Nothing the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain and difficulty. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.-Theodore Roosevelt-
A coworker of mine has a joke that she likes to tell every year during the last week of December. When asked if she has any New Year’s resolutions she’ll quip, “Yeah, the same one I make and achieve every year: to make no resolutions”. Admittedly, it’s a good joke and it sure does get some laughs from our customers and vendors, it also serves as a good counter-point to today’s quote.
As I mentioned yesterday, I can only hope to accomplish 10 or 12 of the 30 resolutions that I had made for myself on the day that I turned 30. I told this to the men’s Bible study I am a part of on Wednesday night and received unexpected applause. “That’s a failing grade,” I contested, honestly wanting some sympathy instead of congratulations. My friend Brian quickly replied, “Yeah, but you’d be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
There is a temptation to set more easily attainable resolutions and goals for the coming year in the hopes of boosting our stats and morale. Unfortunately two losses happen when we set resolutions that are too small for us. The first is that those accomplishments will seem petty to our us and we will not value them nor be enriched by achieving them. The second is that easy resolutions will also seem petty to the people in our lives: our fans, critics, and co-laborers. Petty achievements will do nothing but cause disappointment in the hearts of our spectators; those who stand outside the stage of our lives, watching what transpires, hoping, on some level, to be inspired to greatness of their own by what they are witnessing.
So, dream big and carry a big stick, my friends.
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