Memorial Day Weekend is a special time recognizing those who gave their all defending the freedoms of others. Their sacrifice is the ultimate service one can give--their very own life. The price of freedom is expensive and I humbly and gratefully thank these heroes as well as everyone associated with them--their fellow soldiers, their friends, and their family. 

Today's post is specifically dedicated to my father's Uncle--my Great Uncle George.

He was a part of the Normandy D-Day invasion of WWII.  In fact, he was in one of the early waves landing on the beachfront via a Higgins boat. He knew his odds of survival were slim. A good friend of his, also in an early wave, wrote his parents a letter just before the invasion expressing his love to them and his gratitude for their love.  He requested that they honor him with a sense of pride, as he most likely would not be returning from this engagement. As a parent myself, I could only imagine the emotions I would feel reading such a letter from my son. 

The morning came and my Great Uncle George found himself amongst a number of other brave soldiers packed in a Higgins boat. The boat landed and everyone attempted to get out without being shot. He made it. As he left the boat and fell into the water, he and everyone else attempted to get out without being shot or drowning from the weight of their gear. He made it out and onto the beach. Amidst the raining down of bullets, exploding mines and mortars, he ran up the beach. Amazingly, he made it across the beach to the hillside. However, it was here where he was hit by a mortar ripping off part of his leg and sending shrapnel throughout his body.  He spun around and fell on his back. With continuing bullets flying everyplace, explosions and general chaos in all directions, my Great Uncle George lay on the upper beach with blood pouring from his body. 

At that moment, he pulled out a picture of his family and held it on his chest with his bloody hands. He held it tightly till he passed out. We know this because when the medics came and got him the following morning, he still had it clutched to his chest. After all, wasn't it for his family that he was laying on that beach giving his life so others could freely live theirs?  

Well, when the medics did pick him up, it is recorded that they yelled, "This one's not cold! He's still alive!" Somehow, through it all, he had not bled to death. And, long story short, operation after operation, he lived!  He lived to the point that when I was a small boy he told me this story himself. He showed me his reconstructed leg that was now several inches shorter than the other. He showed me the remaining shrapnel that could still be seen just under his skin. He told me about lying on his back holding the picture of his family he was certain he'd never see again. He told me all about it. Then, he looked at me and told me how his good friend and many others never did make it off that beach. He told me how the only way to give their deaths significance is not to take our freedom for granted. "Do something great with your life!"  He told me.      

There is a saying that two of the most important days of your life include the day you were born and the day you discovered why. Below is a link to a survey that has 15 questions regarding living a life on-purpose. Please take a moment to take the survey.

The results will be used in an upcoming publication. Please answer the questions sincerely. Do not answer them based on what you think you should say or what you wish you could say. Rather, think about each question and answer as honestly as possible.

Soon, I will post an article including the results. Enjoy!

The article below would not be a complete read without also reviewing the comments people have posted. The perspectives and personal insights shared in the comments are extremely valuable. Thank you to those who contributed. Some people need medical help and other people do not. Everyone, however, needs love.  Treat people with dignity as you are reminded, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

I read an article stating that the USA could now be referred to as "Medicated America" because so many Americans (nearly 10%--two thirds being women) are taking antidepressant medication. In the poll I recently posted, “Which emotion do you experience most often?” the number one answer was: “Stress.” Yes, people are stressed out, tired, hopeless, full of worry, and, now more than ever, medicated.  Depressing, isn’t it?!  Oops…didn’t mean to say that.  J   Okay, let’s just say it isn’t uplifting! 

So, what’s happening?  First of all, antidepressant drugs are now plentiful and readily available.  Nearly half of those who take antidepressants have never actually received a psychiatric diagnosis or any mental health care beyond just the prescription of the drug. Many people simply feel stressed and are looking for something to help them.

Believe me...I understand facing difficult times in life and wishing to numb some pain. However, whether taking medication is the right thing or not for you to do (I’ll leave that between you and your doctor), I would like to encourage you to also take something else.  That something is a different perspective.  Rather than seeing your challenges and pain as something bad, see them as something to help mold you into something better.  There is a saying, “Don’t pray for an easier life.  Pray to be a bigger man/women.”  Sir Edmond Hillary, after summiting Mt. Everest said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” It may not be easy but it will be worth it. 

At some point, you must choose to win in life even when life seems to have the upper hand. Ironically, however, the first step in this victory is to understand that your battle really isn’t against life but rather with yourself.  You can’t change what happens to you but you can learn to change how you assign meaning and respond to it. “Extraordinary change always starts with the act of reframing,” teaches author/speaker Malcolm Gladwell. If you want to change your life, first change the way you see it. Don’t see yourself a victim of life. See yourself polished by life’s abrasiveness.  Then, choose to take positive action.

