If we are not careful the multitude of distractions can easily beguile us into losing our sense of direction. The scripture says in Proverbs that a man who is given to appetite might as well put a knife to his throat. Why? Because when our appetites rule us they lead us to places we never intended to go. When we are given to appetite we are more easily manipulated into doing things we would never do if we were more assured of our purpose. In the end we become enslaved by the very things we sought to possess!


In our haste to ‘find’ happiness we give over to momentary indulgences only to be left even more empty than before we caved in to the justification of it all. Our life is far more than appetites and true liberty comes with this understanding. We must be honest with ourselves! How many times, after the chase, do we have to end up with empty hands and hurting hearts? How many distractions do we have to fall for before we wake up and see the whimsical ways of our appetites? How many times do we have to get off the beaten path of true purpose and die the death of many regrets? How many times must we be lied to before we are finally compelled to restrain our own appetites of deception? How many times do we have to empty our shoes before we truly climb with a sense of purpose?


Then again, maybe here in lies the real problem. Without meaning in life, life has no meaning! Seneca said, “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” So now begs the question. What harbor are you sailing for? What is or are your goals? What IS important to you? When you are healed, in body and mind, what is YOUR purpose? Today, stop the noise from without and seek some answers from within. Silence the critics and voices of manipulation with a firm resolve to empty your shoes and turn aside for a higher look up the mountain, you may be surprise what you see up there!

Pain Sweet Pain

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” Jim Rohn

Oh how we dread the thought of feeling any type of pain. God forbid we are led to endure any type of discomfort in our lives. Headache? Grab a bottle of Motrin! Back pain? Get the doctor to write a script of Vicodin or Oxycodone! Hurt feelings, remorse, or any form of guilt? Let's drown it all out by consuming a bottle of whiskey! Don't get me wrong, there certainly is a place for 'pain therapy' but it seems America is not only attracted to but also addicted to the idea that pain is meant to escape. Somewhere in our interpretation of 'the pursuit of happiness', we (Americans) have determined that pain was not contained within the definition of happiness. In our Disney-fied Hollywood saturated minds of life, our happily ever after pictures of life have no place for pain. When pain comes, our first move is to escape it! It doesn't matter how the headache evolved, all that matters is the pain is felt, and the goal is NO PAIN.

A quick glance at our love affair with painkilling drugs is quite illuminating. Over an eight year period (1997 - 2005) statistics from the the Drug Enforcement Administration shows the amount of five major painkillers sold at retail stores rose 90 percent. More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent year represented in the data. That total is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country. Without writing a book, although I could, here are a few statistics concerning just the use of pain pills alone in these United States.
* Painkillers are the most commonly abused prescription drugs.
* The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of painkillers, using 71 percent of the world’s oxycodone and 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone, or Vicodin.
* In 1991 there were 40 million prescriptions for painkillers worldwide, but by 2001, there were 180 million painkiller prescriptions, most of them in the U.S.

* 7 of the 11 drugs most commonly abused by high school students are prescription or over-the-counter drugs.
* A 2006 survey found that 7 million people 12 and over had abused prescription or over the counter drugs in the past 30 days. Most abused painkillers.
* 2.2 million people age 12 and up started abusing painkillers in the last year.
* Young adults, age 18 to 25, show the most painkiller use and the greatest increases in abuse.
* About 1 in 4 teens will abuse prescription drugs before they graduate from high school
* Emergency room visits related to painkiller use rose 153 percent from 1995 to 2002.
* Admissions to drug treatment programs for people using painkillers rose 321 percent from 1995 to 2005.
* The number of people abusing painkillers is estimated to have risen from half a million to 2.5 million between 1985 and 2002.
* Deaths related to painkiller use rose 160 percent from 1999 to 2004.
* The abuse of painkillers causes more deaths than heroine and cocaine combined.

And on and on it goes ad nauseam...and this doesn't even include all the other prescription drugs Americans swallow, inject, inhale, spray, infuse, and pat on their bodies for medicinal purposes!

