When Least Expected™

Don’t Give Up

January 11th, 2007 at 11:30pm Manchild

“Don’t Give Up” is the title of my self-portrait and the screen saver on my cellular phone. On day 11 of 2007, let’s take a moment to congratulate our resilient team of diligent men women, and children for getting up, showing up, and refusing to give up 11 days in a row. It’s difficult to discipline ourselves to do what we already know we need to do the same way everyday. Getting up, showing up and doing the basics and the fundamentals life requires of us on a daily basis before we can expect to excel and succeed isn’t easy especially when we don’t feel like doing it. The sooner each of us exercises our free will to accept the basic fundamental fact that “life is difficult,” the sooner each of us will begin within the heart of our gifted soul to do what’s required to beat impossible odds with God’s help. Oncologist is the word of the day.

Playing organized sports taught me about the importance of mastering the “fundamentals.” But it’s the basics I learned during my military training while serving our country in the United States Air Force that taught me how to master the life skills I needed to excel and succeed under extreme pressure. The invaluable skills acquired at such a critical stage of my development made it possible for a person with great weaknesses like mine to believe I could achieve the great things I’ve accomplished thus far. But don’t get it twisted. I’m still not on the same iconic level as philanthropists, Mr. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and author of Business @ the Speed of Thought and world-renowned neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson, author of Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence and Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. Many of our peers haven’t reached that level yet and probably won’t if that’s not God’s will for our lives. But I’m willing to try. Aren’t you? If time permits, read the book, I Can’t Accept Not Trying: Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence, by author and basketball icon Michael Jordan.

Quick question. When was the last time you stepped inside your secret place and asked God to reveal His will for your life? Be forewarned. If you’re still not ready to hear the truth, ask God anyway. The answer may surprise you. How many of you are still challenging yourselves to reach out and help mentor the rest of our teammates? How many of you care enough to share what made it possible for you to survive during those dark days and lonely nights you endured after the fall you experienced? Imagine how many great men, women and children God has gifted you with the privilege to inspire as they struggle to learn the same character-building lessons you did when it was your turn to sit in the crucible of Adversity’s refining fire? Did you like what you discovered about the co-dependent enemy still comfortably sitting in the seat of your soul? I didn’t. Still don’t. Nobody does. As you now know, it’s takes a lot of courage to deal with the excess baggage still weighing us down and keeping us from climbing higher in 2007.

Let me, therefore, personally thank each of you for agreeing to help each other dig deep enough to clean up the clutter we hid in our closets in 2006. Hopefully, you didn’t get bored standing around waiting for somebody else to challenge you to dig deeper inside the heart of your gifted soul. If you did, please take the time to find out why you failed to challenge yourself especially since so many of our teammates depended on you to help us achieve great things as we walked together in peace and worked together for good for the past 11 days. Over the years, I’ve learned that most people who get bored easily depend too heavily on somebody else to make their lives exciting and fulfilling. When’s the last time you made yourself laugh, the last time you did something exciting by yourself, the last time you did something as basic and as fundamental as reading a new book and learning a new skill?

Reading the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Mr. Stephen R. Covey will reveal the 7th habit that will enable us to discover God’s will for our lives. How many New Year’s resolutions did you make and break already because you failed to do the basics like getting up and showing up or forgot how to do some fundamental things? How many of you feel like giving up because you’re always in a hurry looking for a quick fix or a shortcut that will give you more time to do what’s fun, easy or pleasing? No wonder the power of the same perplexing bad habits we struggled to overcome in 2006 are suddenly starting to hinder our ability to excel and succeed in 2007. Matters not what happens after we take the next step. Don’t quit. Don’t give up.

As always, the choice to keep fighting the power of the same self-defeating habits you’ve been repeating for too long until you conquer it for the first time during the first 2 weeks of this “year of firsts” is yours alone to make. Matters not how long it takes. Don’t give up. Don’t quit, give up or commit suicide before testing your faith in God until you learn to trust the Way Maker absent any reservations. Are you beginning to see the reasons why so humbled many great women and men of vision agreed to reach one and teach one until each one of us masters the fundamentals and the basics that will enable each of us to achieve great things? I hope so. May the peace of God be with you until we meet again. In the meantime, please don’t forget what you’ve already learned about yourself as we endeavor to “keep risin’ after every fall.”

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