Tag Archives: Always Forward

The Need for Mental Toughness

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I’ve been meaning to write about this for several days, but travels and school demands have kept me at bay the last couple of weeks.  This is regarding something I got to experience the weekend prior at my son’s first baseball tournament of the season.  It has to do with guts and mental toughness.  Down in Georgia, we get the baseball and softball seasons going early.  Practice for travel teams usually kicks off full time after the first of the year, with the first tournaments by late February to early March.  My son’s travel team, South East Baseball, played its first tournament the weekend before last in temperatures that were clearly not baseball weather.  As his coach said, there’s a reason Spring Training is in Florida.

Anyway, we were out at the ballpark for many hours on Saturday and Sunday.  For us parents, it was ridiculous cold.  It felt unnatural to be there with my winter coat, sock hat, hand-warmers, gloves, etc.  But while us parents were there freezing our tails off, our boys were out there playing as if the cold didn’t phase them.  Game after game, they would take the field and play there best and won game after game.  By day two and championship play, the temperature and wind chill tanked.  Yet, our guys were still out there staging an awesome come-back to win the tournament and be the only undefeated team in our brackets.  These boys didn’t wine, they did not come looking for their hoodies, they just got out there and played their best.  It was fun to watch the character of these guys and their mental toughness to just gut it out and finish the tournament.   They had their eyes on the goal and stayed fired up to finish what they set out to do.

The other day, I ran across a quote from Bill Russell, which said, “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins to victory.”  That’s exactly what I saw on display.  These boys concentrated and had the mental toughness to finish and drive to victory.  I believe this holds true with anything in life, not just in a baseball tournament.  In life we are constantly facing obstacles in pursuit of our goals.  It may not be the cold weather, but could be any number of things that can try to slow you down.  In order to obtain that goal and victory, requires mental toughness and concentration.  Know what it is you want, set your mind on that goal and go for it.

God’s Word tells us over and over to not fear and to be strong and courageous.  This requires mental toughness to continue driving forward.  As I’ve said before, Always Forward and never back.  Know what it is you want to achieve and set your mind and actions in motion to achieve that goal.  Your character shows when you set your actions in motion toward a goal.  If you let things slow you down, such as the cold at this tournament, you will find it very difficult to succeed.  Keep driving with the mental toughness to succeed and you will.

What’s Your Excuse?!?!?

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Yesterday, I was a at a big meeting that was capped off by a motivational speaker.  Some of you may have heard of him.  His name is Erik Weihenmayer.  If you have not heard of him, go to www.touchthetop.com to learn a little more about him.  Erik is a truly phenomenal speaker with a great story of overcoming serious adversity to do amazing.  What is his adversity, you may ask?  Erik is blind.  Blinded after a rare eye disease hit him in college.  Okay, you may think great.  What is even more amazing though, is the things this guy does.  First, he climbed Mt. Everest (yes blind), he goes kayaking, and a number of other amazing adventures.  For the purposes of the meeting, a key message he had was the importance of the team he has behind him.  I will touch on that in my next post.  The other big message that I got was, what’s our excuse for not doing anything?  This guy climbs mountains, along with others with disabilities, including one guy who is a paraplegic, and another that is a double amputee in his legs and others.  It was truly inspiring to see the wonderful things he has done in his life and not letting the setback of going blind run his life.

Hearing his story reminded me of another I guy I had heard about a couple of month’s back named, Sean Stephenson.  He was featured in December’s issue of Success Magazine.  Sean suffers from brittle bone disease, and at age 33 has suffered over 200 fractures.  Despite all of this, Sean is a guy who does not let anything keep him back and has become very successful as an author, motivational speaker, and more.  He’s a guy who does not let things hold him back.  Listening to his interview from that magazine issue was pretty awesome as well.

Both of these guys made me reflect on myself and everyone around me.  We all come through life and meet different levels of adversity.  Things that seem like a brick wall trying to keep us from unleashing who we are meant to be, or at least it may seem like it.  I have learned from my experiences, and from these two stories that any adversity set before us can also be significant strength builders to becoming who we are truly meant to be.  We have to let ourselves hear what that is and not be consumed in the pity party saying poor me.  Albert Schweitzer said, “One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”  Those moments of adversity are those moments when our metal is truly tested.  We are meant to find out who we really are and how we can overcome that adversity and use it to our advantage.  Erik Weihenmayer and Sean Stephenson certainly did.

