Who Is Your Hero?

In the beginning of each semester in the College Success course I teach I ask the students a question, “Who is a hero that you look up to?”. Some students look quizzically at me so I explain further what I mean. Who do they admire and respect to the point that they would like to be like that person? Often the response is a family member or relative. Some mention historical figures or religious figures. Every now and then a comic book hero comes up. It is an important question as it is helpful as to how we shape our lives. Often a significant person has an effect on how we shape our lives. As we view people or read stories of people of high ethical character, courage, and creativity their stories and life examples can encourage us to improve how we live our lives.

I mention the importance of heroes as I just finished reading the book – The Heroes of Faithfulness by Steve Barckholtz. He is a former Pastor who has followed a career path that he feels God has called him to as a full-time writer. His book is an in-depth look at Hebrews chapter 11. Over the years I have heard many sermons on Sundays about Hebrews 11. Often the messages call the chapter the Bible’s Hall of Fame. The chapter is a listing of many of the famous Biblical cast of characters: Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samson, David and many others that people often look up to from the Old Testament. Is this chapter simply about hero worship of these people?

Steve in his book offers a twist on the often considered thought that this is a chapter concerning the heroes of the faith that we should look up to. He takes the reader through a personal look at each of these biblical characters showing their human failings. He reminds us that they are people just like us not to be worshiped. He then shows though, how God had a unique plan for each of them that was developed not by their own greatness but by their faith in a Faithful God. The book opens the reader’s eyes to the real hero of the chapter. The hero we should be following is God. He is the faithful one who will not disappoint and faithfully be there in our time of need.

Steve Barckholtz, by reminding us to keep our hero eyes on Jesus, we can trust Him to work out God’s plan for each of our lives. The stories that we are reminded of in Hebrews 11 are of people who followed the faithfulness of God with a deep faith and accomplished amazing things for God. Moses a man on the run for murdering an Egyptian became the man who led Israel out of bondage. David started out as a shepherd and youngest of his family but became the great King of Israel. One of my favorites, the story of Joseph who endured abuse and injustice throughout much of his life, was one who would have had every reason to turn his back on God with a chip on his shoulder. Instead Joseph kept his faith in God and was lifted up to a position to preserve Egypt and God’s people Israel during a great time of famine.

I was struck by Steve’s description for the type of faith God desires in our lives. He taps into Jesus’ parable of the Mustard seed in Matthew 13. He reminds the reader what Jesus was getting at, was not to simply stay with faith the size of a small seed but the listener in those times would understand the mustard seed would grow as he describes it, “an outrageously large, wild and unkempt tree.” (page 225). He goes on to say the God does not want us to live with minimal just getting by faith but a faith that is “large, crazy, wild and out of control”. Meaning -- out of our control but living in God’s faithful control. Living out God’s plan for our lives. That is a very challenging thought on how to live our life but it fits well my thinking which has been the basis for my blogging – Living More Than OK. We are meant for living a great life for God.

Reflection: Reflect over who is a hero in your life? What Bible character have you especially connected with in your reading of the Bible? What does it mean to you to have God as your hero? What does it mean to have a large wild and crazy faith?

Career Calling As Being Or Doing?

This is the time of year for graduations from high schools, colleges and universities. It is a time of year when students are moving from their education into looking for jobs and their first career area. Many of them go forward with passion and dreams desiring to move into their calling for their life that they have studied so hard for, be it in the area of healthcare, education, business or some other career area. Many times the lofty dreams run smack dab into the harsh realities of difficulties in the workplace. Or as we see now simply difficult economic times trying to find a job. I was reminded afresh of this time period as we recently watched the movie, This Is Our Time.

The movie looks at the lives of 5 young Christian university graduates full of excitement as to how they plan to shake up the world with their career dreams and their education. The story continues to show instead of seeing their dreams come true shows them running in to difficulties and tragedies of their own making and happenstance occurrences. Knowing this was a Christian movie I was afraid it would be a syrupy and sappy story of showing how everything magically falls into place in life for Christians. This in reality rarely happens. Instead the story delves into a real life possible tragedy that forces the main characters to battle with doubt of where God is at in times of trouble. It also looks at the complexities of their career lives and the subject of having a calling in one’s life.

