Skip to main content

No Fair

King County Fair Cancelled Citing Pandemic Uncertainty | Auburn ...

Life isn’t fair. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but the fair only comes once a year and it’s probably going to be canceled anyway.

There is certainly not an even distribution of many important resources. Some folks are smarter than others. Some may have to overcome learning disabilities. Some of us had supportive parents and others may not even know their parents. Some are well-connected, others aren’t. Some had access to a top-notch education, but some barely had an opportunity for a bare-bones high school education.

There never has been and never will be an equal sharing of resources, and much of that is out of our control. But while talents and means are important, they are simply isolated aspects of potential. And potential alone doesn’t mean much. Every lump of coal has the potential to be a diamond, but I don’t see a lot of women wearing coal in their rings and necklaces.


But what you can control is effort. Effort is the great equalizer. Properly applied with intentionality and decisiveness, effort is what causes even small seeds of potential to produce valuable fruit. No, you can’t pick your family, where you were born, the socioeconomic status into which you were born or even your early formal education, but you can always choose the intensity and aim of your effort. And that is where diamonds come from, even if it seems like you are starting with just a lump of coal. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on...

The Art of Intentionality

  “Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make you.” – Richie Norton   I am not even sure who Richie Norton is, but I love that quote! I imagine a ship drifting out to sea, pushed around by the wind and the waves. No course of direction, yet the captain is frustrated when the ship ends up dashed against the rocks, trapped on a sandbar or marooned on an inhospitable island. It is easy to complain when life takes us where we do not want to go. But who is really to blame if we have never set our sails to align us along an appropriate course? Do we blame the waves, wind and the weather? Or should we blame the captain of the ship? It is our life and our ship. We must set our sails with intentionality and determined choices. Otherwise, we are doomed to aimlessly drift along according to the choices and decisions of others. 

Hasty Hares

We live in a world full of hares. People darting from one thing to another. Always looking for a shortcut. Constantly seeking a quick fix. Ever searching for a hack. And more than anything, they want it NOW! Speed seems to have replaced diligent planning and patient determination. It’s all about quick results, immediate feedback and instant gratification. People seem to be less concerned with the direction they are headed than how fast they are moving. They don’t know where they are going – and are quite possibly moving in the wrong direction – but at least they’re making good time! But the pace and aimless effort catches up. They get jaded and burn out. Or they simply end up “lost.” They fail to notice that movement isn’t progress. They don’t consider that sheer velocity, without control and accuracy, is dangerous and destructive. They forget the tortoise wins. Every. Single. Time. “It matters not how slowly you go. It only matters that you do not stop.” – Confucio...