The bird let loose in Eastern skies,
Returning fondly home,
Ne’er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.

—Thomas Moore, “Oh That I Had Wings”

How do fly above “all low delay”? How do you avoid “idle warblers”? Share your thoughts by commenting below.

“There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.”
—Arthur P. Stanley

How do you find such glimpses? Share your thoughts by commenting below.

The art of being sick is not the same as the art of getting well. Some cancer patients recover; some don’t. But the ordeal of facing your mortality and feeling your frailty sharpens your perspective about life. You appreciate little things more ferociously. You grasp the mystical power of love. You feel the gravitational pull of faith. And you realize you have received a unique gift—a field of vision others don’t have about the power of hope and the limits of fear; a firm set of convictions about what really matters and what does not. You also feel obliged to share these insights—the most important of which is this: There are things far worse than illness—for instance, soullessness.

Tony Snow succumbed to the ravages of cancer in 2008.

Let’s all appreciate the little things more ferociously, no matter our health and wealth.

Mere weeks before the conclusion of the war, Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address. Despite the enmity of war and the trials he and the nation had jointly faced, his words spoke of healing and reconciliation. He laid no blame on either party, for in his simple, poignant words, “and the war came.”

Instead of focusing on the differences that divided North and South, he focused on the common culture that yet bound them together. “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other,” he said. And yet, he acknowledged that controlling events was out of his or indeed out of any man’s hands: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

And with his peroration, Lincoln became “healer-in-chief,” espousing “malice toward none” and “charity for all,” and a call “to bind up the nation’s wounds”—not just in the North. He pledged the nation to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan,” and to look toward “a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

These are the words of one who bore no grudge, who sought peace in the ashes of war, who saw the full potential of his countrymen, regardless of uniform. We can all learn to seek the welfare of others and lay no blame, even when such can be laid.

“I think it not improbable that man, like the grub that prepares a
chamber for the winged thing it never has seen but is to be — that man
may have cosmic destinies that he does not understand.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

What is your cosmic destiny? Share your thoughts with the community by commenting.

2 cups heavy cream

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Five ingredients, easily obtainable at the local grocery store. With heavy cream, egg yolks, and sugar, no doubt it will be something rich and satisfying.

What’s next?

Obviously you have to know what to do with the ingredients. You need a recipe to help you assemble everything properly. Success comes from following a proven path. Otherwise, you’re left to your own devices, forced to stumble around looking for answers, and cooking up who knows what.

So what happens after you have mastered the recipe? That’s when you can improvise and explore. To the ingredients above perhaps you add some lemon curd, or perhaps some finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate. The recipe you learned then becomes the departure point for numerous variations, each of which gives you the opportunity to expand the boundaries. It’s like a piano prodigy adding her own flavor to a Mozart classic.

The basics—the recipe—are always at the core of your effort. But it’s only the start. Once you master the basics, then you can improvise and experiment.

(So what do those ingredients make? When combined properly, they will produce a fantastic crème brûlée.)

This little journey we’re on that we call life takes some interesting turns. Sometimes we reach a new summit and the view is breathtaking, only to later find ourselves in another valley, unsure of where the road is leading.

To end up on peaks of significance, the key is to take time and find our bearings. In Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance, author Bob Buford suggests that life has two halves, and we need to use a personal halftime to effectively transition from a focus on success to a focus on significance. As Buford states,

One of the most common characteristics of a person who is nearing the end of the first half is that unquenchable desire to move from success to significance. After a first half of building a career and trying to become financially secure, we’d like to do something in the second half that is more meaningful—something that rises about perks and paychecks into the stratosphere of significance.

After outlining “The First Half” and “Halftime,” Buford explains different ways one can find significance in “The Second Half”—identifying a life mission, lifelong learning, money issues, etc.

The legendary management guru Peter Drucker, whose wisdom is sprinkled throughout the book, was a mentor to Buford. Toward the end of the book, he writes, “Peter once said to me, ‘The beginning of adult life is when you ask the question, “What do I want to be remembered for?”’ Essentially, this is the question of halftime.”

What do you want to be remembered for? Get this book and answer that question.

Find Halftime on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

“You’ve heard of people calling in sick. You may have even called in sick a few times yourself. But have you ever thought about calling in well?

It’d go like this: You’d get the boss on the line and say, ‘Listen, I’ve been sick ever since I started working here, but today I’m well and I won’t be in anymore.’ Call in well.” -Tom Robbins

Are you ready to call in well?

What are you good at? What sets you apart? Do you have unique talents that others envy you for? Do you have any idea? At a time of high unemployment like we are facing now, understanding what your strengths are could prove essential.

In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton show you how to identify the talents, knowledge, and skills—which make up your strengths. Discover is not an accidental verb, either. When something is discovered, people are finding something already in existence. So it is with your strengths. You have already developed your strengths; the key, then, is to recognize what you do best.

Each copy of the book comes with a code you can use on-line to complete a “StrengthsFinder Profile,” which will show you your top five strengths. These are taken from 34 “themes” explained in the book—such as analytical, arranger, context, developer, empathy, fairness, input, learner, positivity, restorative, and strategic.

These themes were not arrived at by throwing darts at a corkboard. Rather, they are based on psychological profiles conducted by Gallup with more than two million people.

Beyond helping you understand what your strengths are, the book helps you maximize your dominant strengths for personal development; success as a leader; and to benefit your organization. The book also gives you insights in how to manage others based on their strengths.

The authors state, “You will excel by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses.” Is that contrary to personal development? After all, just a few days ago we celebrated the lessons of The King’s Speech, including the persistence it takes to overcome a weakness.

According to the authors, the approach of not fixing weakness “is not the same as saying ‘ignore your weaknesses.’ The people [in this book] did not ignore their weaknesses. Instead…they found ways to manage around their weaknesses, thereby freeing them up to hone their strengths to a sharper point.” If you are dealing with a weakness that is entirely debilitating, like King George VI’s, you will have to tackle it.

Find Now, Discover Your Strengths at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. 

“All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.” -James Thurber

Where are you going? Share with the community by commenting below.