“Suc­cess means doing the best we can with what we have. Suc­cess is the doing, not the get­ting; in the try­ing, not the tri­umph. Suc­cess is a per­sonal stan­dard, reach­ing for the high­est that is in us, becom­ing all that we can be.” ~ Zig Ziglar

It’s a warm Sun­day after­noon.  The breeze by the lake quickly dis­ap­pears as we wan­der into the for­est.  Under the canopy of trees, it’s cool though.  With a bounce in our step, we begin our ascent toward the most pic­turesque view in the park. 

{…the easy moments on our path toward success…}

Some rocks to climb on, a large hawk fly­ing over­head, a few other fel­low journeyer’s on this hike.

The Climb

A turn and we are mov­ing upward.  The for­est begins to give way to a steep upward climb — a climb high­lighted by large boul­ders and open skies.  A nar­row path leads upward, large stone steps.  We curve back and forth, slowly get­ting higher and higher.

{…the suc­cess jour­ney often has moments where it becomes an uphill climb…}

We pause, replen­ish our bod­ies with water.  We pause, and reflect back down to where we have come.  We pause, and take in that moment — see­ing where we have reached to.  A look for­ward, and we see con­tin­ued steps, no end in sight.

{…when we stop on our suc­cess jour­ney, we give our­selves time to reflect and re-focus…}

The climb con­tin­ues.  We are hot, our legs not want­ing to take that next step.  We con­tinue on.  It’s easy to think about what the view will look like once we’ve reached the top.  What about each step along the way, though?  We notice the trees grow­ing out of the rocks.  We notice a chip­munk near another tree.  We see that hawk again, this time much closer.  We see the rocks — all these rocks.…

{…suc­cess is in the whole jour­ney, not just some per­ceived peak…}

We reach the top.  Sur­rounded now by foliage, and no majes­tic view in sight — there is still this sense of joy, of accom­plish­ment, of bliss.  Even though we fully expect that our jour­ney (on this path) is not reached, we still savor the accom­plish­ment of the climb we have made.  A glance back, at these steps we’ve just climbed…a smile…a know­ing that we have per­se­vered, a know­ing that we did not back down from the chal­lenge of this climb.

{…take time to savor the path you have trav­eled, and the steps you have taken to get where you are…}

The Sum­mit

We con­tinue on, the path now much eas­ier.  Soon we reach a gor­geous rocky over­look.  For many min­utes, we just explore the area…climbing, sit­ting, walk­ing.  Oth­ers are here also — a stop­ping place to take in the amaz­ing views. 

{…soak in the suc­cess that you have created…}

The Jour­ney Continues

Our jour­ney doesn’t end, though.  We can­not stay here for­ever.  We move on, work­ing our way back down a dif­fer­ent path.  Many peo­ple are com­ing up, to see that view we saw.  We offer encour­ag­ing words here and there. 

{…share your knowl­edge with oth­ers, so they may too expe­ri­ence their own success…}

We reach the trail head, our bod­ies sill warmed up from this hike.  The nearby lake is call­ing out.  It’s time to play, to splash, to have some unstruc­tured fun! 

{…take time to reju­ve­nate and have some extra fun…}

Later on that day, we again explore another trail.  This time, we take a wrong turn, and soon find our­selves in the mid­dle of the for­est, no trail in sight.  We wan­der, look­ing for the trail we had started on.  Even­tu­ally we find that trail.

{…some­times you will get off track.  That’s okay.  Take time to adjust your bear­ings.  And remem­ber, also, that these off-track adven­tures often lead to new discoveries…}

We return home, our day filled with mem­o­ries, and with all sorts of moments we’ll treasure.

{…wher­ever your jour­ney takes you, remem­ber that this is YOUR jour­ney.  Savor what you are creating…}

Note:  This story was devel­oped from actual moments spent together as a fam­ily at one of Wisconsin’s true trea­sures — Devil’s Lake State Park.  If your jour­ney ever brings you through cen­tral Wis­con­sin, a day (or longer) at this park is joy and fun all wrapped up together!

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the sad­dest are these: ‘It might have been!’” ~ John Green­leaf Whit­tier

Do you ever have those things that float around in your heart…things that make you say “what if…”…

What if...I joined this new group I’ve heard about?

What if…I went on that trip, all by myself?

What if...I tried a new sport?

