Kahlil Gibran

Hope is an essential gift we have been given as human beings. Hope is the capacity for believing that tomorrow will be better. Without hope, we are wandering through a dark, desolate world. We are at the mercy of our fears and doubts. Hope allows us to see beyond the current trouble we are experiencing. In even our worst moments, we need to remember that life will get better. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, even when we can't see it.



As artists, writers and creative leaders, we need to believe that the next painting or the next poem will be our best. Hope keeps us writing, painting and acting in the face of self-doubt and failure. If we were to quit now, we would never know what was around the next corner or what opportunities lay ahead.



As creative leaders need hope because we live in a very negative, sometimes hostile world, that often does not understand or appreciate our creative work. I have been writing seriously for almost forty years and have yet to receive acceptance and recognition for the work I have produced. Another person might have quit many years ago, but I keep plugging away.

Do you have faith in your creative ideas? Your poems? Your stories? Your paintings? Your ability to become another person on stage? Do you have dark days when you want to quit and live a normal life? Hope keeps us going even when everything and everybody around us are telling us to give up — that we have no talent, no gift.

What keeps you going during those darkest of hours? Why do you believe in your ideas? Where does your hope come from? Don't give up. Keep dreaming. Keep hoping. Keep believing. In every winter you will find the flowers of spring.

Zig Ziglar

Note to Reader:

(This blog post marks the fifth anniversary of my blog, Monday Morning Motivation.  I wrote my first post on August 7, 2010.  The first two years I posted daily.  The last three years I have posted weekly.  I have received over a quarter of a million page views during these five years.  So, thanks to everyone who has stopped by.)





I was 35 years old when I first heard about the importance of goal-setting in achieving one's dreams. In college I had dreamed of being a writer but at 35 was far from my dream. I had only written about 200 poems in 15 years. I set a goal to write a poem a day for a year. That year I wrote over 400 poems.

Now, after more than 30 years of setting goals and writing thousands of poems, I have come to understand what Ziglar means in this quote.  The person I have become through the process of struggling to achieve my goals is more important than whether I did or did not achieve my goals.  The journey, as others have said, is more important than the destination.



So, how has achieving my goals made me a better person, a better writer?  Has my journey been more important then my destination?  



My creative journey has given me a greater appreciation for the struggle of all creative individuals.  I understand what it means to be an artist or a writer.  I am less willing to criticize the creative works of others.  Yes, some of us may be more skilled than others, but we all have creative forces running through our veins.  I know what it means to put pen to paper or paint brush to canvas and not find an audience for my work.



I have a greater appreciation of the creative energy that drives my being.  If I don't write or draw, I become melancholy.  I need to expend my creative energy.  The more I create the happier I become.  Failure to create leaves me lifeless, empty.



I have gained the ability to create anywhere and anytime.  I can write a poem while sitting in a mall while my wife shops.  I can write in church while the minister is preaching.  I can doodle while sitting in a business meeting.  I can take a walk at 6 a.m. and compose a poem.  Creating works of art has for me become a way of life, not a destination.



And most importantly, through my creativity I have found spiritual healing and understanding.  As a teenager, I was troubled by the hypocrisy of church members.  Writing has helped me see beyond the hypocrisy and to gain an understanding of the hearts of others.  I am a better person for the time I have spent creating.



Have you set goals for your creative journey?  Have you come to understand that the journey is more important than the destination?

About Zig Ziglar

1926 - 2012

Hilary Hinton Ziglar was the tenth of twelve children born to John Silas Ziglar and Lila Wescott Ziglar.  When Ziglar was five, his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi where he spent most of his early childhood.  His father and sister died a year later.  Ziglar served in the United States Navy during World War II.  He married his wife, Jean, in 1946.

Zig Ziglar began his career as a salesman and eventually moved into motivational speaking. He wrote and published more than a dozen books including See you at the Top, Secrets of Closing the Sale and Confessions of a Happy Christian.

Harley King

Who inspires you to be better than you are?  Is it a grandparent?  A parent?  A sibling?  A spouse?  A daughter?  A son?  We all need someone to push us to be better than we think we are?  We need someone who sees the talents in us that we don't see ourselves.