It seems the more our society unravels, the more we look for solace in avoiding pain. Every where you look pain is to be avoided at all costs. From physical pain to spiritual pain, the goal is to minimize its signal and strength. Like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, we have created this out of sight, out of mind world of illusion. If I don't confront it, then it doesn't exist. It is far easier to mask the pain in our body with a drug than to actually have to discipline ourselves to some requirement of having to change how we do things. The same tune is sung with our spiritual pain. Rather than deal with our inner man, we saturate our minds with avoidance techniques. Recreational drugs of choice helps to enshroud our repressed grudges and anger, leaving us numb to the realities of life.

If for just a moment I could get you to step away from your shrine of victim hood and perpetual pursuit of pain avoidance, I may then be able to get you to 'see' that pain is good. Think of a life without pain. There are rare cases in this world where people are born without the ability to feel pain. There are cases of children, because they were born with the inability to feel pain, biting their tongues and fingers off. If we can perceive pain correctly, pain then is a gift from God. Pain tells us something is not right. The physical pain of a sprained ankle warns us there is something wrong. If we didn't have that ankle pain, then we would walk on, causing more and more damage to our body. The spiritual pain of the psyche warns us we must change our way of thinking and doing things. Yet, rather than confront, we try to conceal. We begin to perform covert operations against our own soul. Then when the harvest of such underground mole work begins to manifest itself in our lives with alcohol and drug addictions, we then shake our fist at God and blame Him. When, if the truth be known, God gave us the gift of pain to guide us back to health.

To confront pain is not easy. It takes guts. It takes honesty. It takes grit and determination to deal with pain head on. Only you can take this journey to confront the inner hurts and pains of life that have seemingly forever slowed you from achieving and grasping the fullness of life. Don't you think its time to 'get your head out of the sand' and confront your life?

Climbing Your Dream

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost

"The four-minute mile: This was the barrier, both physical and psychological, that begged to be broken." Neal Bascomb Many told Roger Bannister his goal was "impossible." For many years, the scientific and athletic communities thought that it was impossible to run a four-minute mile. The event was regarded as something more than a sports record to be broken. This 'impossibility' was viewed by society as an epochal barrier that could not, and, more amazingly, should not be broken. Many people believed if a man to run a mile in less than four minutes the result upon breaking the tape would be instant death.

In his 1935 article entitled "The Ultimate of Human Effort," British track coach Brutus Hamilton had listed the "perfect records beyond which man could never go" for a number of track and field events. He declared that the fastest mile possible would be 4:01.6. By the spring of 1954, Gunder Haegg's world record of 4:01.4 was nine years old, and Hamilton was still insisting no one could run any faster.

"Whether we liked it or not, the four-minute mile had become rather like an Everest -- a challenge to the human spirit," observed Bannister in his newly-reissued autobiography, "The Four-Minute Mile." "It was a barrier that defied all attempts to break it -- an irksome reminder that man's striving might be in vain. The Scandanavians, with their almost excessive reverence for the magic of sport, called it the `Dream Mile.' "

History now reveals that Roger Bannister was the man of this moment! On May 6, 1954, this 25-year-old medical student, committed runner, ran a mile at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track in the time of 3:59.4. Its no wonder Roger Bannister could say, "The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."

Louis. D. Brandeis said, "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." How many times have we hesitated to venture out of our cocoons and risk what all those around us have determined to be 'impossible'? Peer pressure, societal norms, and traditions keep us stagnant and uncommitted from taking steps toward our dreams. It seems far easier to stay in our comfort zones than to step off the shore of familiarity. "Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you." - Stewart. E. White

Now let me be clear. I am not talking about venturing out to do evil or following after illicit ways. The Word of the Lord says we should not follow after the multitudes to do evil. So our venturing should be within the context of doing what is right for our families and giving back to our communities. All of us have had to endure the snide remarks of another who makes comments from their worldview of impossibilities. Family members, friends, and co-workers are quick to squash any attempt to step out of the known and into the unknown. Fear of failure grips us and leaves us frozen in a frightful fit of all the things bad that could happen! The comfort zone feels good, warm, and fuzzy, but such a zone zaps us of real growth and living up to our full potential. Rather than attempt something new, we are consoled in our complacent progress of staying put in our uncharted waters of a well known shoreline. "The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore." - Dale Carnegie Will Rogers said, "Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there."

