Skip to main content

Making You Proud



I recently heard an interesting definition of success: “Living a life that would make your 18-year-old self proud of who you’ve become.”

At 18 years old, our entire adult lives are ahead of us. We have (probably) recently escaped high school and are eager, if not even a little fearful, to begin the next chapter of our life. Maybe we were applying to colleges or trying to get our first “real” job. We hadn’t yet been jaded by the dead-end nine-to-five job nor had we been corrupted by the pressure and politics surrounding many careers. We were naïve and full up hopes and dreams. We were probably better at seeing the world for how we wanted it to be than how it actually was. Many of us had grand plans for our futures.

How has that played out for you? While my life has certainly not taken the course I thought it might and even hoped it would, I can say there were many wonderful surprise twists and turns that took my life on a better course than I had ever imagined. However, in light of the definition above, I must ask myself, “Are those blessings in my life because of me or in spite of me?”

I have thought about myself as an old man, looking back at my life and weighing my choices and efforts, but I have not often thought about how the innocent, wide eyed, 18 year-old-version of myself would view those same things. It’s a new perspective to consider. Would he be frustrated with the opportunities I’ve wasted over the last 20 years or be grateful for the ones of which I took advantage? Would he look at me and think, “That is the man I want to become!”? I hope to live in such a way that the young man I once was, peering into the future, would be thrilled to age into the man I have become. Looks like I’ve got some work to do, how about you?

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i...
1 comment
Read more