God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.

C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

What a powerful thought.

Regardless of where you stand on believing in God and whether or not God places trials in our lives to test us, life will test you at some point.

The older I get the more I wonder how many of my "temples" are really houses of cards.

We see others whose metaphorical card houses have been toppled and quickly jump to conclusions about what they may have done wrong, not noticing we are balancing precariously in a house of cards ourselves.

But wheres the positive spin, Jake?

First, showing empathy for the weaknesses and follies of others can help us from meeting that same fate.

Second, seeing our house of cards for what it is before it falls can save us a whole lot of heartache.

Take a look at what you are building your beliefs and habits from to make sure they are built on solid footing.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going. – Sam Levenson

Monday morning reminder – let’s get going!

Time doesn’t wait around for anyone.

Got something you want done? Get started!

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/8xg3vE8Ie_E?si=3_yf56zd1hA0Tmkr

Sunday will mark our 24th wedding anniversary (we were almost as young as T Swizzle looks in this video).

When I think about our love story, I can’t help but focus on a couple of lessons learned about love.

First, love is a verb. Love is about doing for those you love in your life. Being married to someone gives you endless opportunities for loving action taken on their behalf. Consistently taking those actions builds trust and helps fill the tank for all the times you (we/I) fall short.

Second, love is a choice. Whoever you love will let you down. They will fall short of expectations, forget to do that thing you told them, and make mistakes. You can choose to love them anyway.

Love requires grace. Not only do we need to choose to love in the face of shortcomings, we need to show grace for those same shortcomings. Not just being patient or understanding, but true forgiveness and grace.

Last one – for those of us who are Christians. God has to come first. If both husband and wife are earnestly pursuing God, the love will flow naturally.

Thank you to Meaghan for showing me love and teaching me all this over the last 24 years, sorry I’ve kind of a slow learner and still have a ways to go….

Make it a great day.

Jake

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose. – Lyndon B. Johnson

Today is ours to win or lose.

Let’s do this!

Make it a great day.

Jake

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. – Voltaire

So many of issues, frustrations and heartache in life is self-imposed.

We think thoughts and take actions that keep us where we are and keep our current patterns going.

I wish we could all get just a glimpse of what our life would be like if we let go of these self-imposed limitations.

Too often it takes a catastrophic event to wake us up and lift the veil that keeps us blind to what is possible for us.

Don’t wait for that to happen to you.

Ask a trusted friend of loved one if you have any blind spots that are holding you back. Then really listen. Take them seriously and decide to act on whatever feedback they give you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – Please let me know about my blind spots!

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain

In my opinion, we should all cultivate a bias towards action.

To develop the habit of getting started.

Life is full of obstacles and difficulties.

It won’t go the way you want it to.

But if you keep moving forward, it will (probably) end up pretty good.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Quality is everyone’s responsibility. – W. Edwards Deming

Good thought here. As a business, the idea is easy but the application is a little more complicated.

It’s easy to go about our day focused on “my stuff”. Letting your own goals and work become your only focus.

Instead – the ultimate quality of what is delivered is everyone’s job – together.

As a team better results become possible.

As long as everyone takes responsibility.

I believe this also works at home and in our relationships. Quality is everyone’s responsibility.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/4F_RCWVoL4s?si=RQTmabLBG8e8H29r

Got to take the family to a game at Fenway yesterday. One of the traditions is to sing this song together as a group.

It’s so interesting when you get a group of people together and experience the same thing together. Something special happens.

Strangers become friends.

People (not all of them) seem a little nicer.

You can see that glimmer of hope that maybe we aren’t all doomed.

We were built for community and music.

Make it a great day.

Jake

For a glimpse of the experience you can watch this from the 2018 World Series game:
https://youtu.be/DRmL8V5y2TE?si=6gTw5vr-hKqhfXNP

David Goggins challenges people in a unique way.

Basic premise – the number of times you are going to be doing something you would rather not do is going to be greater than the number of times you are doing what you want to do – this is your new normal.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

There are no “off days”, “cheat days” or “me days”. There are only days where you are being disciplined or not.

What does this look like for you today? Forget about getting started on that new goal later – start today. Pick something hard and do that instead of what you would rather do. Get going.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Went to see the place where Thoreau lived on Walden Pond yesterday so I’m resending an old daily attitude about one of his many quotes on keeping our selves focused on the right things.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. – Henry David Thoreau

Challenging quote alert…

It’s so easy to get distracted and focused on all the little trivial things in our lives while ignoring the root cause.

We let selfishness, greed, laziness, and anger win out while we try to keep up with the Joneses.

We argue with others about political differences and complain on Facebox about all the losers.

We shop and spend and adorn ourselves while ignoring a hole in our hearts.

We hack at the branches of the injustices of the world and ignore the root in our own hearts (and of those we care about).

What can you do today to hack at the selfishness in your life?

What can you do today to hack at the consumption obsession?

Let’s get to work on tackling the right end of the problem.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – You’re pretty great. You are one of a kind that was built for doing and becoming the best version of you. You’re probably much further down the path of working on the right end of the problem than me and I’d love to hear how you did it.