Devotion and Passion had a race. Who won? It depends if it’s a sprint or a marathon.

It seems that Passion wins most all of the sprints and Devotion wins all of the marathons.

Is your life a sprint or is it a marathon? That determination will indicate to you what you need more of in your life.

Passion is a prime ingredient in life. It makes life zesty. The difficulty with passion is that it wanes for most and you can’t always depend on it to take you across the finish line.

Devotion runs a slow but steady race and you can count on it to be there at the finish line.

I tearfully watched the Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House last week. Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer received the nation’s highest military honor for his bravery in Afghanistan where he rescued 36 U.S. and Afghan troops while being under heavy fire and while being wounded himself. It wasn’t passion that kept him going back time after time to rescue more people; it was his devotion.

He was devoted to his fellow Marines and those fighting alongside of them. It was devotion that allowed him to finish his mission.

What are you devoted to? It’s an exploration worth your time.

We generally know what we’re passionate about but I’m not sure we’ve given as much consideration to what we’re devoted to.

For example, I’m passionate about photography but I’m not devoted to it.

Devotion is an unwavering commitment that won’t take a backseat to anything.

If you haven’t devoted yourself to something or someone yet, you are missing out on much of the fullness life has to offer.

Is there someone you know who will be there for you no matter what? That’s devotion.

Who or what will you stand tall with? Who or what is worthy of your devotion?

If you don’t know, make the effort to find out. It will keep you in the race ’til the finish.

All the best,

John

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A big part of the game of football is turnovers. That’s when the ball unexpectedly gets turned over to the other team, usually due to an error on one player’s part. It’s often the deciding play as to who wins the game.

It seems to me that life is filled with turnovers – times when we drop the ball and lose.

It’s tempting to look around and look for someone else to blame it on, but the instant replay clearly shows that we were at fault no matter how many different angles we view it from.

When you turn the ball over, you are at a choice point. You get to choose whether you will defend your mistake (often referred to as doubling down) or you will make every effort to recognize your error and take steps not to repeat it in the future.

Have you recently dropped the ball? Are you going to drop it again? It really depends on the choice you make now.

Are you willing to continually give yourself a pass for your fumbles, or will you commit to a series of actions that will curtail future drops?

These are questions we are faced with every day. We all drop the ball and we all have a choice as to how we will handle the drop. Will it be more denial or a path forward?

The path forward has one key ingredient – Action!

You can have countless conversations with yourself (pep talks) planning how you’re going to hold onto the ball in the future, but talks without action will truly earn you the nickname of “Butterfingers.”

If hanging your head in shame were a remedy, we would have eradicated turnovers a long time ago.

“What steps am I going to take now that will prevent dropped balls in the future?” is the only remedy you need.

If you are planning on a different future without taking action now, it’s no different than reviewing a video of an old football game again expecting a different outcome.

The tried and true way to overturn turnovers is to take action now.

All the best,

John

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Are you looking for something you have in common with most people? Look no further than wanting to be saved.

It seems the bulk of the world’s population wants someone or something to save them. In the past, I’ve included myself in that list.

Then it became apparent to me that no one was going to save me. There wasn’t a list of people lined up to save me; they were too busy looking for someone to save them.

How many people buy a lottery ticket dreaming they’re going to lose? They want the lottery to save them. How many people pray for God to save them? My sense is that God or Creative Intelligence or Mother Nature or whatever you call it gave us all the tools necessary to save ourselves.

The tool that sits rusty in most of our tool boxes is action.

It takes action to be saved. Most of us look for an outside agent to magically appear at our door with the miracle cure. That’s a long wait; in fact, it’s an eternity.

Please allow me to offer you a hard reality in the simplest terms I can find: NO ONE IS GOING TO SAVE YOU BUT YOU!

The undue time we spend looking for a savior could be better spent taking action to save ourselves.

This doesn’t mean people can’t help you. They, in fact, are your best resource. Just don’t fall into the trap that they’re going to do it for you. Reminds me of a story I may have told before . . .

Dr. Dave Dobson told us about a guy in a crowded bar who was a bit “over-served.” He really had to pee but the bathroom was all the way on the other side of the room and he would have to negotiate a wall of people to get there. Then he got this bright idea. He fumbled into his wallet and pulled out a $20 bill and offered it to a stranger who was next to him and said, “I’ll give you 20 dollars if you walk across the bar to the men’s room and pee for me.”

