Destined or Determined?

Image courtesy of Scott Liddell

A sky-diving instructor was asked, “How many successful jumps must a student make before he or she can become certified?”

He answered, “All of them!”

Sky diving, however, is the exception. Is your life built on a series of successes? Do you usually attempt something new and immediately succeed, then succeed again and again? Or more likely, do you find that it is the other way around?

Our successes are often built on smaller failures. We fell off the bike a few times before we learned to ride. And we produced a few culinary failures before we baked a successful layered cake or prepared a satisfactory omelet.

Tom Hopkins observes, “The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.” And Winston Churchill stated, “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” They both agree that discouragement, rather than failure, is the enemy of success. Those who can remain hopeful and focused, though they fail, are those who will eventually succeed.

In all, Emily Dickinson is said to have written nearly eighteen hundred poems. Though fewer than a dozen were published in her lifetime and the first volume of her poetry was not published until four years after her death, Dickinson’s success is attributed to the fact that she did not allow discouragement to keep her from her poetry.

As she wrote so beautifully:

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”

Hope … never stops. Where would we be today had Emily Dickinson lost her enthusiasm for writing? Though largely unrecognized, she kept her desire alive and we now remember her as one of the great poets of all time.

It’s good to remember that success may be just beyond the next failure, and you’ll get there, not because you’re destined to, but because you’re determined to.

-- Steve Goodier

"LIKE US" on Facebook and get a powerful quote every day on your FaceBook page. 

SHARE this message on Facebook

When You're in the Cement Mixer

Image courtesy of Nathan Bauer

Did you ever have a day like this? A man, cleaning one of those big cement trucks, got caught in the mixer. He climbed into the back of the truck with a hose to flush out remaining cement when his hose caught on a lever and pulled it to the “on” position. Suddenly, he found himself going round and round in the mixer with no way to escape. Slipping, sliding and banging around inside, all he could do was shout for help.

Fortunately, another worker came over and shut it off. In moments a bruised man, covered with wet concrete, emerged from the mixer. It reminds me of some days I’ve had. You know what I mean.

If you ever feel as if you are being knocked about by life, think about the amazing bird called the Water Ouzel. I can’t imagine this water bird knows what it is to have a bad day. The little creature is often found living next to violent waterfalls and fast-rushing rivers. And however threatening the weather, however cold the water, in snow and rain and even blazing summer sun, the tough and cheerful Water Ouzel can be heard chirping and singing. What’s more, while the voices of most songbirds, however melodious in warm weather, fall silent over long winter months, the hearty Water Ouzel sings on through all seasons and every kind of storm. I have to wonder: does this little creature know something I don’t?

It’s as if the bird knows that every violent storm will eventually give way to sunshine; every dark night will finally fade into dawn. And isn’t it true? Even our bleakest and stormiest times do not last forever. Like the poor man buffeted about in the cement mixer, there is almost always an end to the turmoil.

As the incredible humanitarian novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe said, “When you get in a tight place and everything goes against you, until it seems as if you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time when the tide will turn.” I have had that experience more times than I can remember.

Maybe this is one of those days you feel as if you are in the cement mixer. If so, do you need to hold on a little longer?

-- Steve Goodier

"LIKE US"on Facebook and get a powerful quote every day on your FaceBook page.

SHAREthis message on Facebook.

Not Yet Quitting Time

Image by Sherman Yang

Newspapers once reported about a young Taiwanese man who wrote 700 love letters to his girlfriend over two years. That’s a letter almost every day. And I’m not talking about e-mail. Seven hundred hand-written letters that included folding, licking, stamping, addressing and sending. Seven hundred letters that proclaimed his feelings toward her. Many that even tried to persuade her to accept his marriage proposal.

Two years of correspondence finally got results. She announced her engagement...to the postal worker who delivered all those letters. Of course, it makes sense. She saw HIM every day. Maybe it was lucky for the mail carrier that her boyfriend didn’t give up too soon.

There may be a time to give up, and her boyfriend might have missed some good opportunities to step out of his apparently one-sided relationship. Sometimes it just makes sense to quit trying and move on to something else. Anyone who has been in a destructive relationship or a high-stress job that has taken a personal toll knows what I am talking about.

But there are also times when we need to persist – to keep trying. My experience tells me that quitting too soon is the greater problem. And the reason is simple: it’s usually easier to give something up than to stay with it.

My kids often wanted to give up music lessons. I encouraged them not to quit too early. “Stay with the lessons,” I told them. They did, and were later glad of it. I have spoken with many adults who said to me, “I used to take music lessons when I was a child. I regret the fact that I quit too soon. I wish I knew how to play the piano today.” I have never talked with an adult who said, “I took music lessons when I was a child. I regret the fact that I didn’t quit sooner.”