So I ask you, what’s your excuse?  If you are stuck in that mode of I just can’t get ahead.  I can’t find opportunity.  I can’t reach my goals.  What’s your excuse.  Truth be told, there is not excuse.  You have to find it in yourself to pick yourself up and drive forward.  To leap over that obstacle in your way to find the opportunity, to get ahead, to reach your goals, and come alive.  I have said time again that we all have a purpose under God.  He has a special purpose for each one of us.  That adversity is a significant part of that purpose.  Live, learn, and continue to drive forward and grow.  I say again, what’s your excuse?  If you let adversity hold you back, you will always find yourself falling behind.  Getup and climb.  Use adversity as a source of strength and you will be stronger than ever before.

Gotta Keep Swinging!

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I love baseball!  As a dad, I have had the pleasure of watching my boy play baseball and my daughter now plays softball.  Over the past 8 years I have also been able to coach each of my kids either as an assistant or head coach.  I was thrown into that mix my boys first year of playing and it just stayed with me til now.  This is the first year, I am not coaching in some time, which is awesome.  I actually get to sit back and enjoy the games.  My oldest, no longer plays baseball, but rather is now into archery.  My other son, competes at a high level in travel, with hopes of playing professionally and my daughter, now plays competitively in travel softball, and also hopes to play professionally.  It is a true joy to see all of my kids do things they enjoy and excel at what they do.

Aside from my kids playing I still love the game of baseball and love to watch the Braves play each year.  Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training next week and they’ll be underway for another season.  Baseball is one of those games where each day and each game can bring you something completely different.  You may have a phenomenal game one day and the very next, nothing seems to right.  It’s a lot like life in that sense.  Each day brings you new challenges that are often completely different from the day prior.  For any ball player, the challenge can be how to deal with those games that seem to not go your.  With my kids, I know they have had plenty of those.  But what they learned is that, they just have to push those tough games aside and keep right on going.

Hank Aaron, the real Home Run King, said, “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”  This is the approach that we should all take.  You have to keep swinging.  You cannot let a down day keep you back.  You have to keep right on and keep moving.  In baseball, or softball for that matter, gotta be fair to my daughter, if you strikeout, you cannot let that keep you down.  Get back up and go again the next time around.  When coaching my kids, I always told them that even the best players strikeout.  In life, even the best and most successful fall from time to time or have those down times and believe me, for most of them, they had to earn their way there through trials and difficulties.

Gotta keep swinging.  It’s so simple, but such a real part of life.  There are so many sports analogies that could be used I guess, but I love this one.  There’s always another opportunity to do better and to hit that line drive in the gap or blast one out.  There also, always another opportunity to reach your goals.  Set your mind toward it, keep swinging and until you drive it out of the park.  If you fall, get back up and do it again.  Now play ball and keep shooting for those dreams.

 

What Will You Create to Make the World AWESOME?!?!?!

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I know many of you probably have seen this, but I just had to share this video.  This kid is such a trip, but the message he delivers is so real.  It speaks right to the reality of life in the need for us to get out there and create.  By creating we drive forward with making the world awesome.  We all have something to contribute somewhere by our own God given talents and abilities.  The thing is whether we choose to stand back do nothing or we choose to take advantage of those abilities and do something meaningful, purposeful, and awesome.

“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It’s not always easy, but if we let ourselves go forward and pursue that greatness and unleash our talents to create, then my friends,we have come alive.  I choose to live and I choose to create.  What will do you?

Creating a Trail

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When I was growing up, I spent a great deal of time playing with the woods with my brothers and our friends from around the neighborhood.  We would spend our time building forts and carving trails through the woods for riding our bikes.  We would spend day after day working on these trails and forts and exploring new areas of the woods around where we lived.  I know today this concept has not died out on my kids and they like to hang out with their friends carving out trails through the woods and building forts.  Seems to be a trend here.

I reflected on this today as I continue my work toward my doctoral research and completing my proposal and dissertation.  After a discussion with my mentor last night, I began to reflect further on the direction I am taking with my research.  One of the goals of doctoral research is to contribute new knowledge to the literature and carve out a new way of looking the research topic in a way that can have an impact on scholars and on leadership.  I began to really reflect on my study in trying to figure out what would be the most impacting approach to my research.

Now, you are probably asking yourself, what does carving out trails in the woods as a kid and my research have to do with each other?  It’s simple.  The ultimate goal of my research is to carve out a new trail.  Not to reinvent the wheel and do something that others have done in the path.  To forge a new way of looking at things in a way that can have a real world impact.  As a kid, we did not constantly build the same trail over and over again.  No, we built new ones.  We created!  This same holds true in my research.  My goal is to create a new pathway.