The mentor for the group of students is a former Professor of theirs who on the subject of calling brings up the idea that following a calling is not just what you are doing in your job, but a matter of being. Who are you in your core values and inner being? With careers, when the subject of calling is discussed it often is looked at from the standpoint of following a particular career path. It is the job that you are “doing”. The Professor was trying to have them look at the inward view of who they were in their core values as a major part of calling. From their standpoints of being Christians, the professor was trying to get across to them whether they were doing sandwich making or missions work in India, were they building up the values of Christ internally in their hearts and minds?

Personally for me I see calling as both doing and being. The doing reminds me the Apostle Paul’s statement in Colossians 3:23 “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men”. All that we do; and of course our work is a doing, we should do with passion as serving God not the boss or supervisor. Then the being side of calling relates in my thinking to another writing of the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:1 & 2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” This moves beyond mere doing as Paul speaks of the transforming of the mindset that affects our core values internally.

The movie, This Is Our Time, has a thoughtful story line that challenges how we use our time on this journey here on earth. It also reminded me to think through how I am following His calling in my personal and work life – the doing and being of life.

Reflection: What comes to mind as you think of life calling? Do you think it is more doing or being?

Learning From Failure On The Road To Success

This semester in my lectures for the College Success course I teach, I presented a new story to inspire the students in their college struggle. It came from the book, From Failure To Promise: An Uncommon Path To Professoriate. It is the life story of Dr. C. Moorer a business professor in the Chicago area. He also is President of Dr. C. Moorer & Associates. It is an organizational foundation that is guided by the thoughts behind this quote -- "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' " Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They offer students and educators scholarships and work on issues related to global poverty.

I shared Dr. Moorer’s story with my college students as it is a story of a young man with dreams of success interrupted by failure. Sad to say over the years I have seen failure derail college students from reaching their dreams. Some of them just give up and that mentality is the basis for much of the statistics concerning people who do not finish their college education. There are not too many people who move from high school to college and then on to business success without any periods of failure in their lives. All of us experience failure at some level. The key is what do we do when we fail? Do we just give up and spiral down into more difficulties or do we rise up and move forward?

Dr. Moorer shares how after high school he left for Engineering School with a dream to be an engineer. His background was that of a good Christian home with supportive parents. Educationally he went to a Magnet School in Detroit and he admits it was in a poor crime ridden area. In the story though the reader understands he had a strong Christian faith that bolstered him and that gratefully came from sincere Christian parents.

He had the passion for engineering and was even given an opportunity to intern at an auto company. Yet he states that he flunked out of GMI Engineering Institute after being placed on suspension. I have been on Suspension committees in the past so I know what he went through. He honestly shares what I have observed in a number of students over the time I have worked at colleges and a university. His public school education had not adequately prepared him for the rigors of an engineering education. There were concerns of his parent’s health as well that weighed on his mind during the semesters that added stress. There is also a statement in the text as he was going into his finals pictures well his fear of failure which is often a self-fulfilling prophecy no matter how hard the student studies in the end.

What was refreshing about his story is he is honest instead of trying to pass blame on a professor or the system. He could have blamed God as he mentions he was praying not to go on suspension. But he did not. That is a testimony of his parents’ faith and the depth of his personal Christian faith. He could have given up and simply went for a menial job or worse with bitterness gone into a spiraling down life of trouble. Of course from the book title we know he did not do that. With faith that God had more for him in life he moved forward. He started at a local community college to retake the courses he failed. This time he had much better success with his grades. He also captured a new passion of Business Management so had a shift in his career direction.

Educationally he finished a Bachelor degree and then moved into success in the Business world. He then finished a MBA degree in Organizational Management. Finally he finished a PhD in Business. By this time his career path had shifted to desiring to be a tenured professor in a Business school. He shares how this came to be as well in the book. When he reaches that point in his life he also begins to have this dream of acting on the quote listed at the beginning by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That dreams is where he presently is focused on helping build up young people who care about the people suffering around the world.

