Monthly Archives: April 2025

Practice

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The competitive nature of athletics is said to develop character.

And, it is thought that adversity’s task is to reveal it.

Perhaps.

But maybe character isn’t so much in need of development or of being revealed. Though its expectations remain high, it could be that character’s demands are much simpler to grasp.

Maybe character is just desperate to be spoken. And then, heard.

To be trusted and afforded the benefit of the doubt.

That stands to reason. Since character always knows the right thing to do and just when to do it.

And as you begin to listen, then hear, you will find yourself drawn closer towards it. Finding comfort in its embrace, a sense of purpose in its guidance and a growing courage to use it to face everything life can throw your way.

Character simply yearns to be the first, the best and the last choice you would ever make.  And learning to act upon its “recommendation” puts you on a trajectory aimed directly toward your best interests.

Let’s look at it this way.

To effect tangible, positive and lasting influence on anything you choose to master, only one thing is known to work.

Practice.

If it is engineering, medicine or teaching that has captured your heart, then you put your desires to practice.

The cello? Singing arias, painting with watercolors, architecture, cooking or film?  Mastery is not gained in one attempt.  But in many.

It takes practice.

Is it service that calls you?

Then finding the pathway – both within and without –  that will lead you there takes effort, commitment.

And, practice.

For some, athletic competition is what makes the spirit soar.  To become all you intend to be, you have to employ all that you are to honor that purpose.

Through  practice.

So to be able to hear, trust and embrace character’s voice?

It takes practice.

By developing good listening habits. Getting attuned to its singular voice. Hearing its message.

Having faith in its command and making a commitment to heeding its wisdom. Learning to allow it to be your unshakable guide and loyal mentor. And developing  the patience to allow it to do its work.

Over, and over, and over, and over again.

Putting character into practice.

“…conscious will…”

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Character is more than what or how you are, or even how you are being defined by others. 

It is more about how you go about defining yourself. 

By the choices you have made, are making now and will make sometime tomorrow. Like the ones made when blessed with abundant  success.  Those seemingly throw away ones made during those long stretches of “the same old same old.” And the ones made when faced with adversity. 

Character isn’t an amenity. 

Or an accessory. 

Something to be stowed away. Reserved for a special occasion, or on display when the time is right and the audience ample.   

Character is intentional. An active endeavor. To be fully employed and engaged.   Just as you are meant to pursue all other things of value. Now. At this moment.   

Character in action is a brand of leadership borne from within. 

“ The first act of leadership is coming to grips with yourself, who you are, where you are, and what is of value to you, and shaping yourself by acts of conscious will into what you want to become” * 

Intention. 

Breathing life into the aggregate of those traits and qualities.   Casting your impression on what is of value. Shaping yourself into what are meant to become by making a difference. 

Now. 

Character – fully employed, engaged and in action – honors the best that is within all. Character creates pull. Attraction. Its own gravity, drawing others into your orbit. The genesis of an intensely personal brand of leadership meant to take this moment. 

This I know to be true. 

  • Fenwick W. English

G=R

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Ralph Marston Jr., an inspirational author once said; “Your goals, minus your doubts, equals your reality.”

If you want, you could take this concept, reduce it even further, and transform it into some simple arithmetic. 

G – D = R

With some effort, a personal commitment and a positive attitude, you can solve for “R”.  And being that you are the one to control the factors, you are also the one that can make the difference.  

A dream is a blueprint. 

A fully illustrated and dimensionalized  rendering of your goals. Creating an image that is so vivid, that you can actually live in it, each step along the way.  

Until you make it your reality.    

That image of what you want to do, where you want to go, and what you want to be, becomes the focal point of everything you do along the way to get there. Then all you need to do is make what is going on out here  match with what you see in your head and what you feel in your heart. 

It requires an extraordinary level of vision to be able to “see” that  goal.

Because you can never afford to lose sight of the present; the moment you are in right now.  This is where all the prep work takes place. Discipline learned.  Commitments made.   Attitudes formed. Character revealed.

Yet you also need to develop the skills to check the horizon, to establish your coordinates and to adjust your long term plans if need be.

If it appears that your destination – the goal – is getting closer, then perhaps your work in the present is paying off. You are making progress, you are affecting your reality. 

And once you get to that point, when you get there, it will be like deja vu all over again. You will have already spent months or years in that moment, in that very place Only this time, you get to actually do it.

However, if you look up and find the horizon seems farther away than when you last looked, or is missing altogether, perhaps it is time to regroup.

It can be at this juncture where doubt can make its presence known.  Excuses, rationalization and self pity will begin to take their toll.  A negative attitude can add to the inertia, increasing drag, acting as an anchor.

Self doubt can begin to slowly destroy your spirit, overshadow your confidence, bury your talent, and push you to simply quit.  The voice within you that always said. “I know I can” grows silent.

Self doubt is a choice, and if you allow it to take root it can diminish the value of your goal substantially.  Allow it to grow and get out of control, self doubt will ultimately erase your goal in its entirety, leaving in its wake, a reality marked by unrealized potential, disappointment and pain.

Your choices wield the power to ignore self doubt’s distractions and  eliminate them altogether.

You can choose to refuse doubt.

With vision, a positive attitude, and the ‘want to’ to eliminate self doubt, the equation for success is simpler yet: goals equal reality.

Or:        

G=R