The Ordinary Impact

Everything has a beginning.  Everyone has an origin story .  When we understand it, things begin to make sense.  As we reflect, we begin to see (and hopefully understand) why. Why are we here? Why did this thing, event, success, tragedy, obstacle, celebration happen? Why? What happened? (Including the main characters/people involved) What choice was made? (Including my reaction/decision and where it took me.) There are more positive things that happen in life than maybe we realize on a day-to-day basis. Our story is bigger than just us. Much bigger. Even though there are problems that occur in our story, it will eventually turn out okay. The obstacles we encounter help us grow and eventually succeed in the future. The people we encounter (even the negative ones) help us understand how to live life (and how not to live life). Everything we experience helps create a bigger picture and potentially a greater success. Too often we think of the why a...

I’ve heard people say that life should be lived unapologetically. People should be unapologetically themselves. “Be unapologetically you.” Thinking about that piece of advice (or lifestyle choice), I can’t help but wonder if that is true? As I think it through, I feel the need to dispel the misconceptions: It does not mean that a person can do whatever they want to another person without the need for an apology. It does not mean that a person should live a life without concern for the well-being of the world around them (and the people within that world). It does not mean that a person should be content to live a life in a manner that is less than what they are capable. I have seen, all too often, people choose to follow a trend or try to fit into the crowd rather than living their life. I have seen women choose to be subservient because the “social norms” of their region of the country pressured them. I have seen diverse groups of people made to feel far inferior because...

In a previous post (July 12, 2018), I wrote about  The Butler Way   which consists of five principles of the  Butler Bulldogs  basketball team. (Note: Brad Stevens, former coach and current coach of the  Boston Celtics , added a sixth principle to the list.) These principles have been credited for Butler achieving above expectations on the basketball court, but they also could have the ability to guide the lives of individuals who desire growth off the basketball court. The second principle from The Butler Way  is passion. Most people define passion as a    strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something . Butler defines people who live with passion as individuals who refuse to be lukewarm and who commit themselves to excellence . To be fully invested to an idea or task, while committing to excellence seems more fitting to the word passion then just a strong feeling or excitement for something. A ...

I remember sitting in the passenger seat, while my friend talked to me about performance and value. He eloquently explained that society helps us believe that our performance equals our value, but that thought is inherently wrong (and most definitely problematic). As I listened to him intently, his words clicked with me. I think I had believed this idea for a long time; but as he weaved his narrative around the idea, I passionately grasped onto his message. Performance does not equal value. That sounds crazy. It sounds backwards.  Businesses, organizations, churches, even friends seem to put a premium on performance. If a person’s performance isn’t up to the arbitrary line (set by whoever decides the arbitrary performance line), then the person/employee/friend ceases to be valuable. There’s a problem in believing that performance equals value: it doesn’t account for the fact that every human has value regardless of their performance. All too often people (and people g...

Recently, I listened to a podcast entitled  Work Life  with  Adam Grant . He focused on the issue of having too many people on a team trying to be the star rather than those same individuals trying to make the team more successful. The main illustration for his point was the  Butler Basketball Team  and their former coach  Brad Stevens . The Butler Bulldogs employ principles that they call The Butler Way , and the more I thought about each of the principles, the more I thought that each of them can make an impact as much off the basketball court as on the basketball court. The first principle is  humility   and even though it seems like a simple principle to live out, many people neglect it without a thought. The Butler Way describes humility as knowing who we are - strengths and weaknesses . People who act out of place of humility understand their limits. They also work to fit within their role on the team because their desire is...

There are so many places in Colorado I like to visit, but the  Garden of the Gods  is one of my favorites. From the feeling of the air on my skin to the majestic views, it is truly an invigorating “garden”. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a garden as much as the Garden of the Gods. However, I can’t help but think that the gods took the easy way out when displaying their gardening skills. It’s as if they thought, “we don’t have a green thumb so let’s take these rocks and call it a garden.” Then I think about how we compare what we do to the achievements of others. Comparison can be a motivator for excellence; yet, all too often, comparison becomes a barrier to achievement. Rather than allowing the greatness we see and experience to inspire us to be the best we can be, we allow the thought “I could never do that” to creep into our mind. We read the words of authors and get convinced that our words don’t compare. We hear about someone’s life experiences...

In March 2014, I chose to give up food for Lent . Anything that I could chew and digest I did not consume from Monday to Saturday every week. (On Sunday, I would eat something light with a community of people as an opportunity to connect and refuel for the coming week.) I’m not Catholic, but I value self-discipline and I’m interested in what my body and mind can accomplish when focused on a goal. (I might add that there’s a fine line between being focused and being crazy, and I flirted with that line almost every day. Actually, I’m sure people who know me best think that I flirt with that line with every goal I strive to achieve.) When I set the goal, I was determined to go without eating for the entire period of Lent (March 5-April 17). It should be noted that merely ten days later, I chose to use Sunday as a time to lightly eat - to “ break bread ”, if you will - with friends and family in order to add an element of community to my journey (and to not end up in the hospital...

We’ve all heard the phrase “ never put off until tomorrow what you can do today ,” yet all of us are guilty of, at least a little, procrastination.  We can even find excuses to procrastinate: “We’re just waiting for the right moment.” “You cannot rush creativity.” “Huh? I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. You meant today?” (Said by every teenager at some point, right?) The point of this post is not to bash procrastination. (I’m sure it can be useful, at times.) This post is focused specifically on the downside of one of the biggest procrastination blunders in Major League Baseball history and how we can learn from it. Please permit some baseball history: On December 2, 1991, the New York Mets made Bobby Bonilla the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball, when he signed a five-year, $29 million contract. His production began to fade so he was traded, in 1995, and in the following years bounced to a couple more teams before being tr...