Consider applying the following three principles in your life:

1. You control the meaning that you assign to the events of your life. Assign it wisely.

Every adversity that you face can add to your bitterness towards others and life in general or it can be the experience that makes you better. Your challenges can help you relate to people. They can help soften you so that you may feel more for other people. Your challenges may, in fact, cause you to reach out closer to your creator seeking comfort and guidance.

Consequently, although your past choices may well be the cause for your challenges, the present meaning you may assign to them can be positive.  For example, the challenges have been necessary in order to help me connect with other people better.  They have softened me and made me more sensitive.  They have led me to a closer relationship with my creator.  That is, there are many good, positive answers to the question of what is the meaning or purpose of all of this?  Search for a positive meaning and be transformed. 

2. Attack or be attacked.  Choose to attack life rather than waiting for life to attack you.

One of my former coaches used to say, “Don’t wait for your competitor to do the attacking.  That leaves you racing their race. You choose when to attack and make it your own race.”  I have found that life is the same way. You won’t get far curled-up waiting for life’s next blow to you. Rather, get up, decide where you are going and get on it! 

If you don’t like the decisions you have made in the past…attack wisdom! 
If you don’t like the quality of people you associate with…attack the creation of new friends!
If you don’t like the state of your physical condition…attack good health!
If you don’t like your financial situation…attack creating a new income stream!
If you don’t like to worry…attack a higher level of faith!
If you don’t like your life…attack living on-purpose (ie, discover your purpose and calling and live it!)

3. Motion creates emotion. Choose to act the way you wish you felt…and you’ll feel it.

When I was a kid, I remember my sister had a poster hanging on her wall with a picture of a sleeping polar bear and a caption that read, “Act enthusiastic and you’ll be enthusiastic.”  I thought the irony of poster was kind of funny yet never realized how truly powerful the caption really was.  It didn’t say, “When you feel enthusiastic you will act enthusiastic.” It made a profound point that motion will create emotion. If you will act the way you wish you felt, you’ll feel it.  When you feel happy, your brain naturally triggers your eyes to look up and your face to smile.  However, if you start looking up and smiling, interestingly it will trigger your brain that you are starting to feel happy. Seems nuts?  Give it a try. 

Want to feel grateful?...start writing down what you are grateful for and really think on it. 
Want to feel happy?...serve others to help them be happy. 
Want to feel energized?...get into motion and go after something you value!

How about if you decide to take on life by taking on yourself?  We can continually look for ways to further escape life and its apparent challenges, or we can fully embrace it. Carefully assign meaning to the events in your life.  Choose to positively attack the areas in life you wish to improve rather than waiting for those areas of your life to attack you.  Finally, choose to get into motion--letting your motion create your emotion rather than waiting for the emotion to arrive first. Remember Helen Keller’s words, “Life is a daring bold adventure or it is nothing at all.”  Live bold and love life.

I am grateful to everyone (approximately 400 people at this point) who took the time to answer this survey.  Life is a series of decisions.  Throughout every day we encounter forks in the road.  Should I do this or that?  Some decisions are small and some are significant.  However, one of the biggest decisions we make is our choice of occupation.  The idea of this survey was to see how we ended up doing that one thing that captures the majority of our time each day. 

Time is our greatest asset.  We can always make more money but we have a fixed 168 hours each week.  Once we use it, it’s gone forever.  Most people spend anywhere from 40 - 100 of those hours working.  Further, many of the non-working hours are often spent thinking about work!  So, if you were to add the total time that work captures the mind of an individual, it would be significant.  Of course, there are some that spend the majority of their work time thinking about anything but what they are doing there...so you may need to do the math personally.  Regardless, generally our occupation captures more of our time than any other activity in life with sleeping coming in second.

Since our occupation generally consumes most of our time, doesn’t it make sense that we would choose to invest our time (our greatest asset) into an occupation that will yield the best results? Of course.  Then, what results are the best?  Is it the most money?  Is it the most flexible time schedule?  Is it what seems to be the most secure?  I would submit to you that the very best results we could aim for is to fulfill God’s specific will for our life? 

Everyone ever born was born for a reason.  There were no accidents.  Your parents may not have planned you but God did.  He specifically designed you with certain gifts and a will for your life.  The question is, are you specifically searching to discover your gifts and your passion in order to pursue that which God has designed you to do?  When you discover your gifts you are on top of your purpose.  That is, those things that you are gifted to do, you are gifted for a reason.  Many people discount the very things they love and are good at because they do come so naturally.  Yet, your purpose in life is specifically connected to your gifts.  In addition, when you apply your purpose to that which you are most passionate about, you have discovered your calling or assignment in life.