That’s the absurdity of looking for someone to save you.

The question we need to ask ourselves regularly is: What action am I going to take to save myself? OR What action is necessary for me to save myself?

The minute you move away from action, you move away from salvation. Only action moves you in the direction of salvation.

I don’t have a 7-step plan to offer you for salvation because it only takes one – Action.

This I know for sure: Every time I fail to act, I miss another opportunity to be saved.

If you’ve been praying for salvation, your prayer has already been answered countless times. You just weren’t paying attention to the answer.

If you are a damsel in distress or a dude with a full bladder, action is the answer to your prayer. Action is your salvation.

All the best,

John

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I’ve stood at a very scary, but real, place recently – the Threshold of Old.

I’ve mentioned my late grandmother’s prescription for not stepping across that threshold. When you inquired how she was doing, she would say, “I’m getting old.” She never said that she was old; she was just getting there. That mindset kept her sharp as a tack until she left us in her 90s.

I found myself at a choice point. Just like you can feel a new season coming on, I felt a change coming over me and I knew I had to make a choice. My actions at this choice point would either have me cross over the Threshold of Old or take a more active route. Reminds me of a story . . .

About 9 years ago I attended a personal development workshop where there was a man who was the age I am now. The leader of the workshop asked him why he came. He said that he noticed that people of his age group were slipping into very mundane routines and they moved at a much slower pace than he wanted for himself. He said, “I don’t want to shuffle around like them; I want to walk and act with more purpose.”

He was at the Threshold of Old and he chose another route.

The Threshold of Old can come at any age. Have you ever noticed that there are a number of younger people that act like they are in their advanced years? They have crossed the threshold.

Once you cross over, it’s difficult to come back, but not impossible.

Let me make a distinction worth noting here. This isn’t about aging. That happens to all of us. This is about being old which is a mindset. Aging can lead to the Threshold of Old, especially if you lack awareness that the threshold exists. It’s this gift of awareness that I’m alluding to here.

The mindset of old will age you quicker than Father Time. It sneaks up on you and puts you in a comfort zone known as a rut. Being in this comfortable rut will have your bones creak more often and your zest for life sitting like a bird on the windowsill ready to take off and leave.

You just have to notice you’re at a choice point or that you have already crossed over. It’s this awareness that will give you the wherewithal to make another choice – one that leads to vitality vs. lethargy.

I’m happy I received this gift of awareness. It takes all the excuses away and only presents choices.

You do have a choice; so what will you choose? One route is a greased skid to being helpless; the other is filled with the promise of tomorrow. Choose wisely.

All the best,

John

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There are so many things that are not scientifically provable, yet those things are responsible for so many changes.

The 800 Pound Gorilla in the not provable category is the Placebo Effect. That’s when something is given to a patient that has no chance of healing them but is presented as being the Holy Grail. For example a doctor gives a sugar pill to a group of patients that have anxiety rather than a tranquilizer. A percentage of the sugar pill patients become calm.

A partial list of other things that can’t be proven yet are helpful to many includes:

Prayer
Acupuncture
Chicken Soup
Lucky charms (not the cereal)
Meditation
Hypnosis

Suppose your prayer was answered, are you really interested in hearing about the scientific theory of why it can’t work?

How many of you had Vicks VapoRub rubbed on your chest as a child to heal a cold? Best as I can tell is that all it does is heat up your chest. How many people felt better as a result of that ritual? How many people swear by it until this day? There is no scientific proof that it works.

How many of the people who have stopped smoking with hypnosis are concerned with the notion that it’s not scientifically provable? Ask a smoke -free Ellen DeGeneres if she cares about the science.

There are some things the intellect can’t prove that are as real as a sunrise. If you spend your whole life looking for proof, you just may miss the pudding.

Results are real and theory is not provable, that’s why it’s still a theory. Einstein and Darwin had theories that still can’t be proven as fact, yet they are the basis of many other sciences that have come about that are provable.

I’m a skeptic by nature but have found many things I have been skeptical of get real results.

“Prove it!” is a barrier between what is and what’s possible. It’s a cemented mindset that doesn’t allow for experimentation and exploration.