The God of possibilities continues to call us out of the fleshly ground of impossibilities! He is not a God who waits for us to make a mistake, but He is a God who is calling us UP and out of carnal living of fleshly boxed in comfort zones! Who knows how many God given talents have been locked up on the carnal shores of our earthly vessels? God has called us to take our talents and grow, not to hide them away in fear! Vaclav Havel said, "Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs." If you want to eat the fruit, you have to take the risks that come with climbing the tree!

As the years pass, it seems we are more disappointed in the things we didn't do than by the ones we did do. How many times have we looked back on our lives and said, "I wish I would have!"? We are experts at making mountains out of molehills! How many times have we finally found the nerve to step out of our comfort zones, only to find that the mountain of fears we had created in our minds was lower than we originally had created?

There is no doubt in my mind, if you are reading this today, there are dreams you have locked away on some distant shore of apprehension. One of the greatest college basketball coaches, John Wooden said, "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." Today, I want you to re-examine those dreams and goals that were once the emblem of your vision. Its time to raise up the anchor, throw off the bowlines, and sail away from the safe harbor of complacency. There is a 'rushing mighty wind' awaiting to fill your sails and push you into the Hands of the One who holds the key to ALL possibilities!

The Power of Choice

“Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.” (Alfred A. Montapert)

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 3:14)

The Power of Choice
(Part Two - On Being Mentally Strong)

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) Here it is, another bright, new day and it is complete with 24 hours of opportunities, choices, and attitudes. With this day, as with each new day is a perfectly matched set of 1440 minutes. This unique and unparalleled gift, this one day, cannot be exchanged, replaced or refunded. Handle with care. There is only one to a customer. Now the question is...what are you going to do with it? The choice is yours!

Mentally strong people avoid giving away their power. They choose to take control of their emotions and actions. Those who are mentally strong understand know their strength is in their ability to manage these emotions and then respond, not according to how they ‘feel’, but they choose to move with the right form action, which most of the time, is against how their emotions, or for that matter, how other people’s emotions have tried to persuade them to move.

Every day...every minute of the day, each and every one of us is confronted with a multitude of choices. What’s to eat? Should I eat this or should I eat that? Should we go here? Should we do this or should we do that? Should I even get out of bed today? It is said the average human being has approximately seventy thousand thoughts in one day! Since seventy thousand thoughts is the average, this means some people have more and some have less. But either way, somewhere along the way, with all these thoughts comes a decision. Which thought will we choose to act on? Which thought will we decide is more important than all the other thoughts and make it a priority for THIS moment of THIS day? Then we make the choice and with that choice comes consequences. Sometimes the consequences are good. We have a very productive and profitable day. Then, sometimes, the consequences are not so good. We stay in front of the computer on Facebook or Pinterest and have a very unproductive day. But here is the point! Don’t ever forget who made the choice to focus on that one thought out of the hundreds that were zooming through your brain. We made the choice. We were the one’s who gave THAT particular thought the power for that day in our lives.

There is a saying...”Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” Notice, EVERYTHING began with a thought! William Jennings Bryan said, “Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
Everything we are now, somewhere long ago in our past, was just a thought, and when the ‘thought’ came to us, we decided to give that thought residence in our mind. It wasn’t long that this thought began to be formulated in our words and then our actions took on the essence of the thought, which our actions began to direct us toward a certain place (which is where we are NOW), because character is the “inherent complex of attributes that determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions.” “Every choice you make has an end result.” (Zig Ziglar) So its safe to say, although in a very simplistic way (because the way we think is a habit), if we change how we think, then we will change our world.  Over the years I have witnessed many who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, or any other substance, and who they are ‘now’, is rooted in some type of anger that occurred long ago in their past. And only when they decide to take responsibility for that anger are they able to reinvent themselves and move onto a better life. There are many people who believe that you are responsible for only what you do, but not what you think. But, truly, this is impossible, because how can what you do not be connected to what you think? It is only at this level, what and how we think, that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think. There is a saying...you are not what you think you are, but what you are what you think! Therefore, all choices stem from our thoughts and what we think.