Earl Nightingale said that, “Instead of competing, all we have to do is create.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson said,”Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”  These quotes hold true to all parts of life.  In my everyday research, I am striving to build a strong pathway built on extensive research to go somewhere completely new.  In my life, I also strive to break the mold and cave out a new trail for the way I live my life.  It is a matter of striving for goals I set for myself and not sitting back and waiting for someone to tell me what is the path I should take.

I have written time again about seeking God’s path for our lives.  In this path, each one of us has a unique calling to His purpose.  It is up to us to forge ahead and build that pathway to seek out that purpose that is before us.  Each day, our walk takes on down a new road in life.  We are in essence already creating  a pathway and leaving that newly carved trail behind us.  This is when we have decide if the pathway we take is one that is safe with a trail already carved out, or if we are forging ahead to build our own trail.  Decide if you want to be trail carver or if you want to follow trails already built by others.  We are all given an opportunity to carve our own way and not let others define what your are or who you are.  Choose to create and go after the dreams and goals you set for yourself and achieve your God given purpose.

Answering the Call

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Throughout life we encounter times where we begin to question the path we have taken.  Our jobs may make us miserable, we may have lost someone close to us, or tensions and bickering with family and friends may lead you to shut yourself off from people.  It could be anything in life.  Something negative infiltrates and it takes a toll on the path you continue to make.  These negative circumstances may have dictated you to think that life is more or less pointless and that our choices and decisions are meaningless.  Through my own life, I have had my times where things seemed to not be going as I had planned and even times where I thought it did not matter what kind of effort I put into my life, because it was pointless.

Life takes us on whirlwind journey where our experiences along the way can have a significant impact on the type of person we become.  I firmly believe that God has a calling for each of us.  If we are engaged in Him, then we can begin to hear where He is calling us.  We have to choose whether we, ourselves are drawn in to what He is calling us to do or if we choose to be indifferent.  In a sermon yesterday, the message was that God’s purpose for us all hangs in the balance of whether we are drawn in or indifferent to Him.  Far too many of us are indifferent to this call even if we don’t realize it.  This indifference goes a long way to prevent us from hearing the call to serve and do what it is God called us to do.

Jesus said in John 15:16 “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.”  Jesus is telling us that we have been called by Him.  We were not placed here by our own choice, but rather because it was God’s will.  He placed each of us here for a purpose.  Each of us, as His children is called to move down a path that is meant for the purpose of God’s glory.  Psalm 39:7 says “And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.”  We must learn to place our hope in God as He is the one who will help us find out what our path is meant to be here during our time on Earth.

With this said, we have a significant duty before us.  In order to come alive, we have to choose to answer the call by being drawn in and not being indifferent to the call.  I have been building to this point to answer my call to service of others and helping people learn to unleash themselves through the 4 Pillars of life.  Seeking God’s call for us through our faith is of the utmost importance for all of us.  All of our calls our different.  We are each meant to glorify God in different ways.  Learning to recognize this as God unveils it is very powerful.  My challenge to every one this week and going forward to open yourself to hear the calling that is before you.  Immerse yourself in the Word and in prayer and God will reveal this path to your full purpose.  Doing this will place you on that path to come alive.

I know there may be some hesitancy when you realize that calling.  Especially if it is something that is completely different from what it is you have been used to.  My path to 4 Pillar Living is so different from my years of work and educational experience.  You may also encounter those naysayers that say you are barking up the wrong tree and wasting your time.  Let me tell you something.  There is absolutely nothing wasteful about answering the call, no matter how different it may be.  You will have critics and you will have those moments where it may not seem worthwhile.  That’s when you know you are on the right path.  You are getting push back because the adversary does not want your to succeed.  That’s when it is time to dig in further, remember, Always Forward, and continue that pursuit.  Answer the Call and don’t relent.

A Lifetime of Doors

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We have all heard the saying that when one door closes, another one opens.  I posted a quote on the 4 Pillar Living Facebook page from Alexander Graham Bell that said “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.”  Our lives are filled with doors of opportunity at which we are left with the daunting of decision of stepping through or passing by.  When we reach those challenging moments in life where a door closes, as Alexander Graham Bell mentioned, people often times stair at the closed door and don’t look forward to the new ones.  A example of this is going through a layoff.  I have been there before.  For me, it was right after my second child was born and on my wife’s birthday of all days.  That was a difficult time, but I knew that at that moment, I had the opportunity before me to do something better.  I could sit and sulk or bust my tail to open the next door, which I did.