This is not a suggestion to be gullible, just more flexible. It may stretch your thinking to include and benefit by that which can’t be proven.

All the best,

John

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The Grasshopper woke me up with a question and an answer this morning. He asked: “What’s on the other side of fear?” And then he answered his own question when he said, “Opportunity.”

How often have we heard that America is the land of opportunity? Did you ever stop and think why that opinion is so accurate? One reason is because people who have successfully seized opportunity had to move through fear to get it.

Look at any business truck you see on the highway. The owner of that business, large or small, at one time took a risk that had them move past fear into the land of opportunity.

Everything we want is on the other side of fear. Read that sentence again and let the message sink in.

Every excuse we own is on this side of fear; opportunity is on the other side.

The grass IS greener on the other side. Opportunity is the verdant field we all claim we want. The question we have to ask is: Are we willing to jump the fence to get there?” Fear is the fence that separates us from opportunity.

Is “look before you leap” an excuse or is it a precaution? It depends. If you are always saying it, it’s probably an excuse – a pat answer to anything that challenges you. It’s a precaution when you have made plans to accept the challenge. It helps you carefully plan a way to get to the other side. But even when all the plans are in place, we have to act in order to get to the other side of fear.

Fear keeps us from the land of opportunity.

You don’t need to take my word for it that this notion contains truth. Just look at your own situation and validate it for yourself.

Once again I’m reminded of what my 4^th Grade teacher said, “You can have what you want or your reasons why not.”

Fear is loaded with reasons why not; opportunity only has options. The only question left to ask yourself is: Am I going to select the option to move through my fear?

Once armed with this knowledge, you can never complain about not having the opportunities you want. They’re available to you and me on the other side.

I’ll leave you with a memorable line from the movie, THE TOWN: “I’ll see you again – this side or the other.”

All the best,

John

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If you live in Vermont or Passaic, New Jersey, my apologies; you may not yet be able to appreciate my thoughts on rain.

Rain is nature’s cleanser. It washes away things that weren’t intended to stay. You know that unmistakable smell that’s left when the garbage truck leaks on your local road? Rain takes that away.

But what about our ability to make rain – tears?

Tears wash away the smelly thoughts that are stuck in our head. It’s human nature’s rain.

We have been conditioned not to cry – men more than women, and what a sad thing that is.

We often fight our natural inclination to cry and pay the price in pent up thoughts that keep us sad.

Tears are emotional rain and as human beings we are experiencing a drought.

There is such a thing as a good cry and we would be well served to allow ourselves the opportunity to have one more often.

I’m not going to logically convince you that this is an effective method for cleaning out some upsetting thoughts. It takes personal experience to validate the theory. And as my late teacher, Dr. Dave Dobson said, “Theory is bullshit and defending your theory is bullshit squared.” So, don’t take my word for it; validate it for yourself. You may just find that personal rain can alleviate your pain.

All the best,

John

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What are the Top 10 things that keep you from doing what you want to do?

1. FEAR
2. MONEY
3. TALENT
4. OTHER PEOPLE
5. AGE
6. LACK OF CONNECTIONS
7. LACK OF EDUCATION
8. INERTIA
9. PRIOR COMMITMENTS
10. LACK OF PASSION

I just listed my 10 reasons that keep me from having all that I want. My guess is your list would have many similar things on it.

“But they’re facts,” you say. Here’s my question: How come we never let facts get in the way when we do go for what we really want?

Reminds me of a story . . .

When I was 17 years old I went to work for my father in the summer. He was a construction foreman and he got me a job as a laborer – the most physically demanding job I’ve ever had. One day I was cleaning up a room after the bricklayers had built the walls. There were scaffolds to take down, extra cinderblocks to be removed and a thorough cleaning of the room, which included scraping of hardened cement from the concrete floors. Apparently when they had poured this concrete floor they didn’t completely smooth it properly and there was a small section of unsmoothed concrete sticking up. I went at it with my scraper attempting to remove it. I was hitting it with all the strength I had and it wasn’t coming up as easily as the hardened cement did. The labor foreman came by and I demonstrated the difficult time I was having removing the extra concrete. He watched for a fashion and then said, “Give me that scraper boy.” He got it to come up in less than a minute. He handed me back the scraper and taught me one of the major lessons in my life when he said, “You gotta’ want to do it.”