Who would have thought a College flunk –out could have a continual spiraling upwards story such as this? Dr. Moorer is a testimony that when faced with failure one does not need to stay in that state of mind and station in life. For him he kept dreaming and moving forward. The story shows the persistent hard work he put in to keep moving forward. At the same time another key to his success is his steady faith in his God that was a foundation to keep him moving in a positive direction. This is a story if you are an educator that should be shared with as many young people as possible. They need to be aware that failure will come but they need to be aware they can move from failure to success. It is also a powerful story to help anyone dealing with failure to encourage them to keep moving forward with renewed dedication and new dreams.

Reflection – Think over a failure in your past or maybe you are enduring a time of failure presently. What did you learn from the failure experience? How did it change your future? Also take note that Dr. Moorer’s story keeps growing with new dreams and advancements. Is there a new dream that you have that you would like to pursue?

Appreciating Passion for Creativity in Artisans

Whether it is browsing through Chicago street fairs, small towns across America or little family run shops along the Texas/Mexico border I have always enjoyed viewing the creative skill that goes into the crafts of pottery, tapestries, figurines and the like. Possibly because I have zero artistic talent I am often awestruck with the artistry and painstakingly detail found in many art crafts. At art fairs there is opportunity to speak with the artist and hear his or her story of their passion concerning the creative process. When in a store and the crafts are on the shelf one can only wonder about the artisan who did the creating of the craft piece.

What would we hear if we could hear the stories of the artisans being the pieces of arts and crafts in store shelves or street fairs? Travis Whitehead, a newspaper reporter in the Brownsville and Harlingen, Texas area, who I have had the pleasure to know over the past number of years, has used his creativity and storytelling skills to bring to life the stories of artisans. These stories can be found in his first book, Artisans of Michoacan – By Their Hands. (Click on the title to learn how to purchase a copy).

The Artisans he focused in on are from the state of Michoacan in Mexico. He spent years of travel to that area of Mexico getting to know the local artisans interviewing them to hear their stories of their lives and why they followed the career path of being an artisan. He delves into the variety of crafts that can be found throughout that region of Mexico. Some of the craft covered are pottery, weavings of cloth and baskets, lacquer ware, metal crafts and musical instruments. My favorite story came at the end of the book. Since one of my passions is guitars it came to no surprise to me that a story of a guitar maker in the town of Paracho was the most important in my view. Travis showcases the story of Carlos Pina who had been hand making guitars in this small town for the past 43 years. Pina’s pride in making a quality handmade guitar rings throughout the interview. His story shows how his one son is following in the footsteps of his father, as the father Carlos teaches his son the artistic trade of guitar making.

Reading the many stories I saw commonalities come through each of the stories that we all can learn and grow in our own career paths. Each person whether their craft was pottery or weaving had a personal passion for what they were doing. There is no sign that they were weaving simply to just get by. Obviously for them it was their bread and butter economically but they show a deep personal interest in their artistic craft. Because of this personal passion they had a positive sense of pride in their workmanship. Also in most of the stories I saw a desire not to stay stagnant but to continually improve and learn how to do their craft better. This mindset relates well to lifelong learning. It is easy to get into a rut in any kind of work if there is no desire to improve or continue to grow. I saw the growing and improving mindset in each of the stories of the artisans Travis interviewed.

Travis by using his artistic talent of capturing the hearts and passion of the artisans’ stories helps each of us appreciate the work that goes into the arts and crafts we see in stores that sell handmade crafts. By hearing their stories we also can reflect on the artistry of our own callings as teachers, nurses, engineers, or customer services representatives. Do we carry an attitude of passion and continual growth into our daily work? How can we keep improving in the work we have been called on to do?

Reflection: Next time you are at a craft store or street market take some time to explore some of the handmade crafts. Imagine the stories behind the craft piece you are looking at. Think over your occupation and write down three ways you can improve and learn more to improve your work.

The Magic of Renewed Career Passion

There are various reasons why a passion for a career can be crushed. Sometimes it is negativity in the workplace from co-workers or dysfunctional management teams. Sometimes it is life events such as health concerns or losing significant people in our lives. Sometimes it is just plain burn-out. What can we do to renew the passion for our career? There is no one perfect way for everyone but one thing I learned recently through a movie is be open to that which is seen and unseen in finding the way to renewing a career passion.

