Consistency will get you there.

Doing something once in a while, or in short bursts and then stopping, will not get you to mastery.

What have you mastered?  Chances are you did it consistently for a long time.

What do you want to master now?  Do you want it bad enough to do it every day for a long time?

Nice people go farther

“Of all the qualities of an exemplary mind, few can rival simply being kind.” – Dr. Mardy Groethe

Did you ever know someone who was brilliant, but a jerk?  How about people who had good intentions but just came across as harsh or insensitive?

People who are kind have lots of others who do not resist their ideas and are willing to go along with them.

Is that you?

Bothered enough to change it?

“It is only through a wholesome discontent with things as they are that we ever try to make them any better.” Susan B. Anthony

Everything around us is there because someone was unhappy enough with its absence or with what came before it to change it.

We all complain about things, but what are you bothered with enough to take action and change?

Keep Learning – Stay Sharp

School is not the only place to learn things.

People who are lifelong learners, and make it a habit to learn something every day, are the ones who will succeed over the rest.

Research shows dementia went down significantly in people who are always learning new things.

This makes sense – if we don’t use our body, it gets smaller, loses its capacity, and goes away. 

If we don’t use our minds, they lose their capacity, get smaller, and go away. 

What are you reading, studying, and learning about now?

Tell me with the orange button!

Why people fail – "short-termism"

When people only think about today, when next month comes, it won’t be so good.

When people only think about what they can get from others today, those people will not be around then tomorrow.

When people think mainly about their own comfort and entertainment today, they will have nothing tomorrow.

When people consume all their income today, tomorrow they will be broke.

When people optimize their days for today, they build nothing for their future.

You can look at someone’s situation and age today (or your own), and understand if they have been thinking long-term or short-term in the past.

The ability to delay gratification is central to thinking long-term or short-term.

Of course, if you are in a crisis, you are thinking short-term.  But if you are always thinking short term, you will have far more crises.

How about you?  Are you doing the things today so that you can be healthier, happier and live more prosperously down the road?

HONOR – part 5

“Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he has not been caught.” – H. L. Mencken

This means that YOU know, even when others don’t, and YOU are the most important one who needs to be satisfied that you are honorable.

There are a few other dimensions of honor I’d like to put out there.  I think integrity is part of honor.  That your words and actions match, even when nobody knows all your actions but you.

Another dimension is to be a person that strives to live up into your potential.  While we can never live to our full potential because it is infinite, a person that gives up, one who is not serving others, or a person that is wasting their life, is not honorable to me.  Honor takes effort.

Another idea I want to express is that it’s never too late to begin living honorably, no matter what we have done in the past.  Start.  You are the one who really knows, and you are the one it should matter the most to.

“The man who makes a promise he does not intend to keep, and does not try to keep, should rightly be adjudged to have forfeited in some degree what should be every man’s most precious possession – his honor. – Theodore Roosevelt

Lastly, I leave you with this – 

“On the whole, it is better to deserve honors and not have them, than to have them and not deserve them. – Mark Twain

May we all live honorably.

HONOR – Part 4

“Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left, we can never return.” Nicholas Boileau

This implies that honor is a part of our reputation, and once we ruin it with a dishonorable act, it is very difficult to get it back.

“All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.” -Andrew Carnegie

…oh wow.  True.  No one else can take your honor away.

“What doth it profit a nation if it gains the whole world, but lose its honor?” – Frederick Douglas

If we become prosperous but lose our honor because we cheated or betrayed people along the way, we can not be happy or truly content with ourselves.

We’ll finish our discussion about honor tomorrow.  See you then!

HONOR – Part 3

Continuing with our discussion about being an honorable person, I know that when people feel you are honorable they treat you better, trust you, and give you opportunities.

A person who is honorable is someone…

-who believes in fairness and fair play and will not bend the rules of ethics or break them in order to secure an advantage or put an opponent at a disadvantage.  

-who will not cheat in cards, golf, school, marriage, business, and in other important areas of life – and if they do cheat they forfeit the right to apply the term honorable to themselves.

-who holds the concept of honor in such high regard that they will not subject to perversion by enabling, supporting, celebrating or paying homage to anyone who is clearly acting in a dishonorable way.

This last one should help us be more independent rather than completely identifying with or supporting someone who has some good qualities while also having significant character flaws.

How do you self-assess with these three standards?

Well continue our conversation on honor tomorrow.

HONOR – part 2

Some may think they have honor in their group, but their group is doing dishonorable things.

We’ll continue with a definition of honorable people.  They are those…

-who try to listen to “the better angles” of our nature (as Abraham Lincoln said), not the baser darker instincts.

-who is respectful of the rights and sensibilities of others, and will not attempt to use or manipulate people for selfish or devious purposes.

-who fights hard for cors beliefs, but fights fair and views adversaries and opponents as fellow human beings, not enemies to be demonized.

-who stands up for the less fortunate, especially when their lives are being made even more difficult by others.

How do we stand up against these four traits of honor?

We’ll talk more about honor tomorrow…

HONOR

For the next few posts I want to talk about honor.  I think honor is important for us and in the world.  When I was in Scouting I recited the Scout Oath that begins with “On my honor…”

Let me be the first to say that I have done dishonorable things in my life, and felt the shame, if at times only to myself, and learned from them.  This is part of learning.  You learn the stove is hot by touching it.  You learn the boundaries of good character by getting too close or crossing them.  

But hopefully, we recognize our mistakes and learn, mature, and become better people.

Honor implies principled uprightness of character and a worthy adherence to a strict moral and ethical code.

I will borrow from a collection of ideas on the subject by writer and teacher Dr. Mardy Grothe, whom I have been a student for many years.

A person of honor is a person…

-who is not careless with the truth or the reality of things.

-who has a moral compass and guides his or her life by it.

-who attempts to live life on the heights and not in the gutter.

-who can be trusted to keep a secret, a confidence, or a commitment.

We’ll stop there for today.  But think about yourself, and how you embody these aspects of honor.

Talk to you tomorrow!