What if what you did for an occupation could be in alignment with your purpose and assignment in life?  How fulfilling would that be?  Then, … why not do it?  If you believe finances are stopping you, I’d encourage you to think that through.  Are you trying to live a lifestyle that is stretching your dollar to achieve a feeling of comfort?  Is that really more comfortable than the feeling that comes when you are living on-purpose; that is, doing what you love, what you are designed to do, and what you are passionate about?  Who’s to say that if you made a decision to do what you are passionate about that you wouldn’t find a way to make it profitable?  Imagine if you did that!  Then, the more you did what you were passionate about, the more income you’d make.  Perhaps, by pursuing what you are passionate about you may profit through some other means that allows you to do it.  Regardless, I believe if you start the process of focusing on doing what you are passionate about, doors will open and the details will be covered. 

I want to encourage you to make a decision to revolve your life around your purpose and the one who gave it to you.  Make that commitment and let the details fall into place.  Let go of centering your life around things and doing what you think you ‘have to do.’ 

Out of the 400 people who have currently taken this survey, there is a tie for first.  The number one way people ended up in the occupation they are in is a tie between, “Most lucrative option available,” and “Only available option at the time.”  It shows that most people are either taking work as it is available or, if they do have a choice, are deciding based upon the best return financially.  This is life.  This is what is normal.  Unfortunately, time passes and as we come closer to the end of our life we ask, “Is this really what it is all about?”  Only 15% of the poll responded, “Knew it was what I am designed to do.”

I hope you will take a deep look at what it is that you are designed to do and then I hope you will pursue it with everything that you have.  Let no excuse, doubt, or fear stop you from fulfilling your purpose and assignment in life.     

I want to thank everyone (approximately 400 people so far) who took the "30 Days to Live" survey.  The idea of the survey was to get you (myself included) to take a deep look at life.  Most of us are running a gazillion miles an hour in multiple different directions simultaneously.  No wonder we feel strrrreeeetched!  Painful just to picture, isn’t it?  However, when we take a moment to stop and consider having only 30 days to live, an undeniable clarity of personal priorities quickly comes to focus.

By far the number one response (over 50% of the votes and 5 times more than anything else) was, “Spend time with family.”  In solid second was, “Get spiritual life in order.”  Third was an interesting tie between, “Witness to others” and, “Be adventurous.”   Surprisingly, “Read Chuck Goetschel’s blog” wasn’t in the top 10!  It did get at least one vote…so, thanks Mom.  J  

The big question at hand is, “What now?”  You probably have more than 30 days to live (although nobody knows) but that’s not the point.  The point is now that you have clarified what you value most in life, why wouldn’t you focus on it whether you have 30 days or 30+ years to live? 

If your answer was, “Spend time with family,” can you redesign your life to put family time as a higher priority?  Perhaps, it’s time to cut out the, ‘flop-in-front-of-the-tv-cause-I-deserve-it’ habit and go make a special memory with your spouse or kids.  Perhaps, there is a family member that needs a call, a note, some encouragement, or simply an acknowledgement from you.  What if you listened to your family as if you really only had 30 days to live?  What if you went after creating memories with them as if you only had 30 days to do it?  What would happen to your family if you put that kind of focus and intensity into them?  Would it be worth it?  For more than half of you, this was your first choice.  Let your life reflect it.  Let your family and the world know it.

If getting your spiritual life in order was your top choice, what can you do right now for that?  If you have any question whatsoever as to the journey you will make after you die, I hope you will make getting that in order a priority.  Eternity is a long time.  Why will everyone invest time to plan a vacation but only some people invest time to plan their trip after life on earth?  Being this was the second highest answer in the survey, it is obviously important to many people.  Here are three questions to get clear answers to: 

1. Is there life after death? 
2. If so, what will it be like for me?  (Heaven/Hell/other?) 
3. On what authority do I base my thinking? 

My objective in this posting is simply to encourage you to live your life like you were dying.  Steven Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says, “Begin with the end in mind.”  That is, make decisions today based on leading your life to a fulfilling conclusion rather than to make decisions today based on short-term pleasures.  Ironically, by living with the end in mind, you will find far more immediate pleasure than ever before.  Being focused on that which you really value will yield a deep contentment.  True joy comes from living ‘on-purpose’ rather than ‘by accident.’ 

Take a look at the photo...check out the poor kid in the middle?  Have you ever felt like you were being squeezed by the less desirable aspects of life?  The pressure is significant, you may not be sure how long you will feel this way, and all the while you are cruising down the road of life. 