Stephen Covey said, “There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.” There is no way around these constants. Like gravity, they are natural laws which affect you on a daily basis. You cannot get around change. All of us must be flexible enough to ‘roll with the punches’ that comes with every new day. Sure we can make a choice ‘not to change’ but then, in the end, we will lose our ability to adapt to the ebb of life’s flow and in turn become a stagnant pool of past thoughts and lost dreams. And don’t forget, not making a choice is a choice! As William James said, “When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.”

“All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.” (Joseph Epstein) So today, as like any other day, you have a choice. Sure, like Joseph Einstein said, there are handful of choices we did not have the power to make, and God didn’t ask us to accept this life, but we have it and the question is...what are we going to do with it? The power is in our hands in how we choose to live the life we have. “You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.” (W. Clement Stone)

You see, mentally strong people know they are in charge of their choices. They avoid and refuse giving others the power to make them feel bad, inferior, or deficient. A mentally strong person knows their strength lies within their ability to deal with their thoughts and emotions, and then choose to respond the correct way. “Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.” (W. H. Auden) I have always said, we have the power to do whatever we want, but we don’t have the power to decide on the consequences of the choice. Yet, a mentally strong person understands that every choice has it’s own connection which is rooted in the DNA of every thought. Bad thoughts (hate, anger, malice) lead to bad actions and bad actions usually lead to bad consequences. Therefore, mentally strong people work quickly to subdue the bad thoughts before they manifest themselves into action, hence destroying the power they may have in the future.

Denis Waitley said, “There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” The choice is OURS! No we can’t go back and change our past choices, but we can learn from the past and change the choices we make now, which in turn, begins to change the harvest of our future. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.” (Wayne Dyer) So today, wherever YOU are at in this journey called life, believe it or not, YOU have the power to change your destiny!

In his book, ‘The Greatest Miracle in the World’, Og Mandino writes about the fourth great law of happiness and success and it is the ‘power of choice’. I love what he says....

“Choose to love ... rather than hate.
Choose to laugh ... rather than cry.
Choose to create ... rather than destroy.
Choose to persevere ... rather than quit.
Choose to praise ... rather than gossip.
Choose to heal ... rather than wound.
Choose to give ... rather than steal.
Choose to act ... rather than procrastinate.
Choose to grow ... rather than rot.
Choose to pray ... rather than curse.
Choose to live ... rather than die.”

The choice is ours...and here is what you need to understand...the choice has ALWAYS been ours! Today, it’s time become ‘mentally strong’ and to tap into the power of our choices. As a man by the name of Mike Dooley said, “Life's not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it's about doing, being and becoming. It's about the choices you've just made, and the ones you're about to make, it's about the things you choose to say - today. It's about what you're gonna do after you finish reading this.”

Self Pity - The Drug of Self Love (On Being Mentally Strong Series)

“Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.”
-- John Gardner

Let’s just start this point out with a bang. Quit being a crybaby. Stop walking around whining and complaining about how ‘bad’ your life is. Mentally strong people do not walk around feeling sorry for themselves. Rarely do you ever see or hear a mentally strong person complain about all their misfortune and terrible their lives are and if they had this or that, how much better their lives would be.

Out of all the feelings and emotions that exist within the make up of a human being, there are few human emotions as warm, comforting, and enveloping as self-pity. Self-pity will wrap a person within it’s furry feelings of victim-hood and soothes you like a lullaby into a cocoon of complaint, and if you are not careful, the transformation that takes place within the ‘warmth’ of the cocoon will make you, not only unrecognizable to others, but in the long run, you will lose touch with your true self. Truly nothing is more corrosive and destructive than the emotion of self-pity. Helen Keller said, “Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.” Self-pity will parch your attitudes, it will paralyze your abilities, immobilize your true potential, and it will put off your ability to achieve. It brings to a quick halt any moving toward excellence and prevents any kind of expansion of the mind, body, and soul.

When you begin to ponder the feelings of self-pity, and get honest with yourself, then you too would come with the same conclusion that I have come up with...self-pity is one of the most useless of all human emotions. Think about it. After all your moaning, whining, complaining about how bad your life is and how terrible your past was...well...what do you have? What has changed? Absolutely NOTHING! As a matter of fact, I contend, the more you continue down this path of self pity, the more you become attached the ‘feelings’ of these emotions and you end up falling further down it’s spiral staircase of the empty nothingness. Millicent Fenwick said it this way, “Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.”