What if...I ven­tured out in my own business?

What if...I lis­tened to my heart?

…the courage to be yourself…

Do thoughts like this bounce through your head (and more impor­tantly — through your heart)?  And does that bounc­ing go any­where?  Or does it stay locked within the recesses of your heart and mind?

What If

What if, instead of just think­ing these thoughts, we did some­thing about it. 

What if we didn’t know what that next step looked like, and took it anyway.

Life is awful funny, that way.  Call it serendip­ity, the Uni­verse act­ing on our behalf, God answer­ing our prayers, …

Our thoughts, along with some sort of action in their gen­eral direction…well, pretty amaz­ing things begin to happen.

Our Town

For a cou­ple of years, the idea has bounced around in my head (and heart).  What if…I tried my hand at acting?

Of course, this thought with­out action..it’s like a seed with­out soil.  The pos­si­bil­ity, the poten­tial of that seed is great.  Although, with­out the action of plac­ing that seed in some soil, and pro­vid­ing some nour­ish­ment — noth­ing happens.

{have you ever had thoughts that lie dormant?}

Fast for­ward to early June of this year.  {and recall…this idea of thoughts cou­pled with action}  For some rea­son (I don’t recall at all any­more), I land upon the web­site of a local book­store.  That book­store web­site has a link on its site to a small out­door the­atre at a state park near our house — Sum­mer­Stage.  I nor­mally would just move on, except for some rea­son, on this day, I’m com­pelled to click that link.

Our Town, by Thorn­ton Wilder, will be per­formed at Sum­mer­Stage this sum­mer — and there is still a need for actors.

{the easy answer is to say — I’ve not done any­thing like this in forever}

{the easy answer is to say — rehearsals have already started, it’s too late}

{the easy answer is to say — I have lots of other “things” to do}

{the easy answer is to say — noth­ing…} {the easy answer…is to do noth­ing}

The easy answer, though, is it really the easy answer?  Is it, when that answer pulls you away from some­thing that tugs at your heart?  Per­haps that easy answer is an answer that’s become the default too many times? 

Per­haps that easy answer is really the dif­fi­cult answer — every time, tak­ing you one step fur­ther from your dreams, your desires, you bliss. 

So, I choose this (dif­fi­cult) easy answer…the easy answer that speaks from my heart, the easy answer that might feel dif­fi­cult and yet — it’s the answer whis­per­ing from my soul…

And So It Begins

A week later, I find myself show­ing up for rehearsals — and with a role to play.

Life is awful funny that way…

Between that time in mid-June and now — my evenings have been with this group of actors, cre­at­ing our per­for­mance of Our Town.  A group of peo­ple from all dif­fer­ent walks — together cre­at­ing mem­o­ries, ful­fill­ing dreams, mak­ing a few mis­takes (I speak per­son­ally on this one…), hav­ing fun…

{how are you choos­ing to answer?}

The Cul­mi­na­tion

We have just fin­ished up our per­for­mances.   It’s a bit strange to think I won’t be spend­ing my evenings with this amaz­ing group of peo­ple — some­thing we’ve done for the last sev­eral weeks. 

…and the jour­ney con­tin­ues for each of us…

As I reflect back, I’m reminded of a line near the end of this play ~

“…Oh, Earth, you’re too won­der­ful for any­one to real­ize you.  Do any human beings ever real­ize life while they live it — every, every minute?“

We are here on this earth for a finite amount of time.  What tomor­row holds, we know not.  And yet, it is so easy to live our lives as if tomor­row will always come.

Your Call to Action

Choose to lis­ten to that voice which speaks from your heart.  And if the thoughts that voice brings up, if they are ones that maybe scare you just a lit­tle bit — choose to act. 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stum­bles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them bet­ter. The credit belongs to the man who is actu­ally in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort with­out error and short­com­ings; but who does actu­ally strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthu­si­asm, the great devo­tion, who spends him­self in a wor­thy cause, who at the best knows in the end the tri­umph of high achieve­ment and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while dar­ing greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know nei­ther vic­tory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roo­sevelt

Dare to dream. 

Dare to be uniquely you.

Dare to step out of any boxes you’ve cre­ated for yourself.