First, let’s establish the fact that, although at the moment it may be hard to believe, your life has purpose and meaning.  In fact, you were specifically and uniquely designed to fulfill an assignment on earth and you have gifts intended to be used for your purpose. 

Unfortunately, however, some people have a hard time believing that their life could have any particular purpose.  "I was just an accident" I have heard many times.  "How do you know?" I always ask.  "My parents told me..." is typically the response. 

Friends, nobody is an accident.  Your life is not an accident.  As Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, has said, "There are accidental parents. There are no accidental children. There are illegitimate parents. There are no illegitimate children. Your parents may not have planned you but God planned you. Really it doesn't matter whether your parents were good, bad, or indifferent. They may have even abandoned you. But they were the parents God chose for you. Why? Because they had just the right DNA to create you. And God was more interested in making you than He was in their parenting skills."  Interestingly, Pope Clement VII, Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Hamilton and even Josephine de Beauharnais (Napoleon's wife) have something in common...they were all born of illegitimate 'parents'. 

How did you get here?  Choices—the choices made by you and by others.  The good news is that regardless of how much we all mess things up there is God that desires to make good of it all.  Follow the process—

Stuff Happens.  I know that my not be the most popular version of the saying but the meaning is the same.  Stuff happens and it happens for a reason all right—people make choices and there are consequences because of them.  Unfortunately, we all make poor choices throughout our life.  Hopefully, we learn from them.  However, in the meantime people are affected by our choices just as we are affected by the choices of others. 

Our ability to choose—our freewill—is God’s greatest blessing and curse that He gave us.  If we didn't have freewill, then we really wouldn't be living.  Rather, we would simply be puppets with strings attached to the hands of God.  We would merely be an extension of His imagination.  We certainly wouldn't have a purpose to fulfill anymore than does a doll laying on your child's bedroom floor.  We would be more like a programmed robot sent to earth.  A program has predetermined functionality--if this...then that...  No, we are not puppets with strings nor are we programmed robots walking the earth.  We are living, thinking, and personally responsible beings.  We exercise our freewill to act and, consequently due to our poor choices, the world is no longer a perfect place. If God were not to allow evil to happen, then He would have to stop our freedom of choice.  

If our freewill to make poor choices is what causes stuff to happen in the world, then why did God give us freewill?  The Bible says that we were created to love God.  In fact, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:36-37) However, if God forced us to love Him than obviously it wouldn’t be true love, would it?  Only if one has the ability not to love but chooses to love anyway, is it genuinely true love.  Consequently, God gave us the freewill to choose to love Him or reject him.  That freewill extends to choices we make throughout our life. 

What is awe-inspiring, however, is regardless of how bad our choices are and those of the people around us--regardless of the mess that we may have made of life--God can ultimately use it all for our good. It is during these difficult times that our character is developed in such a way that we obtain the ability to fulfill our purpose.  How amazing is that?  God will take our struggles and use them for our strength.  Helen Keller said, "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."  Gothe simply said, "Character develops itself in the stream of life."  Ironically, struggles are necessary to achieve greatness.  Just as a butterfly must go through the struggle of freeing itself from its cocoon in order to develop the strength to fly, we too must grow from our struggles in order to fulfill our mission.  

The real question is can you say, "This is will all be for good," during the tough time prior to understanding how it worked out for you?  It is about having faith.  Given God made you for a purpose and has a plan for your life, can you have faith in Him?  A powerful verse in the Bible says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  (Romans 8:28)  Your degree of peace during difficulties reveals your faith.  Imagine the peace you would feel with the security of knowing that the God of the universe has your best interest in mind.  It's like seeing a movie for the second time and knowing all along how well it all works out in the end.  It's a lot more relaxing, isn't it?  

So, if you are the child on squeezed in the middle of life, don’t ask, “How did I get here?… Rather, thank God that somehow, someway your experience can be used for good.  Smile.  Have faith.  You are just passing through one frame of the movie of your life. 

On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to summit Mt. Everest.  At 29,035 feet, it is the tallest point on earth.  However, he didn't achieve this accomplishment his first attempt.  In fact, in 1952 a few weeks after a failed attempt, he was addressing a group of people in England.  During his talk, he walked to the edge of the platform, made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!"  He knew that his personal growth of knowledge and skill would inevitably lead to overcoming the mountain itself. 

I believe the greatest feat the late Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) achieved wasn’t conquering Mt. Everest but rather it was conquering himself.  How easy would it have been for him to say, “It can’t be done.  I’ve tried and failed.  Nobody has ever done it.  Forget it.”  Rather, he said, “I’m still growing!...” and he did it.