When we pity ourselves all we see and feel is ourselves. When we have problems, all we see are our problems and that's all we love talking about. We become blinded and are not able to see the good things in our lives. Like a drug, self pity warps our senses and fetters us with it’s emotional strings and before we know it, the only high we get in life is when we begin to talk the talk of a victim. All the while we throw self-pity pity parties for all who will give ear to our ‘horrific and dysfunctional’ life. And yes, because like attracts like, we will have ‘friends’ but they will be the kind of friends who will only help pull the covers of despair over our heads and help keep us comfy. They will rub our back and ‘cry’ with us and embrace us in one of those ‘misery loves company’ kind of hugs until we quit feeling like something different needs to be done. Life then is lived for the next ‘high’ that can only come in the arms of another self-pity drug addict who is willing to give us our daily fix of condolences. Once in awhile, the person who is drugged up on the emotion of self-pity, will momentarily awaken from their stupor and wonder why there are so many negative people in their lives, and instead of seeing the true cause, they are quickly moved to believe that the positive people around them hate them and then move back into their cocoon feeling justified in their self contempt.

Mentally strong people have learned to accept themselves and in turn have learned to take responsibility for their actions and their outcomes. They have to come to learn this simple fact; life, for the most part, is not fair and rather than become complacent within the walls of life’s circumstances, the mentally strong plow forward knowing each event will bring something good to their lives if they will not let themselves yield to their feelings of self pity. Those who are mentally strong in this world have learned that the way one thinks is just as much of a habit as the way one does something. As much as fear is a habit, so is self pity, defeat, anxiety, hopelessness, despair, and resignation. And life’s lessons have taught a mentally strong person you can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: ‘I can!!!’ and ‘I will!!!’ One of my favorite authors, Og Mandino said, “Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success. Never again. There is a better way.” So even though there seems to be no way out, there really is a way out and it starts with rejecting the emotions and feelings that come with self pity. “Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best.” (Harry Emerson).

You knew it and you’ve known it for a long time now. There really is only one answer; turn away from self pity and move on. Accept fate, and move on. Don’t yield to the seductive hallucinogenic mirages of self pity. If you were to get honest with yourself, you have already learned that acting like a victim gets you no where and self pity has always been the plague that has strangled your tomorrow’s. It’s time to begin looking for the ‘silver lining’ in your life, because it’s there. Just outside the sheath of your self made cocoon is a whole new world full of magnificent colors and adventures. It’s time to pull out the IV tube of self pity you have been feeding your heart with and step out into the sunshine of a new day, a new year, and a new YOU. It’s time to laugh more. It’s time smile more. It’s time to enjoy the blessings of your life and live in the abundance that God has promised you for your life. “Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.” ~ Og Mandino

It’s there...it really is...a life full of fun and adventure...just outside the thin layer of your emotions is a whole new world waiting for you to learn and conquer. Now go ahead...step outside, and let the rays of your new aliveness begin wrap you in it’s arms and fill you with its warmth...and while you are at it, don’t forget to SMILE!

To Be Mentally Strong

"Bring me men to match my mountains, Bring me men to match my plains, Men with empires in their purpose, And new eras in their brains." (Sam Walter Foss, from "The Coming American", July 4, 1894)

This past November, Forbes Magazine had an article entitled, ‘Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid’. Rather than address all the things a mentally strong person does, it briefly addresses the things mentally strong people DON’T do. The article is very powerful and spins out some interesting information worthy of taking into one’s hearts and applying it to our lives. Each point was addressed and then briefly described. As I read the article, I thought how much more time could be spent on each of the thirteen categories and expanded with more information for the reader. So with that in mind, I am going to attempt to take the thirteen points of each article and turn them into a series of writings on the do’s and don’t’s of the mentally strong.

