Determination can be defined as overcoming obstacles in order to reach my goal. Determination is the fuel necessary to get us to the finish line. Conversely, inertia is a relentless villain itching for us to “fall off the wagon,” the villain that is rooting for us to quit and remain unsuccessful...
Recently, I became familiar with the term “cycle breaker.” A Cycle Breaker is someone in your family who recognizes unhealthy familial patterns and chooses not to repeat them. I come from a long family line of alcoholics. This social disease has disrupted my family– maternally and paternally –...
Each year the Character Council solicits applications for an annual scholarship. Students often write about determination, hard work, and patience. For the first time, one of the applicants wrote about availability, stating: “Availability means being able to be present whenever goals need to be...
Strata Leadership defines Availability as a willingness to change my schedule and priorities to meet a need. Notice the definition of Availability does not state a willingness to change schedule and priorities for every distraction that comes up. John Eldredge in his book titled Get Your Life...
Many animals and species utilize cooperation to function, protect, sustain and support the members of their society. Many examples such as ants, dolphins, lions and prairie dogs have been utilized to study the benefits and process of cooperation. If and when you’re looking for it, you will never...
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to participate in a trip with my church. The purpose of the trip was to hold a ladies Bible conference at two different Navajo/Apache reservation churches in Arizona. With eight people traveling together, cooperation was essential. We flew out on a...
If you’re familiar with the Enneagram, I am a “1 wing 9, reformer (perfectionist)/peacemaker.” I have a tendency to believe that every decision should have a perfect outcome that makes everyone happy. Early in the pandemic, I began to recognize that when faced with a choice where I didn’t like...
The character trait for this month is Decisiveness. The irony is that as I was studying the topic of decision-making and preparing these remarks I certainly felt indecisive as I tried to determine what to include or exclude. Decisiveness is defined by the Cambridge and Oxford Dictionaries as the...
A friend once told me that anytime her and her husband drove by someone who was homeless he would make the statement, “one bad decision and that could be me.” This statement has always stuck with me, but I think due to the amount of caring family I have, it is really hard for me to truly relate...
We all know what honesty is, but even so, it is still easy to distort or exaggerate the truth. We live in a world that is easily influenced by headlines that are written to grab the attention of the reader. Often, the most attention-grabbing headline may not be untruthful, but it may be...
I’m pretty sure the other members of the Character Council just wanted me to present the trait of honesty because they thought it would be funny, since I’m a polygraph examiner and it’s kind of my job to figure out if people are being honest or not. As a tidbit of useless trivia on that subject,...
In a world and society where marketing strategies and spin are at the forefront of advertisements and headlines, it is easy to fall into the trap of saying whatever needs to be said to get to the end goal or give others the very best impression of us. Social media adds another dimension allowing...
