Do More

Do more than you have to... to become more than you are.

If I had a "Business"

If I had a business and things were not looking good, the horizon was nowhere to be seen and the workforce lost hope, I would have to make some changes as to not lose everything and fail. If this was a company to believe in, a company with morals and purpose, a company that had helped frame lives and build faith, I would certainly want to preserve the underlying strength and mission that created its success.

I would need to root out pessimism and create a reason to push forward, a mentality of courage. I would need to create a vision to locate the core principles that helped create the level of integrity and success the business once had. I would need to bring in courageous leaders who believed in our mission and risked their lives in carrying out what they knew was more important than themselves. I would need to have a practice of discipline and moderation, strength, and encouragement.

As it goes without saying, I wouldn’t deal with venders or contractors that didn’t offer suitable services that met our needs. I wouldn’t invest capital into non performing assets. I wouldn’t create more debt to fund non essential divisions. I would seek out investors who willingly believed in our mission and purpose and stood by us by their own volition. I would not force anyone to believe in my agenda; rather I would invest in those that believed in the agenda set forth by the founders of the company and hold true to the principles that once made us successful and prosperous.

For it is courage to make the difficult choices. It is honor to stay true to your beliefs.

Purpose and Direction

Getting lost in the wilderness whether it’s the mountains, the seas, the forests or the swamps can be very trying, physically and emotionally. It has been said that the body can endure a lot of mistreatment but the mind is truly fragile. Getting lost can be prevented by simple preparation. Let’s discuss the simple yet effective device that has assisted lost adventurers for centuries; that device is the compass.

A compass is a magnetic device, typically a pointer that indicates, using the planet’s magnetosphere, north. The compass is typically a surefire way to locate north. The only problem with the Compass is that it’s completely useless unless you know where you’re trying to go. Knowing where north is won’t do any good unless you know what direction you should be headed.

Using the example of a hiker who was lost in the Uintah Mountains in 2008 we can find some valuable information. The adventurous hiker, with years of hiking behind him had gotten lost in unfamiliar territory. Given his experience in hiking he was well prepared for the journey to the summit but he lacked any type of direction on his descent given his unfamiliarity with the area. His compass worked fine but his knowledge of the land or where the meeting point was didn’t exist. After becoming separated from his group he ended up miles from the meeting point. Night came and he had to prepare a makeshift bed and blind to be protected from the cold winds that were to come. The man luckily survived two nights in the mountains and was rescued because of a talented, experienced search and rescue team. Unlike this hiker, there have been many who have lost their lives seeking for direction home only to feel as if they are walking in circles.

Having a compass is important to a hiker in that assists them in knowing the direction to find their way; but it becomes useful if and only if the direction to where they should be headed is known. There are many of us that are like the hiker; we may have the tools to find our way but we don’t know where we should be headed.

Success can be found in knowing where you want to be and then using the tools you have to get there. All the tools in the world are of no use unless you know how to use them or why you should use them. Look at your mind as your compass; it’s a powerful instrument that if used correctly can achieve monumental results. Locking into your true potential is accomplished when you understand your purpose and direction. You must know where you want to go to get there. In addition to knowing your direction and purpose, like the rescue team finding the lost hiker, those that are prepared and know their direction will have great joy and purpose when assisting in the rescuing of others that may have become lost.

Hoodoos

Bryce Canyon: endless views and monuments erected by the mighty forces that are. I recall standing near the edge of a cliff at the park with what seemed to be a several hundred foot decent. There was no room for error and my movement was well thought out. I placed extra care on each movement I made knowing that one mistake and I would certainly slip and plummet to the depths below. The muscles in my legs, core and upper body were working in harmony in directing my balance and footing on the gravel topped limestone upon which I was standing.

The purpose for the parks designation as a national park has everything to do with the spires throughout the canyon called “Hoodoos”. According to the National Park Service:

“Hoodoos are formed by two weathering processes that continuously work together in eroding the edges of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The primary weathering force at Bryce Canyon is frost wedging. Here we experience over 200 freeze/thaw cycles each year. In the winter, melting snow, in the form of water, seeps into the cracks and freezes at night. When water freezes it expands by almost 10%, bit by bit prying open cracks, making them ever wider in the same way a pothole forms in a paved road.”

“In addition to frost wedging, what little rain we get here also sculpts the hoodoos. Even the crystal clear air of Bryce Canyon creates slightly acidic rainwater. This weak carbonic acid can slowly dissolve limestone grain by grain. It is this process that rounds the edges of hoodoos and gives them their lumpy and bulging profiles.”

