Tag: Spiritual Preparation
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Ethics aren’t a renewable resource
I recently saw a LinkedIn post by Scott Stratten that ended with, “Ethics aren’t a renewable resource for your brand.” It’s a useful warning, for both businesses and personal brands, because we often act as if trust simply grows back on its own.A tree farm should be renewable. If you look only at short-term results,…
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History rarely announces itself
You might expect life’s defining events to come with fanfare, headlines, or grand gestures. But often, as David McCullough said in Brave Companions, “the little-known events of a given time, and people who are not in the headlines, can be what matters most in the long run, and the long run is the measure of…
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A Christmas Inclination
At that final, memorable encounter, Ebenezer Scrooge says to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, “I am not the man I was.” What matters most in that statement is not how far Scrooge had come, but the direction he had chosen. He was not suddenly perfect. He was no longer content to remain where…
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The Rings We Don’t See
It was the first year I started getting automatic deposits for my paychecks. Before then, I’d always received paper checks, and I had a rhythm: go to the bank, deposit the check, and immediately write out my tithing. Then I moved to Utah, and when my system changed, my pattern did too. Being surrounded by…
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The Hunter and the Sighted-In Soul
Yesterday, my son went to sight in his rifle. The hunt is only a week away, and he wanted to make sure everything was ready. But after several rounds and many adjustments, frustration started to show. The shots weren’t landing where he wanted. What struck me most wasn’t his performance, but his reaction. He didn’t…
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What James Allen Would Say About a World Without Work
Setting the Stage In a recent EconTalk episode with Nicholas Bostrom, Russ Roberts explored a fascinating question:What happens to human purpose, pleasure, and meaning if work is no longer necessary?If technology solves scarcity and survival, how will people find meaning? Will we slip into hedonism or rise into new forms of creativity, service, and growth?Over…
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“Collecting Shells at the Beach”
There is a Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip with the first 11 squares depicting Calvin engaged in various leisure activities. In the 12th frame, Calvin’s Mom asks him to take a bag of garbage to the trash can. With composure completely changed, in the next frame, Calvin laments, “Some vacation THIS Summer is!” Similarly, each…
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Happiness, outside of success or failure!
“If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same;” ‘If,’ Rudyard Kipling During his 1990 Commencement Address to Kenyon College, Bill Watterson (Creator of Calvin & Hobbes), speaking on several things he didn’t like to do, then said, “I tell you all this because it’s worth recognizing that…
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Cards & Calves
“…the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him,” Exodus 32:1 Our family enjoys playing Skyjo and no one more so than my youngest. I think one of the reasons he enjoys it, is that he often wins. Despite his propensity to win, any time he looks behind or distracted other people at…