It’s All About the “Why”…

10 Life Lessons on How to Find Your Why NOW & Achieve Ultimate Success
- John Di Lemme 

Lesson #4

Yes, you read it right. It is all about the WHY! A strong enough Why will pull you through every situation and will make you a true conqueror and victor in every occasion. It will lift you far above the average. It makes you go where others stop. It pulls you through the swamps of life when others get stuck, lost or drown.

I can almost hear what many readers are thinking… “Is this it? How can these words bring all the lofty promises you just made? How can it be that simple? This sounds too simple to be true.” 

I agree that it’s simple, but it’s not too simple to be true. In fact, I’ve learned that most of life’s secrets of success are simple. Too often false intellectualism makes things too complicated to ever succeed. Yes, it’s simply all about the Why.

The Miracle Inside

You’re Why is your biggest, most significant, result-creating force in life! Goals are great, but a Why separates a goal-setter from a goal-achiever and a person that truly changes people’s lives. Another way of looking at your Why in life is to think of it as your ultimate reason or purpose for living.

Your Why makes all the difference in your life. It separates you from the crowd. A strong Why will not only make you get up in the morning, but it will make you happy, passionate and want to live your life to the fullest!

My goal is for you to “Find Your Why.” Discover that driving force inside of you and feed it with the right words, the right people, the right books, the right motivation and the right inspirational messages. If you do that, then the force – your Why – will emerge and drive you to success. Do you realize that you have a miracle inside you? We just have to extract it and enable you to fly. As I say, you’ve got to Find Your Why and Fly!

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Duty – Honor – Country

In God We Still Trust
- Dr. Richard G. Lee 

In his farewell speech to Corps of Cadets at West Point, General Douglas MacArthur gave a moving tribute to the ideals that inspire the great American soldier. For as long as other Americans serve their country courageously and honorably, his words will live on. The following excerpt from May 1962 is one small paragraph of his famous speech:

Duty – Honor – Country

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training – sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in His own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him. However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

-Douglas MacArthur  

The Purpose of Proverbs

The Message Bible
Proverbs 1: 1-33 

These are the wise sayings of Solomon, David’s son, Israel’s king –
Written down so we’ll know how to live well and right,
to understand what life means and where it’s going;
A manual for living,
for learning what’s right and just and fair;
To teach the inexperienced the ropes
and give our young people a grasp on reality.
There’s something here also for seasoned men and women,
still a thing or two for the experienced to learn -
Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate,
the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.

Start With God

Start with God — the first step in learning is bowing down to God;
only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;
never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.
Wear their counsel like flowers in your hair,
like rings on your fingers.
Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,
don’t go along with them.
If they say — “Let’s go out and raise some hell.
Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.
Let’s pick them clean
and get them ready for their funerals.
We’ll load up on top-quality loot.
We’ll haul it home by the truckload.
Join us for the time of your life!
With us, it’s share and share alike!” –
Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;
don’t listen to them for a minute.
They’re racing to a very bad end,
hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.
Nobody robs a bank
with everyone watching.
Yet that’s what these people are doing – they’re doing themselves in.
When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:
the more you get, the less you are.

Lady Wisdom

Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
At the town center she makes her speech.
in the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
At the busiest corner she calls out:

“Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?
Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?
Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?
About face! I can revise your life.
Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you;
I’m ready to tell you all I know.
As it is, I’ve called, but you’ve turned a deaf ear;
I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve ignored me.

 Since you laugh at my counsel
and make a joke of my advice,
How can I take you seriously?
I’ll turn the tables and joke about your troubles!
What if the roof falls in,
and your whole life goes to pieces?
What if catastrophe strikes and there’s nothing
to show for your life but rubble and ashes?
You’ll need me then. You’ll call for me, but don’t expect
an answer.
No matter how hard you look, you won’t find me.

Because you hated Knowledge
and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-God,
Because you wouldn’t take my advice
and brushed aside all my offers to train you,
Well, you’ve made your bed – now lie in it;
you wanted your own way – now, how do you like it?
Don’t you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots?
Carelessness kills; complacency is murder.
First pay attention to me, and then relax.
Now you can take it easy — you’re in good hands.”

When we don’t keep our word…

Living Beyond Your Feelings
- Joyce Meyer 

The Bible says in Psalm 1:1 that we are not to take counsel from the ungodly. I believe that taking advice from our feelings fits into that category and is a big mistake. Feelings are simply fickle; they change frequently and you just can’t trust them. We can hear a good speaker talk about the volunteers needed at church and be so moved that we sign up to help, but that doesn’t mean we will feel like showing up when it is our turn to work. If we sign up and then don’t show up because we just don’t feel like it, we become people without integrity and our actions don’t honor God. This is a huge problem in our society today, and I believe it weighs much heavier on the inner person than we realize. When we don’t keep our word, we know it isn’t right. And no matter how many excuses we make, it sits in our consciences like a weight. We may make an excuse for it, but it’s like sweeping dirt under the carpet. It’s still there, and if we do it often enough, the dirt becomes impossible to hide.