The movie I speak of is The Magic of Belle Isle. The main character is Monte Wilder played by Morgan Freeman, ( which is what drew me to the movie). He is a novelist who has written popular Western novels. He is spending a summer in a tourist town Bell Isle. His nephew helps set him up in a summer home of a friend and encourages him to write. The viewer quickly discovers that Monte has lost all his desire to write. First it comes across that it is because of alcohol that he doesn’t write, but soon the truth comes out is that the alcohol is a result of the pain of his wife dying of cancer years earlier. Monte is disabled due to an accident that ruined a promising sports career when he was younger and was first married. He was surprised his wife stayed with him after the accident and through many years of marriage. He had been wheel chair bound since that accident.

Thinking over all that has affected Monte’s life it is easy to see how he could be so bitter clinging to his bottle of liquor each day. It brought a question to my mind. Does remaining bitter make for a better life? Obviously no by seeing the result of his life in the movie. The good news is that people can change from bitter to brighter in their outlook on life. Sometimes in our career life that change of outlook is needed. Sometimes we can change it through our own will many times it is helped by our connections with others around us. In Monte’s case help came in the form of a single mother with three daughters that befriend him. The middle daughter is a pre-teen who once she hears Monte is an author wants him to mentor her in writing. By the end of the movie Monte regains his passion for writing and gives up his passion for drinking.

A couple of important ideas that came across to me in the movie was Monte’s emphasis on imagination. He states, “imagination is the most powerful force ever made available to human kind.” That is so true that creativity and the imagination add so much to our life existence. Also in my mind it is a pointer towards the fact that we are created and should be seeking the Creator of all things. Then in speaking of creativity Monte encourages the young girl to learn to describe what is there. Then he goes a step further to always look for what is not there. That thought of what is not there helps our imagination build new possibilities in our lives. What was there in Monte’s life was bitterness and despondency. What was not there in his life, were new friendships and possible ways to rekindle his writing. Thankfully in the end he is open to seeking after what was not there in his life.

Then as a person who enjoys reading there was an important quote about reading from the mother as they were having their first dinner with Monte “A book is a friend that does what no friend can do, be quiet when you are trying to think.” In our noisy world we need to have times to quietly read and reflect over our reading.

I always enjoy the rare movies like The Magic of Belle Isle that are funny, thoughtful and touching. This is a movie that afterwards one can reflect over and learn truths about our life experiences.

Reflection: What is not there in your life that you would like to work towards having in your life? How is your career and work aspect of your life at this point in time? Is there a new perspective you can go after to reignite new passion in your work?

Going The Extra Degree

As I just finished my first quarter of my PhD in General Psychology with Capella University, I am reflecting on how to balance my family, education and work. I have a couple of years ahead of intense research leading to my dissertation to complete the PhD. In the same time I have family concerns and work that I need to keep up with. My desire is to not be burned-out in these life spheres instead to excel in each area. In moving from good to great in each aspect of life I received some helpful ideas from a Simple Truths book, written by Sam Parker and Mac Anderson.

The book is 212 The Extra Degree. It is based on the power of the one degree change in water from 211 hot to 212 boiling. I make a lot of oatmeal for breakfasts so I boil a lot of water each week. I have seen the one degree change as the water is heating all of a sudden the bubbles form and begin boiling. That is good for cooking but what does that have to do with life?

Before going on click on the title 212 The Extra Degree to watch the Simple Truths video that relates to their book. As you watch the short video think over what the authors are trying to say:


212 The Extra Degree

In our spiritual life, relationships, work, and education the ruts of our existence cause us to just move along in OK mode. We say to ourselves, “I am doing good enough. I am doing OK”. But are we created to live this life just OK? Parker and Anderson are saying we can move from Good to Great by having a mental attitude of putting forth the extra degree of effort. Having a 212 attitude in our life and work keeps us rising up to keep growing in our relationships and work life. The examples of winning the race in the video shows the extra degree of effort is the difference between winning and losing. I have always been amazed with the short time difference between first and second place in Olympic sunning races.

