Failure is not meant to be permanent

Stumbling is an inevitable consequence of walking on a rocky path. No matter how careful one is in choosing their footing, if one wishes to advance, risks are going to have to be taken. Risk means the ever-present possibility of failure. Embracing life means we embrace the possibility of failure. We should accept the risk; we don't have to accept the failure.

When I have failed in the past, I have always felt stung by what seemed to be my own stupidity. My post-failure postmortems then included an unhealthy fascination with my personal failings and weaknesses. However, life has had a good go at me, and I now realize that most of my failures were a result of my having either stepped out unprepared or unwilling. I was either ignorant of the size of the challenge awaiting me and was not up to the task or I was unwilling to make the sacrifices required to be successful in that particular endeavor. This doesn't mean I stop taking risks or accepting challenges. It simply means I make more informed choices in the risks I choose to accept.

I still embrace challenges and I still fail. However, I no longer allow failure to be an impediment in my path. If I stumble or fall, I get up. If I find my path blocked by failure, I just look for another way to reach my goals.

I always try to keep in mind that failure is a temporary condition, not a job description.

"Failure is delay, not defeat. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing." - Denis Waitley

Three Things You Must Do This Weekend

Ye Old Chestnut

We are looking at what could very well be the last decent stretch of warm weather of the year. Over the weekend, here are three things you MUST do instead of working. One can always work when the winter winds are blowing and you are up to your ass in snow.

1) Walk, do not run, jog or drive, through a stand of woods. Walking through the woods allows you to become a part of the landscape and allows you to see, hear, smell and feel the changes that the woods are going through as autumn brings the end of the season. Colors are going to be near peak this weekend. Do not miss it.

2) If you are able to get outside, play football. Whether you are young, old, male or female, football is a part of fall. You can't really say you have experienced an autumn without having at least thrown a football. If you are able to run, there is no greater pleasure in sports than watching a football into your hands and then crossing the goal line. If you can't play football, at least go watch a game somewhere and be sure to cheer for the home team.

3) Take a family picture. Capture the look of autumn along with the feeling of family. There is just something about fall colors which brings out the best in lighting, complexion and shadows in just about anyone. You have to TRY to take a bad picture in autumn.

God is beckoning you outside the next three days, He is giving you one last taste of summer, Enjoy it.

"Be yourself - No one can ever tell you you're doing it wrong." *

     We are under pressure our entire lives to conform to the norm. It starts in grade school with our entrance into the school structure, where we learn about right and wrong answers. The conga line continues on into our teens years with peer pressure keeping us in line with what our supposed friends think is "cool".

As young adults, we are admonished to be like our successful friends or college classmates, as if they have discovered some sort of secret to adult happiness through social or corporate climbing. Finally, as we mature, we start to hear exhortations about "not giving up on our dreams" while we are prodded to remain politically correct and socially acceptable.

     My duty to myself and therefore to you is to tell you that it is all bunk. True happiness is found by being honest to yourself first and not living life others have imagined for you. If you want to know what will make you happy, you don't need me or anyone else to point it out to you. Just listen to what your inner voice is telling you already.

     Do yourself a favor and take 15 minutes today and listen to your inner voice as it guides you to what is right for you. And remember "To thine own self be true." **

Quotes by: *James Leo Herlihy and **Wm. Shakespeare

Why they should let Adrian play

     What Adrian Peterson did to his 4 year old son was brutal and excessive. Adrian Peterson has proved that he is untrustworthy as a parent and he should not be allowed to be alone with his children until he has proved that he understands what he did was wrong.

     My question however is this: why should he be denied an opportunity to practice his profession? 

In this society, we allow people who have done much worse than Peterson to continue to make a living. A lawyer or a doctor or an accountant can drive drunk and endanger hundreds of people and at worse, they will incur financial penalties, yet we allow them to continue to practice and earn a living, even after they have been convicted of their crime.

     There are anonymous parents who do much worse than Peterson to their children everyday, yet they continue to live their lives and be a part of society. No one screams about them on radio, writes torrid editorials or calls for them to be left unemployed. However, Peterson must be suspended or even banned from the NFL? 

Double standard.

    To me, this is not a football issue but a liberty issue. Society has NO right to demand that Adian Peterson be kicked out of the NFL. Society DOES have a right to demand that he be banned from seeing his kids without supervision. Society DOES have a right to hold him accountable for his actions and to punish him with incarceration or other penalties IF a jury of his peers convict him of a crime. Society DOES have a right to hold him up a an example of how NOT to discipline children and to ostracize him if they choose. However, society does NOT have a right to deny him his occupation OR to to practice his profession.