If we desire to walk after the Spirit, all our actions must be governed by principles. In the realm of the Spirit there is a precise standard of right and wrong, and how we feel does not alter that standard. If doing the right thing requires a yes from us, then it must be yes whether we feel excited or discouraged. If it is no, then it is no. A principled life is enormously different from an emotional life. When an emotional person feels thrilled or happy, he may undertake what he ordinarily knows is unreasonable and unwise. But when he feels cold and emotionless or melancholy, he will not fulfill his duty because his feelings refuse to cooperate. All who desire to be truly spiritual must conduct themselves daily according to godly principles.

We should always count the cost to see if we have what it takes to finish a thing before we begin it. If we begin and find we cannot finish, then we definitely need to communicate openly and honestly with all parties involved. Even if you have to call someone and say, “I committed to that without really thinking about it properly, and now I find I cannot complete it,” that is much better than just trying to ignore a commitment simply because you don’t feel like fulfilling it. Our emotions will help us commit, but anyone who finishes always comes to a place where she has to press on without feelings to support her.

The Generative Power of Words: The Gettysburg Address

Selling the Invisible
- Harry Beckwith 

The battlefield was not a testament to heroism. It was an ugly health hazard – a field of corposes that deeply concerned Pennsylvania’s governor.

Nor was that corpse-strewn field a monument to greatness. The North’s general, Meade, had so bungled the battle, leaving Lee to regroup, that he submitted his resignation to President Lincoln. But Meade’s opponent, Lee, had done no better, marching blindy into slaughter – a blunder so great that he submitted his resignation, too.

The battlefield was Gettysburg, and no one – aside from the people who teach American history or those who have read Garry Wills’s Lincoln at Gettysburg – sees Gettysburg as it was. Instead, they see Gettysburg as a symbol of heroism and a testament to people’s commitment to their beliefs.

The enormous gulf between the perception of Gettysburg and the reality can be explained in 276 words: the Gettysburg Address. With one deft speech, Lincoln changed almost everything – including our view of the Declaration of Independence and the view of millions of Americans living then and now.

Lincoln’s address vividly demonstrates the generative power of words: the power of words not simply to describe reality, but to create it. Our perception of Gettysburg has become the reality, just as our perceptions are changed by words every day.

With six ingenious words – “We’re Number Two, we try harder” – Avis changed reality in the car rental business. With “when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight,” Federal Express swallowed up an enormous share of the overnight delivery business. With “the personal computer,” Apple Computer got computers into homes and accelerated a revolution in civilization. Later, with two words, “desktop publishing,” Apple created a concept that made the purchase of the “home” computer not merely tolerable to corporations, but desireable.

In the invisible world of services, where precious little can be shown and everything must be described, words are the ultimate weapons. Hollow and lazy words generate hollow and lazy responses – if any. Active, fresh, powerful words can do more than merely describe reality. Like Lincoln’s words, words can change, shape, and even create reality.

Be Patient

The Confident Woman Devotional
- Joyce Meyer 

Can you really think of anyone who is an expert at something who does not practice and prepare? I can’t. A concert pianist practices, a world-class gymnast practices, a dancer practices. All of that practice and preparation builds confidence in the individual.

Moses had a call on his life to deliver the Israelites from bondage where they were being held captive in Egypt. He wanted to get started right away, but as he did, he killed an Egyptian and was forced to flee from Egypt for many years. Taking action without God’s permission showed clearly that Moses was not ready yet. He had zeal but no knowledge. He was emotional but not prepared. God led him into the wilderness where he remained for forty years being prepared by God for the job ahead of him.

When God gives us a job to do, we often think it will be easy to accomplish. However, most things are harder than you ever thought they would be, they take longer than you ever thought you could endure, but they also pay greater dividends than you could ever imagine.

Lord, help me to persevere as You continue to prepare and equip me for the job You have for me. Lead me and shape my character to glorify You. Amen

A Landscape of 3rd Alternatives

The 3rd Alternative
- Stephen Covey 

If I have that synergistic mentality, I will think beyond the facile 2 Alternatives. I also know that getting to synergy involves, as Peter Corning says, “rigorous, disciplined, even tedious work. It runs against the grain of a hip-shooting, quick-and-dirty culture that is addicted to technological innovation, ready or not.” I have to pay the price for a 3rd Alternative.

The hip-shooters are always busy shooting each other down. Radical environmentalists in New York City rage against “big-money capitalism” that, in their view, has turned New York Harbor into a marine desert through insane urban expansion fed by greed. Insensitive business types gape back at them, asking, “What do you expect us to do? Demolish Manhattan? Give it back to the Indians?” Neither group has the respect for others, the empathy, or the discipline to move toward synergy.