When you really want to do something, facts rarely get in the way.

When we assert that we can’t do something, we make it more solid than the concrete I was attempting to remove. Yes, there are such things as physical impossibilities, but they are rarely the things we cite when we give reasons for not having what we want. I’m reminded of my 4^th Grade teacher, Miss Wagner who told us, “You can have what you want or your reasons why not.”

This isn’t a pep talk; it’s more of a suggestion to self inspect our reasons and notice that too many of them are just excuses.

Once we begin to notice how many of our excuses are masquerading as facts, we find that our top 10 list gets whittled down, making more things possible.

It’s easy to compile a list; it’s harder to inspect that list and find out how many things are possible that we have labeled out of our reach.

This inspection exercise provides great benefit but like the man said, “You gotta’ want to do it.”

All the best,

John

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We exist. We really had no say in the matter about our existence. One day we just recognized that we existed and living began.

Living is noticing and taking advantage of your existence.

“I exist” is the foundational piece to living.

“I’m here, now what?” is the main question that starts us living. I’ve found that we have to ask it more than once.

There are many times in our lives that we find ourselves not living. We just plow through existence and call it a life. The recognition of not living is a stepping stone towards living.

Please don’t confuse living with having. Living is a feeling that can be felt but can’t be described; having is having a lot of words to describe how to get to a feeling. “If I only had ___________, then I would feel alive.”

The feelings from having are shallow; the feelings from living have incredible depth.

A question that brings you back to living is: What makes me feel alive?

What stokes the aliveness within you? What makes you feel like you’re more than moving through life? That’s a question worth reflecting on each night before retiring and each morning upon awakening.

We slip into periods of unaware existence where we just go through the moves. When you get the recognition that you are just existing, you have to ask yourself, “Who did the recognizing?” It was the aliveness in you wanting to come out to play.

Living is feeling alive again.

We all get the blues and without them we wouldn’t have an appreciation for the times “we’re in the pink.” But bouts of the blues, left unchecked, can lead to existing. Certainly, fully feel the pain that’s associated with your blue state and seek help if necessary, but at some point it’s helpful to recognize that the way out is lighted by what makes you feel alive.

Getting back to living is the purpose of existence. The first step on the way there is to notice that you are just existing.

Feeling alive is living life to its fullest. Take advantage of your existence and find out what makes you feel alive. That’s living!

All the best,

John

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What is the purpose of management? The simple answer is to manage – People or things.

Let’s stick with the tricky task of managing people. I spent a number of years formally managing people and I did it well and I did it poorly. What I found was that the difference between my success and failure came down to how I approached the people.

The situations where I failed miserably happened when I treated the people like employees; in the successful cases, I treated them like people.

My management style was the same in both cases but my approach was different.

When I was managing poorly, I remember wondering why I couldn’t get the people to buy in to the mission. I immediately made it their fault. It took some reflection to notice that the fault was mine.

Poor management has a top down feel to it – I’m the boss, you’re the employee, we have a job to do, so let’s get it done.

Good management has an invisible hierarchy – You know who’s the boss; you know who’s the employee; you know the job that needs to be done, and it gets done without blatantly implying the managerial structure.

People can feel when you are treating them like people, and they feel differently when they are being viewed as employees.

My basic tenant of management is this: If people think you have their best interest at heart, they will work diligently for you, and sometimes you will hear comments like: “You are/were the best boss I’ve ever had.”

But even if you have peoples’ best interest at heart, you will fail if you view them as employees. That’s when you hear all sorts of nasty comments about your role as the boss.

The difference between the two approaches seems to come down to the difference between the words “assessing” and “judging.” When you are assessing peoples’ skills as a manager, you are in a more fact based mode discerning their strengths and weaknesses. When you are in judgement mode, your assessments carry more weight – and that weight can be felt by the people you are managing.

Judgement adds lots of baggage to the facts. It seems the more judging we do, the more people feel like employees. When we set our judements aside and assess only the facts, our units will feel more like a family.

My experience is that judgements get in the way of managing effectively. It’s not likely you will like everyone you manage, but you’ll manage more effectively if you follow the old biblical verse, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”

All the best,

John

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