When I begin to think of people who are mentally strong, like a time machine, and as a lover of history, my mind races back through the ages. To days long before all this technology has made life what it is today. Long before the automobile, washer, dryer, phone, computer, internet, and the world wide web. Long before the first man landed on the moon and long before the incandescent light bulb. Long before grocery stores had pre-packaged chemical, preservative laden foods lining the shelves for easy pickings. Long before meat was packaged with pretty pictures of sunshine and barns in easy and convenient methods of hunting for my game. Long before the invention of the fast food burger and the drive through meal deal. My mind races backward toward a time when, it seems to me, one didn’t have a choice but to be mentally strong. To this cornucopia of men and women who traversed the landscape of history with their blood, sweat, tears, and toil. Who looked adversity in the eyes and endured hardness and persevered beyond what today’s modern mind set could only deem as too crazy to accomplish.

So many times, the beginning of my complaints are usually stifled when I just say these words to myself, ‘It could be far worse!’ Instead of being sheltered by all the comfort of these comforts, I could be living back in the days when my life was dependent upon my raw ability to survive from day to day or even moment to moment. I think of the men and women who endured the voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to come to a new world. Even after enduring the three months of ocean waters and pounding waves, they were not greeted by a convenience store or pre-existing homes with the warmth of fireplaces burning waiting to soothe their aching and worn out sea ravaged bodies.

I think of women like Martha Washington, who supported her husband through the myriad of the complexities of war and holding public office. To the little know fact that Martha Washington saw her husband only a few times over the course of eighteen years because of his commitment to God and country is quite a testimony of a mentally strong woman. I think of the men and women who helped settle the West. Men like Daniel Boone, who was an original ‘iron man’. For instance, there was a time when Daniel Boone was captured by the Chief Black Fish of the Shawnee Indians, and after he learned of a British and Indian plot to attack Boonesborough, he escaped and rallied the settlers and successfully repelled a 10-day siege of Boonesborough. I’m talking men of strong mental character. From Sam Houston to Davy Crockett and ‘Remember the Alamo’, to men like John Paul Jones, “I have not yet begun to fight!”, and refused to surrender even when his ship was sinking and came back to win the naval battle. Or men like twenty-one year old, Nathan Hale, who was captured by the British and just before being hanged as a spy his last words were, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." I think of the men who on that June 6, 1944, bravely stormed the beaches of Normandy under the rain of German artillery and machine gun fire, risking it all and giving ‘their last full measure of devotion’ to gain a foothold on Nazi Germany.

And how can my mind not ponder the historical aspect of those who came before me in the gospel. Men and women who loved God’s Word more than their own lives. Men who labored and died, so that I may live. Of course there is the Apostle Paul who talks in Corinthians of his enduring afflictions and trials. “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-28) And not just the Apostle Paul, who in the end history says he ran to the guillotine to be beheaded, but the entire twelve apostles, who were so mentally strong in the faith and were martyred for the sake of the gospel.

On and on I could continue to compose a list of inspirational men and women who were mentally strong in their endeavor to make it through this journey we call life. And when I ‘think’ of these testimonies and then take a moment to ponder our ‘difficult’ lives, it makes me wonder how much we have lost and how much prosperity has destroyed our ruggedness, and not only our ruggedness, but how our technology has helped to sabotaged our ability to ‘find’ ourselves and the hidden strengths we truly have within us. For it is in the trials of life our true character is forged, and it is in those depths of despair where we meet our true selves, and if possible, in those moments we actually find ourselves.

So this is an ‘introductory’ writing to begin a series of writings on the characteristics of the ‘mentally’ strong. Let me be the first to say, though I may be writing about being mentally strong, I am quick to admit that I have not yet obtained all aspects of what it takes to be an expert of mental strength. Obviously as reality has it, I cannot speak as though I lived back then while being a product of these, what I think, are pretty sissy-fied times. So though I have endured some hardships, more mental than physical, my own writing concerning strength, both physical and mental, may well be somewhat curtailed by own limitations and/or inabilities. But if you are like me, when I read of men and women who endured such tribulation and came out victorious, there is something in me that desires to know their ‘secret’. What did they possess that helped them through their most difficult times? I desire to know, because if I lack what they had, then I want it and if I have what they had, then I want to strengthen it. Either way, in this ‘rat race’ called life, I want to be running with the mental strength it takes to obtain the ability to capture the prize that my God has set before me!