But if they could couple zeal for the environment with entrepreneurial know-how, they might come up with some amazing 3rd Alternatives. A walking model of synergy is Natalie Jeremijenko, an Australian environmental activist who wants to transform New York City into an urban ecoparadise – without demolishing it. A student of aerospace engineering, biochemistry, neuroscience, and physics, Jeremijenko brings insights from all of these disciplines together in small projects designed to make a big difference.

Over the years, New York Harbor has been devastated by pollution from the great city. Much has been done to isolate the harbor from the sewage system, but when it rains, the streets shed into the water vast quantities of cadmium, neurotoxins like spilled gas and diesel fuel, and dust from millions of automobile brakes. Short of tearing out all the asphalt in New York, there’s no way to stop this – unless you’re Natalie Jeremijenko.

Her idea is to plant a small garden around each fire hydrant in the city. The plants would filter the toxic load out of storm water in the gutters and dot the cit with little spots of beauty. The rare emergency vehicle that parks there would only flatten a few plants, which would recover. How could this make a difference? When you realize that New York has about a quarter million fire hydrants, the tiny gardens in every block could add up to a lot of filtering.

Jeremijenko has also designed a solar chimney that vents warm air from a building, passing the air through a filter that removes carbon from CO2. Her chimneys could capture 80 to 90 percent of the CO2 pouring from tens of thousands of New York buildings. And the carbon black can be used to make pencils!

Take Back Today

Make Today Count
- John C. Maxwell 

Have you ever noticed that the people who have nothing to do usually want to spend their time with you? Poet Carl Sandburg said, “Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.”

Your greatest possession is the twenty-four hours you have directly ahead of you. How will you spend it? Will you give in to pressure or focus on priorities? Will you allow pointless e-mails, unimportant tasks, telemarketers, interruptions, and other distractions to consume your day? Or will you take complete responsibility for how you spend your time, take control of the things you can, and make today yours? If you don’t decide how your day will be spent, someone else will.

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The Wall of Fear is Not Real…

You Can’t Afford The Luxury of a Negative Thought
- Peter McWilliams 

Fear as a barrier is an illusion. We have, however, been trained to treat this illusion as though it were real. This belief served us well in our childhood years. Our parents taught us to be afraid of everything new. This was – at that time – good advice. We were too young to know the difference between the legitimately dangerous and the merely exciting.

When we grew old enough to know the difference, however, no one ever taught us to take risks, explore new territories, and treat fear as energy for doing and learning new things. Fear as a reason not to do should be tucked away with all those other cozy childhood myths – the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Prince Charming…

If fear is not a wall, what is it? It’s a feeling, that’s all. It will not (cannot) keep you from physically moving toward something unless you let it. It may act up and it may kick and scream. It may make your stomach feel like the butterfly cage at the zoo. But it cannot stop you. You stop you.

The fear of meeting people for example, is a particularly silly fear. Given that it’s in a place where they’re not going to slug you…the worst that  can happen is that someone will reject you. You are left with rejection. If you don’t try, however, you have rejected yourself, and are left with exactly the same thing as if you had tried and failed – nothing.

If you do try, however, you may get what you want!

Even if you get rejected, you’ll learn more from the experience than if you had never tried. You may learn, for example, that certain ways of approaching certain people in certain situations work better than others. We can learn as much (sometimes more) by what doesn’t work as by what does. If we don’t explore all the ways that really do and don’t work, we are left with only the untested techniques from our imagination and what seems to work in movies. Anything that’s worth having is worth asking for. Some say yes and some say no.

To overcome a fear, here’s all you have to do: realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway. Move – physically – in the direction of what you want. Expect the fear to get worse. It will. After you do several times the thing you fear, the fear will be less. Eventually, it goes away.

Learn to Become a Leader…

The 3rd Alternative
- Stephen Covey 

The 3rd alternative in education is to learn to become a leader.

Let me quickly say that I don’t define a “leader” as one of the few who end up in big leadership positions. We are too used to thinking of leaders as people with titles like CEO or president. This view of leadership is an artifact of the Industrial Age, and we are long past that kind of hierarchical thinking. I am talking about the ability to lead your own life, to be a leader among your friends, to be a leader in your own family – to be the active, creative force of your own world.

True leaders define and achieve enduring success by developing character and competence and taking principled action; they don’t wait for others to define it for them. Because they see themselves as uniquely gifted, they compete against no one but themselves. In economic terms, they are the only providers of what they provide, so they can auction their talents to the highest bidder. These leaders create their own future. With time and circumstances, they might fall short of a goal, but they never actually fail.

For a child educated to be this kind of leader, success comes from the inside out, not from the outside in. From the outside comes only a lesser, secondary sort of success, rewards like good grades and academic notoriety in the short term and big money or an impressive title later on. People fight over these scarcer successes. But from the inside comes primary success, feeling good about yourself, discovering what you’re good at, the rewards of respect for others and self, deep satisfaction from making a unique and creative contribution, of honest, upright service. These richer rewards are available to anyone. No one competes for them, though naturally they often bring secondary success with them.