Dare to live…really and fully, live…

photo credit: Werner Kunz

“Become a pos­si­bil­i­tar­ian.  No mat­ter how dark things seem to be or actu­ally are, raise your sights and see pos­si­bil­i­ties – always see them, for they’re always there.” ~ Nor­man Vin­cent Peale

May 22^nd, 2011

A tor­nado tears through the city of Joplin, Mis­souri – one of the dead­liest tor­na­does on record. Over 100 peo­ple lose their lives, many more are injured, and phys­i­cal destruc­tion is evi­dent every­where.

Can you imag­ine how dif­fi­cult that must be? And with so much dev­as­ta­tion, how do you even begin to recover?

Today

The peo­ple of Joplin have begun this process of heal­ing and rebuild­ing — with renewed strength in what is possible. These cit­i­zens and all the vol­un­teers help­ing out are true exam­ples of the power of the human spirit in action.

There is still much to do – the destruc­tion that hap­pened in mere min­utes will take months and pos­si­bly years to fully restore.

Today, you have the oppor­tu­nity to help sup­port this heal­ing and rebuild­ing that is hap­pen­ing in Joplin.

Together with friend and col­league Tess Mar­shall, we have teamed up to cre­ate an e-book. 

Love Care Donate

This is no ordi­nary e-book.  This is the col­lec­tive effort of over 60 writ­ers from through­out the world.  Writ­ers unit­ing together and bring­ing hope to Joplin. 

Every one of these writ­ers has con­tributed a favorite arti­cle to this e-book, cre­at­ing a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of sto­ries.  Sto­ries of inspi­ra­tion, humor, growth, and love. 

Today, Tess and I are ask­ing for your help. 

Please visit the Love Care Donate, a dona­tion page we have cre­ated to raise funds to sup­port the Heart of Mis­souri United Way in their mis­sion to bring car­ing funds to the good peo­ple of Joplin.  In addi­tion, you’ll find infor­ma­tion on how to receive this Love Care Donate e-book, our gift to you. 

There is much hope in a future filled with pos­si­bil­ity.  Together, we all can make a difference!

With deep grat­i­tude,
Lance and Tess

To all our con­trib­u­tors, thank you!

Design by Sue Alexan­der ~ Inspired Type

Note:  If you’re hav­ing trou­ble view­ing the video, please click here.

“The only gift is a por­tion of thy­self.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emer­son

Has life ever not  gone as you’ve expected it?   There are those set­backs that are minor, and we can move on in our jour­ney with­out much prob­lem (and some­times these set­backs end up being so, so good for us too).  And then there are those big­ger set­backs, that can shake us to our core.

Tess Mar­shall, from The Bold Life, and I are team­ing up to help sup­port the fam­i­lies of those affected by the recent tor­nado in Joplin, Missouri.

We’re work­ing together to raise money to sup­port these fam­i­lies, through dona­tions to the Amer­i­can Red Cross.  The Red Cross has a pres­ence in Joplin, and we’re cre­at­ing a way for you to be a part of rebuild­ing this com­mu­nity (and its peo­ple).  As our way of rais­ing money to sup­port Joplin, we’re cre­at­ing an e-book which we’ll then sell, with 100% of the prof­its going to the Amer­i­can Red Cross.

NOTE:  We’re not look­ing for your finan­cial support.

To make this a real­ity, we need your help, though.  We would love for each of you to be a part of this e-book we’re cre­at­ing.  And this e-book will be a com­pi­la­tion of favorite posts by a num­ber of dif­fer­ent blog­gers.  Please con­sider join­ing us!  All it takes is for you to choose a favorite post from your site.  That’s it!  And then we’ll include it in the e-book we’re cre­at­ing, with a link, as well, to your site.

What We Need:
Your com­mit­ment, below, to join us.  Once we’ve col­lected our list of con­trib­u­tors we’ll be send­ing out spe­cific infor­ma­tion on how you can sub­mit your favorite post to us, for inclu­sion into the e-book.

That’s it!

In early July, we’ll have the e-book cre­ated.  Note that there is no oblig­a­tion for you to buy one of the e-books.  If, how­ever, you do choose to — know that all the pro­ceeds will go to sup­port the rebuild­ing of Joplin.  We’ll be sell­ing the e-books for a sug­gested dona­tion of $5.

Thank you for all your sup­port, not only with this, but for all that you do.

If you have any ques­tions, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact either Tess or myself.

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