How high can you climb?  The mountain is in your mind.  The world is simply an extension of it.  The following three belief principles are the tools that you will need to use in the process of climbing your mental Everests.

1. Somebody must be the first to do it.
2. Your past doesn’t need to predict your future.
3. God is in the business of miracles

Somebody must be the first to do it.

Have you ever considered the fact that everything ever accomplished in the history of the world, once held the title, “Never been done”?  One of the reasons I love sports so much is that World Records are set all the time.  A World Record is something that says anything more is ‘impossible’ or at least has never been done before.  When a new record is set, somebody moves that standard forward. 

Of course one of the most famous ‘impossible’ athletic feats accomplished was Sir Rodger Bannister’s sub-4 minute mile.  On May 6, 1954 (one year after Sir Edmund Hillary’s ‘impossible’ summit of Mt Everest), Rodger Bannister broke the four minute barrier with a time of 3:59.4.  Many at the time considered it physiologically impossible.  Yet, Bannister proved that to be false as did the 17 others who broke the four minute barrier the three years following Bannister’s feat.  

There are times when we really must work hard not to let our own self-imposed limitations dictate what can and can not be done.  Often, we don't even know that we do it.  We simply notice the bar of achievement that others have reached and subconsciously limit ourselves to that point.  There are fantastic stories of people accomplishing greatness when they were simply unaware of where the bar of achievement was set.  One of the best examples of unknowingly raising the bar is a story about George Dantzig.

In Dantzig's own words, "During my first year at Berkeley I arrived late one day to one of [Dr. Jerzy] Neyman's classes. On the blackboard were two problems which I assumed had been assigned for homework. I copied them down. A few days later I apologized to Neyman for taking so long to do the homework - the problems seemed to be a little harder to do than usual. I asked him if he still wanted the work. He told me to throw it on his desk. I did so reluctantly because his desk was covered with such a heap of papers that I feared my homework would be lost there forever.  About six weeks later, one Sunday morning about eight o'clock, Anne and I were awakened by someone banging on our front door. It was Neyman. He rushed in with papers in hand, all excited: "I've just written an introduction to one of your papers. Read it so I can send it out right away for publication." For a minute I had no idea what he was talking about. To make a long story short, the problems on the blackboard which I had solved thinking they were homework were in fact two famous unsolved problems in statistics. That was the first inkling I had that there was anything special about them." 

Everything ever invented, every record ever set, every problem ever solved was by somebody who decided (occasionally unknowingly) that the ‘impossible’ is actually ‘possible’.  Why must others’ performance limit your own?  Somebody needs to be the first.  Why not you?  Why not now? 

Your past doesn’t need to predict your future.

Have you ever said to yourself, “Well, I’ve just never been able to do that” or “This is just who I am”?  The truth is your past doesn’t need to determine what you achieve or who you are today.  In fact, who you are today is merely a result of who you have been; a result of your decisions.  Who you are right now is a person free to choose whatever you want.  Your decisions today will result in who you become tomorrow.

If you want to change the past, change today.  Because, today will be tomorrow’s past.  Get it?  The best analogy I have heard is that of a boat’s wake.  The wake is not what drives the boat but rather it is the trail that is left behind.  You may reflect on the past and learn from the past but you must understand that it does not drive your future. 

Your past failures do not make you personally a failure.  In fact, it’s often said, “The road of success is paved with failure.”  Learn and move on with greater wisdom.  Consider the words of Thomas Edison from an interview published in the January 1921 issue of American Magazine.  "After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure, expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed to find out anything. I cheerily assured him that we had learned something.  For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldn't be done that way, and that we would have to try some other way."

God is in the business of miracles.

I subscribe to the philosophy of working like everything depends on you and pray like everything depends on God.  There is a saying, “Stop telling God how big your problems are and start telling your problems how big your God is.” 

Why is it that we feel it so necessary to put the world on our shoulders?  There is no glory to God if you can do it all yourself.  When you look to a greater source than yourself, you will find tremendous strength.  Ironically, dropping to your knees is very empowering.  When “I’m” taken out of the equation, the ‘Impossible’ becomes ‘Possible’.

Invite God to captain your boat and produce miracles in your life.  Remember, your creator didn't create you for harm.  That makes no sense.  If He can create the universe, He can certainly help guide you through your part in it.  To truly fulfill your Life Purpose and achieve more than you believe you are capable of achieving, remove your ego and your control from the center of your life and replace it with your faith, your spirituality, your relationship with God.  No longer will you depend upon your abilities but rather on His.