Someone (meaning I have no idea where this quote originated) once said “It’s easiest to ride a horse in the direction it is going.” Change is never easy. Never has been. For every one person who ever sought to facilitate change there were 100 people eager to resist it.
Although we have little control over much of what happens around us, it is we who choose from that list of options as to how we react to what happens around us. We can choose to change and adapt or we can choose to cling to the past as the world changes around us.
We can choose to be elevated by the people and experiences around us or we can choose to be degraded by them. The value of choosing to be elevated can not be overstated.
It sounds too simple but it’s true. Filling some of life’s most basic needs provides life’s greatest happiness. For instance, good health, a rewarding job, a safe neighborhood and a comfortable place to call home. Add to that list a future for our kids that is bright and ripe with opportunity and overall life seems pretty good. Wouldn’t you agree?
So at what point did it become so difficult to achieve these relatively modest goals? Well, it happened at precisely the tipping point of where too many Americans forgot one of those critical realities of life.
Be careful what you wish for….because you just might get it.
Some wished that high school students could be paid to attend class in Cincinnati Ohio. They got it. But be careful, such is not the case in countries where students excel in math and science because the parents are still in charge.
Let me be the first to wish you and your loved ones a very happy and healthy 2013. We know it will be here in 362 days. 2012 will blow past us just as fast as 2011 did, and we won’t get a chance to do it over again.
People rightfully talk about the value of hindsight. True, nothing like the rearview mirror of hindsight unearths the woulda, coulda, shouldas of life’s missed opportunities. So let’s jump ahead to the end of 2012 for a moment and use a little “pre-hindsight” to look backwards into the coming year.
The first thing I see is that the rewards of 2012 went to those who worked, not wished for what they wanted. Hard work perennially favors those who relish most deeply the opportunity of America, and 2012 was no exception.
To all of those who sacrificed their lives at Pearl Harbor, to their families, and to service men and women around the world today defending our way of life…..THANK YOU. - Billy the Coach
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
These were the first words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt announcing the attack by Japanese forces on U.S military facilities at Pearl Harbor. December 7th, 2011 will be the 70th anniversary of this epic event in American history. This historic milestone reminds us how dramatically the world has changed in 70 years, but also how fortunate we are that some things remain the same.
Since the days of Jack LaLane in the 1950′s, the conversation about health and fitness in the United States has centered around a discussion of what we weigh. Weight loss, weight gain, weight plateaus, weight maintenance and so on. Weight loss has become big business, and over the past 50 years many companies have profited handsomely by repeatedly offering hollow solutions to the under-motivated.
But at the same time, an unprecedented and powerful phenomenon is taking place among a small yet growing minority of Americans. Beneath the clamor of tired excuses for why “It’s not my fault,” there is an emerging segment of Americans who see physical fitness as a means of proving to themselves and others that the American spirit is alive and well. For them, the weight is over.
Physical fitness is no longer a requirement for survival. Not for people anyway, who tend to live in industrialized societies. It does, however, remain the case today for the majority of earth’s wild species.
Every citizen of the United States owes a debt of gratitude to the brave team of Navy Seals who carried out the mission of eliminating Osama Bin Laden. As we approach Memorial Day, 2011, we should be reminded that no one does it better than the U. S. military. No one prepares better. No one executes better. And no military force on Earth exists to protect a more noble cause than American freedom.
While skillfully delivering some red, white and blue justice to the front door of the world’s most wanted criminal, the Navy Seals have provided us with a valuable opportunity to consider some intriguing questions.
When the mission was as dangerous and complicated as could be imagined, who was called upon to do the job?