As with Hoodoos, we too experience processes that continuously work together attempting to erode us. The effects of the elements have created beautiful spires and with our experiences we too will feel the effects and changes as they transpire. As with my experience in keeping my balance and footing atop the loose rock, my body was able to react as a whole to keep myself from slipping. We have the ability to utilize our faculties in making decisions when the elements seek to destroy us. Out of those hardest moments come the most remarkable refinements.

Self Reliance

In reading a magazine article recently I came across a story that outlined an article from the Reader’s Digest many, many years ago. It reads:

“In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved… “

“The shrimpers had created a ‘Welfare State’ for the… sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.”

“Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ‘something for nothing lure’! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.”

“A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government’s shrimp fleet. But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?”

“Let’s not be gullible gulls. We… must preserve our talents of self sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence. “

Self reliance isn’t everything, if you believe that you will almost always miss the mark. However, it is an essential ingredient in finding more joy.

Being

Gandhi was the unquestioned leader of over 500 million in India, he was India. He regarded himself as a coward, afraid of the dark, a man with a damaging inferiority complex. Gandhi, in his early days had impairments that could have impeded his life and mission.

Gandhi had disadvantages; however, he became great in the eyes of millions. He worked his entire life to remake himself. He is quoted as saying: “I am a self remade man.” Gandhi believed in being, not in having or in seeming. He understood that the breakdown of governments, institutions and people was due to the discord in deed and creed. He believed that to believe something and not practice it was dishonest. Hypocrisy will never promote Balance and will never be seen as integrity.

The man practiced discipline. What he believed in was simply what he did, he wasn’t idle. The man overcame obstacles through action and discipline. When he made a choice he forced himself to follow through and translate every thought into action.

Given the society in which we live it’s evident that self control is far from the principles most espouse. More is given to the man who WORKS toward noble goals because of belief. More is achieved by the man who concerns himself with being and not having or seeming.

Having: to possess, partake of, gain possession of

Seeming: Outward true or false appearance

Being: Complete existence, lacking no essential characteristics

Road Warriors in Panama

I was in Panama City, Panama, it was Monday morning and the journey to Colon, not colon but Colón had begun. We knew that the Corridor Norte was to lead us to the Free Trade Zone and we could begin work on the reason for our journey. Driving: in many areas throughout the world we know of it as transportation, a point “A” to point “B” kind of thing. Well, in Panama that’s true but it’s also the most awesome video game ever!

Seeing the green army men, two to a motorcycle with machine gun in hand mixed with a hint of slightly paved roads meandering through the tropical rainforest with wandering children and animals dotting the view, the settings were all on Advanced. There were no Beginner or Intermediate levels in this game.

Each car in Panama must have seen over a million accidents that week as they all looked like small versions of the demolition derby cars I would go watch every summer at our county fair. There were no lanes painted onto the road on about 80% of the streets and I guess in Spanish that translates into 6-8 cars wide per 2 lane sized road. Every driver in Panama is instructed that if they don’t get ahead of you while driving they are sentenced to life in prison. Nobody wants to rot in jail so protocol was to pass you by any means necessary. The cars were also reconfigured to only have two speeds: fast and stop. Any kind of order by signal or Alto sign was not treated as law. I’m not really sure after my visit that there are any driving rules other than pay the toll as the guy collecting your money is sitting next to one of the green army men complete with machined styled gun.

Now, you’re not going to believe the words which you are about to read but I profess they are true: there is no road rage in Panama!!! I know you don’t believe me, I wouldn’t believe me, and it’s true at least from my 3 days of observance. The people in Panama understand a certain way of operating, in this case driving their death portals.

We’re all conditioned to become a certain way or react to situations from the experiences we’ve had. The residents in Panama drive differently as a whole and understand that aggressive driving is business and not personal, thus they don’t become afflicted or tormented by getting cut off or even getting bumped by a Toyota Prada. This is a great example of the reality that we control our actions; no one else has that power. Getting offended or getting upset and losing our composure is a choice borne only by self. If the folks down in Panama can endure a daily commute including but not limited to getting cut off a minimum of a thousand times, getting hit or nudged several thousand more and finally being asked to buy a cell phone carrying case or charger every 5 minutes from the local car to car salesmen then we too have the power to not let outside influence affect our outward reaction.