I don’t know anybody who relishes getting up in the morning to attack the day in hopes of achieving a mediocre outcome. But that happens in the lives of too many people.
They lumber out of bed, prepare for the day with a quick stop by their favorite coffee joint in a mindless routine of preparing to simply endure another day. Pandemic notwithstanding, too many people behave as though they’re extras in The Walking Dead TV series.
We all have a philosophy – a way we approach our life. It includes how we see the world and our place in it. This isn’t some static view uninfluenced by age, experience, knowledge or our surroundings (including the people who surround us). It’s this constantly moving, shifting, organic thing, but it’s likely got some foundations that may not be quite as portable. Think of it as a room in your house – a fixed space – but within that room, there’s plenty of variations in how the future can be arranged.
Much of that foundation is based on our values, convictions, and beliefs. Not just about ourselves, but about others. And yes, perhaps about God. This also includes how we view success. It’s what matters to us. Largely comprised of what matters most to us!
Talk with 100 random people about these things and I’d wager you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a couple who could clearly articulate their life philosophy. Many of us are simply too busy, too stuck and too distracted to give it the thought and action it deserves.
Today, let’s try to change that, even if it’s just slightly. Maybe it’s time – or past time – for you to consider YOURSELF as a limited resource. What you choose to do with yourself is entirely up to you. Nobody else. You get to write your own story in spite of the fact that you may be deceived into thinking others are writing it for you. That only happens when you allow others to craft your story.
Step 1 – Don’t let them. 
Before you can begin to leverage your own power to invest in yourself and train yourself to become better – you must assume responsibility for your own life.
If you’re prone to think of yourself as a victim then may I suggest you invest in some books aimed at helping people overcome such delusions. Talk with somebody. Seek out a professional mental health expert. Do whatever you must do to correct the damaging notion that you’re where you are because somebody (or a group of somebodies) have done this to you. Find whatever resources you can – and don’t stop until you find them – that can help you understand that you’ve got much more power than you think. Until you reach that place, your life will won’t improve because you’re failing to take ownership of your own story.
I’m a notebook freak. I love great notebooks. I’ve got them all around me, almost all the time.
Since I was a child I enjoyed writing things down. Making notes. Capturing quotes. Jotting down words or phrases. Titles of books. Or songs. Just getting things out of my head onto paper is something special for me. I can’t fully explain it.
Through the years I’ve started new notebooks thousands of times. There’s nothing quite like unwrapping the cellophane wrapping of a brand new notebook, one unmarred by anybody. No writing on any page. It’s my new notebook. I can write what I please when I please. When I was a kid I’d write my name in the front. And maybe the date. Or I might write a heading on a page in anticipation of what might follow. The great thing about it…I could do it however it suited me at the time.
Sometimes I’ve begun notebooks thinking I’d use this particular notebook just for a specific purpose....