Stillness and contemplation are very important for me. Stillness and contemplation are not very easy for me.
I’m an enthusiastic and ambitious person living in a fast-paced world. It’s easy to jump out of bed and start running around, taking on many things at once. Too much of this leads to months passing by in a blur and wondering if I really enjoyed any of it.
I’ve gone through times of spending hours in meditation, contemplation, and prayer. I know firsthand how good those seasons are for me. Unfortunately, they seem to coincide too well with when I really need something (like at the start of the year, when job hunting.)
It’s much harder to practice this in a way that integrates with the demands of my everyday life, but it’s too important to give up on.
The key to success is being relentlessly helpful
I started noticing this in the world of marketing. Don’t just tell people to buy your stuff, build relationships with them and serve them. Then I saw this become true everywhere else in life.
Sure not every helpful person is a successful person in the world’s eyes, but as the world shifts, people who genuinely have the best interests of another person at heart truly stand out.
Hope is meant for moments that don’t feel hopeful
Remember ten years ago when a president ran a campaign based on hope and the Phillies were a World Series team? Yeah, seems pretty distant now, doesn’t it?
I’m learning that hope is meant for times when hope doesn’t seem so easy. It really turns into an act of faith. Those who continue to do right and follow good convictions are ultimately the ones who discover that hope isn’t in vain.