For me that has been my wife of 42 years.  Whenever I don't think I can do something, she is there to push me beyond the barriers of my thinking.  Whether it starting a new job that I doubted if I could be successful or getting me to do something I think is impossible.  She often sees what I cannot see.



Do you seek to find the good in others?  Do you seek to push them to do more then they think possible?  We have all been put on this earth to help others — to inspire them.  To help them become more than they are.  By helping others achieve their dreams, we achieve our own. By inspiring others, we inspire ourselves.  What we give out is what we receive back.



A little girl lived up in the mountains with her parents.  One day she became upset at her mother and ran out of the house.  She came to the edge of a cliff, and in her anger, she yelled at the top of lungs: "I hate you. I hate you."



Her own words came echoing back to her: "I hate you. I hate you."  Scared, the little girl ran back into the house and told her mother that someone hated her.  The mother realized what had happened and told her daughter to go back out and shout, "I love you."



Although the little girl was afraid, she tiptoed back to the edge of the cliff and shouted: "I love you. I love you."  Echoing back came the words: "I love you. I love you."



What we send out is what we receive back.  Do you look for the good in others?  Do you seek to inspire them?

Harley King

Believe in your dreams and don't let your fears become obstacles that prevent you from flying.  You were not given dreams because God wanted to crush your spirit and destroy your hopes.  You were given dreams because God wanted you to fly.



Your dreams are one of the greatest gifts you have been given.  Honor the gift by struggling to achieve it.  Honor the gift by believing that you have the talent to achieve it.  Honor the gift by not giving up or giving in.  Honor the gift by being thankful for the opportunity you have been given.



Your dreams are the wings that your spirit needs to fly farther than you have ever flown.  Your dreams are the wings that will carry you to greatness.  Cherish your dreams for without them life has no meaning.  Cherish your dreams that you may discover new worlds. Cherish your dreams for they will bring you laughter and tears.  Cherish your dreams so that you may be of service to others.

Ben Stein

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."

 Ben Stein

American Actor, Writer, Lawyer

1944 -

Commentary

When I came out of college in 1971, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had some vague idea about wanting to be a writer, but I had no idea on how to go about it. Remember this long before the personal computer let alone the internet. I was typing my work on a Royal typewriter. 

The only way to find jobs was through the newspaper and there were not many jobs for want-to-be writers in central Illinois, farm country. It took me four years to find a job writing and then it was an accident. I applied for for a job as a speech writer but I heard nothing. I found out later they hired a novelist with one published novel under his belt. He spent most of this time while employed working on his second novel. Three months after I applied, I received a call from a nursing home company about a job as a writer of policy and procedures manuals. I interviewed and was hired. 

I thought I would work for a year and move on to writing somewhere else. Thirty-nine years later I still work in the nursing home industry and write in my spare time. Sometimes when we don't know where we want to go, life will decide for us. And often the decision is the correct one.

If you know what it is you want to do with your life, that is great. If you don't know, don't worry. The river of life will take you where you need to go. 

Research shows that only about 2% of Americans write goals — only 2% know what they want to do with their lives.  I was 35 years old when I first heard about the importance of goal-setting in achieving one's dreams. In college I had dreamed of being a writer but at 35 was far from my dream. I had only written about 200 poems in 15 years. I set a goal to write a poem a day for a year. That year I wrote over 400 poems.

If you want to achieve your dreams, you need to turn them into goals. Goals are dreams with deadlines.

Biography

Ben Stein was born in Washington, D.C.  He was the sone of Mildred and Herbert Stein.  His father was a writer, presidential advisor and economist.  He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in economics and Yale with a law degree.  His legal career began as poverty lawyer and eventually became a trial lawyer.

Ben Stein in
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Stein served as a speechwriter and lawyer for President Nixon and President Ford.  Time magazine speculated in 1976 that Stein might have been Deep Throat, probably in part because Stein had been a high school classmate of Bob Woodward.  Stein has repeatedly denied the accusation.  



Stein began his film career at the age of 42 as an economics teacher in the 1986 movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  He has also appeared in Seinfeld, The Mask, MacGyver, Married With Children, and Ghostbusters.  He has also written for the television industry.  



Stein has written 28 books, 7 fiction and 21 non-fiction.  His first novel, On The Brink, was co-written with his father and published in 1978.  His most recent book, How To Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio, was published in 2012.



Video

Here is Ben Stein in the movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.