These doors opportunities start when we are kids as well.  As a parent, I want to help my children be able to crash through those doors and make the most of every opportunity that’s presented to them.  We have taught all three of them that they have to set their mind to what it is they want in life and then take the steps to achieve that goal.  They also know that through each door of opportunity that comes their way, is another opportunity to do great things and further glorify God in how they tackle those opportunities.  As adults, I want my children to always be able to understand that they can have whatever it is in life they set their mind to do, if God wills it.  If they continue to seek Him, He will show the doors that are meant to be opened in life.

I bring my children up as an example of how doors of opportunity continue to come our way.  I have a son with passions to be a chef, another that plays competitive travel baseball with desires to play professionally, and my daughter plays competitive travel softball with desires to play professionally as well.  Each of them has before them several doors they can take as kids and teenagers that can lead them toward their goals or lead them away toward other areas of life, good or bad.  This is the same throughout all of life.  We can either crash through the doors of opportunity or sit back and let fears, doubts, and temptations take us through alternating doors.

Now, you may think, I have heard a lot of this before.  This is true.  These same things I am talking about are lessons many of us have received from our parents or others we have looked up to in life.  The problem that may of us have, however is that when we come to these doors of opportunity, we either shy away, or when we open them, we step through very timidly.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”  These are our golden opportunities to stare that fear down and come crashing through those doors.  Don’t open them with fear, even if it is totally new and unknown territory.  I have said that few times in this blog.  Crash through those doors.  Have confidence in yourself that you can make the most of the opportunity ahead.  People who excel in life take the challenge that is before them.  Learn from each door and always press forward through the next one.

 

Always Forward…Never Back!!!

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Always Forward!  This was the motto used by my Basic Training Battalion in the Army.  We had to use this motto in place of saying thank you and many other things.  It was ingrained into us as a part of everyday speak.  Hearing the sermon at church this weekend, this term came back into my scope.  What this term mean to you when you hear it?  To me it is a very strong phrase for how we need to approach life and everything we encounter in life.  Some have trouble with this concept when they come across obstacles in life that may seem to slow down their progress through life or push them backwards.  The saying that we have all heard is that we take one step forward and then two steps back.  With this type of mentality in life it makes it very difficult to get through anything or even seeing the light at the end of the tunnel that awaits.

Always Forward!  This is such a powerful statement for life.  It was applicable to me as a soldier in that we always sought to drive forward. In life, I believe it is imperative that we do the same.  No matter what obstacles face us we have to continue to drive forward to finish whatever it is we started.  The pastor also called it having the grit to finish.  In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.”  Paul is referring to the struggles he has gone through in spreading the Good News about Jesus Christ.  Despite the pain and struggles he went through, Paul was steadfast in remaining faithful to Christ and his mission to spread the Good News.  The reward for finishing the race is lies ahead of us.  In verse 8 Paul said, “And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.”

Throughout our life, whether it is in our faith, our family, our work, or our everyday encounters, we come across obstacles that will try to keep us back.  Paul was steadfast in that despite the suffering, he remained faithful to his cause.  He did not back down. When we face our obstacles in life, no matter how difficult it may see, we have to do the same.  We need to have the grit to stay the course we are on and finish.  You have to remove those negative impulses you have that may pull you off course.  You need to have the grit to finish and remain Always Forward.

I have gone through a great deal of challenges in life.  Right now, as I have mentioned before, I am working on completing my Doctorate in Business Administration.  I have come a long way in this course.  Several times, even to now, I have days where I wonder if I can finish this pathway I started.  Something always comes back to remind me just how far I have come and that I need to have the guts to sweat it out and make it to the end.

George Whitfield said, “Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.”  This adds more truths.  If we take too much time to linger, then we can find ourselves stuck and not able to press forward.  We cannot wallow in the struggles of now.  You have to always know that there are brighter days at the end if you will but press through.  This is when it also becomes imperative to fix our thoughts on the positive and not let the negative hold us back.  Philippians 4:8 says, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”  Earl Nightingale expressed that “We become what we think about.”  There is an underlying truth here.  If we fix our minds on what is positive in life, things are excellent and worthy of praise, we then can find the strength to finish the race.

With all of the challenges that life can throw your way, you can choose to make a stand and not let then keep you from your goals.  Maybe your goals are for stronger faith, stronger marriage, or anything else.  Always know that you can get through to accomplish those goals.  Stay close to God and prayer and tell yourself to remain…Always Forward!