The Hourly Choice

"It is the change from apathy to enthusiasm, from indifference to exciting participation; it is an astonishing personality change which sensitizes the spirit, erases dullness and infuses the individual with a powerful motivation that activates enthusiasm and never allows it to run down."

-Norman Vincent Peale 

So many people go about life half-in.  They are living part-time lives being excited in the lime light, but depressed at home.  Being motivated in convenience, but reverting to comfort in struggle.  In order to achieve anything resembling greatness we need to be consistent, in the morning and at night, with others or alone.  So many people allow the day and circumstances to determine their attitude, when attitude is something that comes from within. A good attitude has the potential to make or break your entire future.  It is positive mentalities that push you on negative days.  Knowing this, it is very very important what kind of mentalities you surround yourself with.  One of our business coaches often says, "Give me your five best friends, and I can tell you who you are without ever meeting you."  That alone should tell you how important association is on your life.

Let me give you an example.  We went down to Portland for a long weekend, just the three of us.  I was at a conference one of the days, while Marcus was hanging out with our little man. The car ended up breaking down, leaving the two guys stranded in a parking lot about 5 miles from where I was.  Determined to be of help, I took a bus across town to find them.  When I arrived, I took our sweet boy while Marcus fixed the car.  In this moment, I had a decision.  You see, I was in business clothes and heels, walking around an unfamiliar city, trying to navigate an uncharted bus system.  I got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a mile by foot.  This could have ruined my day, made me irritable and unpleasant to be around.  Instead, I looked at it as an adventure.  I laughed through it and took away an extra concern Marcus would need to spend on us.  He had been working for hours and had grease covering him from head to toe, meanwhile juggling our three-month-old.  If I arrived in all fury and frustration, that would have increased Marcus' stress and made for a terrible end to a big weekend.  Instead, we extended our weekend, limped the car to a hotel and spent the extra day exploring an island while the car was fixed.  

Marcus told me a week or two later that my response helped him more than anything else I could have done.  This was one of the biggest learning experiences I could have had, because more often than not, I don't act with the enthusiasm I should.  That weekend I learned my responsibility as a wife and a person.  This responsibility is to be enthusiastic and optimistic, not just in the easy times, but in the hard ones too.  Because we are strong people learning to become stronger.  This is an amazing thing.  But having strength means we have influence.  And this influence means we have a decision with what to do with it.  This is not to say that you, or I, will make the right decision all the time.  But enthusiasm is an every day, sometimes hourly, choice.  And this choice has the potential of creating or destroying, loving or discouraging, and consuming or producing.  Fight to make the right choice.

-"For everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." -Luke 12:48