Pick Your Hard

This isn't an original. I don't claim it. I heard it at a Weight Watchers meeting about a year ago. Today, it came back to me.

Losing weight is hard.
But
Being overweight is hard.

Pick your hard.

Funny that today, I realized that this is everything in life. Going after your passion is hard, but sitting on your passion is hard. Keeping faith through tough times is hard, but losing your faith is hard.

So what "hards" are you trying to choose between? It's all hard, my friends. Pick the one that gives you the ultimate joy in pursuing. Yeah, it's hard, but pick the hard that worth it.

Trail Blazing

A friend of mine put a seed of a thought in my head a couple days ago. It's bounced around until it's become this:

When we meet resistance in going after our goals, it's not a sign we should quit. We're just blazing our own trail and that takes effort. The path will get clearer and easier to travel, but we have to get through it a few times.

At least we don't have to buy our log homes from the Sears catalog and build them ourselves, like the original trail blazers who headed out west.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

How Average Are You?

The average American will eat 35,000 cookies in a lifetime and spends 120 hours a month watching television, the equivalent of five complete days in front of the TV. (http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/average.html)

The average American woman spends 55 minutes per day getting showered, dressed, and groomed. (http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/average.html

The average Facebook user has 130 friends on the site, spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook and clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month. (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

In 1941 the average woman was 5' 2", 129 pounds. Today she is 5' 4" and weighs 144 lbs (wearing between a 12 and 14). (http://fashion.about.com/cs/tipsadvice/a/allaboutfit.htm)

The average person keeps old magazines for 29 weeks before they throw them out. (http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_feb2004/Useless_Stats.htm)

The average college GPA is 3.11 (from 2007 - http://gradeinflation.com/)

The average family has more televisions than people. (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1674995_1683300,00.html)

As of third quarter 2008, the average person in the U.S. watched approximately 142 hours of TV in one month.  In addition, people who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, and people who used a mobile phone spent 3 hours a month watching mobile video. (http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2008/november/americans_cannot_get)

The latest study on the average number of texts for American teenagers is from Q4 2008, reported by the New York Times.  Ready?  2,272 text messages per month. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html)

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I’ve been thinking about averages lately.  What are they and why do we care?  Averages can make us feel good, like we belong….and sometimes not. We seek out these number and hope that we fall in a range of numbers that are acceptable.   In the end, they are just numbers. Numbers, like those random things on the scale. 

Personally, I’ve probably blown through the 35,000 cookies in my lifetime so far. My family has the same number of TVs and computers as people and I have 173 Facebook friends to date. In 1941, I would have been taller and heavier than the average woman, but now, I’m shorter and lighter.

So what?

I’ve decided my job is to be the best I can be. I am to do the greatest thing I can do in a given moment, no matter what the "average" calls me to do. I have a family to love, a serious set of goals to work on and dreams to accomplish. If I set my eyes on what is average, average is what I’ll get in return. I’m aiming for the moon - - how about you?

“Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will.” - A. W. Tozer

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars." - Les Brown

Sometimes We Fall

Last month, we experienced a bit of an icy blast in the Northwest.  My car fishtailed as I took my son to school through the neighborhood.  When we finally parked by the sidewalk, I turned to him and explained that it was very icy outside and that we would have to be careful.  I told him we could hang on to each other, but that we would have to BE CAREFUL.  As I was explaining this, a group of older kids walked by our car.  As if on queue, two of them dropped to the ground right outside his window.  "See?" I said and I used the older kids as an example of not being careful.

I walked to his door and slipped a bit.  "See?" I said. I moved my boot over the ice to show him how slick it was.  I told him to take it slow and pay attention to his steps.  I know, I know.  I'm beginning to annoy myself with all of my motherly warnings.

The boy hops out of the car, both feet fly out from under him and he is INSTANTLY on the ground.  His rear landed with a thud and the wind was knocked out of him.  He was stunned at first and then started crying.

I think my exact word to him was, "DUDE!"  I couldn't have prepped him more if I tried - even having living bad examples - and he flopped to the ground anyway.  But, over the next couple icy days, he didn't come close to slipping again.  Even today, when it was raining outside, he paused before stepping on the sidewalk and asked me if it was slippery.

Sometimes, no amount of warning or talking or examples will make a difference.  Sometimes, our rears have to hit the ground - H-A-R-D - before we can really understand.  But after we hit, it's what we do after that makes all the difference.  We can learn.  We can adjust.  We can become more stable.  Or, we can sit on the sidewalk and cry for the rest of our lives.