Of course, it’s not about music lessons...it’s about knowing, when things are rough, whether to keep going or to throw it in. How many books were never written because someone quit too soon? How many relationships died prematurely and how many dreams never bore fruit because someone gave them up?

There are good times to leave a job, to move on to a new relationship or to quit pounding on the same old nail that just won’t budge. But too often, I’ve given in to the temptation to quit too early. I didn’t stick around long enough to see what might happen if I persevered just a bit longer.

Dr. Albert Einstein once commented, “I think and think for months and years.” Can you imagine staying with a problem that long? “Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false,” he continued. “The hundredth time I am right.”

I don’t think that Albert Einstein had the problem of quitting too early. “It's not that I'm so smart,” he famously said, “it's just that I stay with problems longer.” He understood the value of not giving up too soon – and that alone shows how smart he really was.

I’ll never begin to understand the physics of the universe like Dr. Einstein, but it doesn’t take a genius to know when it’s not yet time to quit. Success is often just the result of staying with problems a little longer. And even I can do that.

-- Steve Goodier


Share this on FaceBook orTwitter or your favorite blog / Read more / Post a comment!

Do You Know a Hero?

Not every Marine is a hero. During field training exercises at Parris Island, South Carolina, one drill instructor threw a pine cone among the recruits and yelled, “Grenade!” The trainees immediately turned away and hit the ground. “Just as I suspected,” chided the drill instructor. “Not a hero among you! Didn’t anyone want to jump on that grenade to save the others?”

A little later the instructor tossed another pine cone and yelled, “Grenade!” This time, all the recruits but one jumped on the “explosive.”

“Why are you still standing there?” the DI demanded.

“Sir,” the recruit replied, “someone had to live to tell about it.”

Not everyone is a hero. But then, not every hero jumps on grenades, pulls terrified children from burning buildings, or wears an impressive uniform.

Do you know a hero? I am not asking you to simply name a favorite celebrity. There is a difference.

Do you know a hero? I think perhaps you do. Heroes, you see, can be found in some of the most unexpected places. I knew a young mother who was slowly dying of cancer, yet she put aside her pain long enough every day to smile and laugh with her children. She tried hard every day to bring sunshine into the gloomy hospital room when her family was present. And I watched her husband fill the roles of single parent and financial provider, and still spend every remaining moment sitting at his mate’s bedside, valiantly encouraging and offering whatever hope he could muster.

I knew a talented teacher who could have worked at a far more lucrative profession, yet was determined to stay in a disadvantaged school in the hope that she could make a difference in a difficult situation. She did it for her students.

I’ve known other heroes, too.

You may have noticed – many of the world’s true heroes will never be confused with action figures. Most have never been to battle, competed athletically nor sung in a pop band. But they have faced nearly impossible challenges with unimaginable determination and courage. They found what it takes to bear the unbearable, forgive the unforgivable, love the unlovable, outlast the unendurable or defeat the undefeatable. And often they do it for the sake of others.

Do you know a hero? Maybe one lives in your home. And perhaps one even looks back at you from the mirror. For it is in everyday battles of the spirit that true wars are fought and won. And it is those real-life heroes who give the rest of us hope and remind us that anything is possible.

Do you know a hero? I think you do.

-- Steve Goodier

freeimages.com/Ben Smith

The Magical Effect

American President John Quincy Adams once said, “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” Have you ever witnessed the magical effect of patience and perseverance?

One North Carolina church wanted to purchase some property. The church regularly suffered from high tide flooding. But when the church was originally built, they couldn't afford better property.

As the story is told, they finally decided to relocate to higher ground. An ideal lot was empty - actually the highest ground in town. It belonged to a man named Sam Sadler. Officials from the church went to see Mr. Sadler about selling the property. He politely told them it wasn't for sale; that he had other plans for the land. They persisted, but still he refused.

The congregants were disappointed. Mr. Sadler's land seemed the perfect location. Eventually, they decided on another piece of property and began building.

But a strange thing happened on September 16, 1876, the eve of the dedication of the new church. One of the worst coastal floods in memory struck the town. As water rose, so did the church building. It left its temporary home and floated down main street, turned a corner and eventually settled on the highest spot in town - the empty lot owned by Sam Sadler.

Mr. Sadler gave in. He allowed the building to stay and, because of the remarkable turn of events, they chose a new name: Providence. Today, if you were to ask how Providence United Methodist Church of Swanquarter, North Carolina came to acquire its land, someone may relate to you what Sam Sadler said about the transaction: “I guess if the good Lord couldn't move me to give the land to the church, he would move the church to the land.”

Even John Quincy Adams might have been amazed at the “magical effect” before which the church’s obstacles disappeared.

I believe it was basketball great Michael Jordan who said, “If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work your way around it.”

It’s about patience and perseverance. (And it can’t hurt to have a little faith.)

-- Steve Goodier


Image: flickr.com/Jimmy Emerson