March Meditations

Thoughts to ponder and act on this month

Photo by Elisabeth Lee on Unsplash

---

1.

Many people work hard, but not enough people take risks. Hard work is good, but it’s possible to work hard at things that will never move the needle. Without the courage to take risks, we’ll remain small, even if we work hard every day.

---

2.

The world is in flux; nothing is as it used to be. The world order, geopolitics, the very definition of money, love and relationships, careers, work, and the nature of labor. If you aren’t changing, you’re being left behind.

---

3.

A bed is vital as a place of rest, but a bed is not in use for two thirds of a day. A car is essential for transportation, but a car will spend 95% of its life parked. The church, a building crucial to the practitioners of Christianity, is busy mostly just on one day of the week.

You don’t have to be busy all the time; you don’t have to be in use all the time. Many things that are essential actually spend most of their time resting. You can “idle” for most of the day and still be useful, still serve your role.

Stop feeling guilty when you spend an hour resting. The bed, cars, churches—and certainly cats—don’t.

---

4.

There’s a dangerous temptation you must learn to avoid: feeling better than your time, circumstances, or nation. “You’re ahead of your time.” “This nation doesn’t deserve you.” “You’re too good for this environment.” Some will tell you these things.

We’re never too good; if we were, we wouldn’t be in the circumstances we claim to be too good for.

Being good requires two things. First, we must learn to function in our circumstances. Second, we must exceed the limits they impose. We are never too good; we’ll be good enough when we transcend.

Don’t despise your times, environment, or nation; don’t imagine yourself to be beyond them. Thrive in them, and then rise above their constraints. Then and only then will you be good, and you won’t have to claim to be better than, because it will be evident to any reasonable person.

---

5.

Relationships are harder today because far too many people keep asking for what they aren’t worth. Don’t settle, but even better, don’t be entitled. What you want, first be more valuable than.