Along with this 212 mindset being an attitude, is the thought that our attitudes our shaped by our beliefs. So if we want 212 success we need the 212 attitude but it begins with a 212 belief. The authors point out the importance of belief in stating, “belief fuels enthusiasm, and enthusiasm explodes into passion. It fires our souls and lifts our spirits.” If we want to be great in our work for instance we need to carry an enthusiastic passion for what we do in our work. We need to ask ourselves how can I better serve the customer, the patient the client? How can I do 212 service in my workplace?

Having a 212 mindset attitude can affect many areas of our lives. Each sphere of life spiritual, relational , educational, and career/work can be improved in phenomenal ways if we are open to put the one extra degree of effort to get us to a boiling excitement for each area of life. It finally boils down to personal choice action to take the belief and attitude and be responsible to choose to make our actions match the desire to move from good to great.

Reflection: What area of your life do you need to make the effort to move your degrees up to 212? Write the area down and list a few commitments to practically move you to 212 living.

Dilbert And Writing Down Goals

For my recent lecture to students on setting educational and life goals I reviewed over a book I read years ago. The book is Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser PhD. She has taught English at several Universities and is a writing and communications consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Her book looks at the importance of writing down your goals for what you really want out of your life. The book is full of stories of famous people and not so famous people who accomplished amazing things in their lives. One common element in them was that they wrote down lists and goals of what they wanted to do. The stories show how the goals they wrote down came true.

One of the first stories she mentions is that of Scott Adams. He is well known as the cartoonist behind the Dilbert comic strip. Scott did not graduate from high school and become a cartoonist right away. His early career life was that of a technology worker. He did at the time have a habit of doodling during work. I do not know if that is a basic skill of a cartoonist. That may explain why I never became one as I do not doodle. Henriette points out Scott Adams did something else. He started a habit of writing 15 times a day, “I will become a syndicated cartoonist.” If you know anything about writers and artists rejection is part of their life journey. Scott Adams never gave up he kept trying by resending the cartoon out to possible vendors.

One day it happened that he received a contract to syndicate the Dilbert Cartoon. That is when he changed what he wrote down. He then started writing “I will be the best cartoonist on the planet.” That is difficult to know who is the best at cartooning but one has to admit he made Dilbert very popular as it became a cartoon listed in newspapers around the world. His Dilbert books have sold well as well as Dilbert fans can buy Dilbert mugs, calendars and other items. All of this from a personal dream, turned into a written down goal list.

As you read through Dr. Klauser’s book you can read a variety of stories of personal dreams coming true as people wrote them down in diaries, journals, scraps of paper, or goal statement forms. Is it some kind of magic to write something down and it happens? No I don’t believe it is magic. Just writing it down does not mean it will happen.
There are a couple aspects of writing things down that I believe can help in reaching the goal you are trying for. First of all by writing the goal or desire down you are focusing your mind to work towards the end of reaching your goal. If my mind is more focused I can plan better to reach the goal. A focused mind also allows for stronger levels of persistence. After a couple of rejection letters Scott Adams could have given up his daily writing his “I will become a syndicated cartoonist” list. Then he would have just resigned himself to stop doodling and work quietly in his cubicle. The world would then be a less funny place as Dilbert would have never happened. By writing his list each day he kept focused on not letting the rejection get the best of him. I am not a Dilbert fan but I can say the world is a better place because of Adams humor found in the Dilbert cartoon.

The writing down of your goals also makes you have a higher commitment level. If my goal is just something I talk about to friends it can be just that. Just talk. But if I take the time to write it down I force myself to think through ways of reaching the goal. Writing the goal down makes me take more ownership and responsibility in making the goal happen. If you are trying to accomplish some things that you just keep mulling over in your mind try writing them down. If you need some inspiration in doing this look for the book Write It Down, Make It Happen in your local library and read the inspiring stories of people just like you who have accomplished their dreams by writing it down.

Reflection -- Think over a couple of things you really wanted to accomplish this year and are already falling out of your grasp. Take some moments to write them down specifically how you want your goal concretely to look. Try what Scott did and go back that goal every day writing it down and see what happens.