There is this amazing source of energy generated by character. 

One that can only be accessed through your choices. Character is a catalyst, helping you unleash your potential. 

But it also doubles as a guide, creating for you an internal pathway. A trail that can lead you ever closer to the best version of “you.” Your character can act to shepherd you towards many opportunities for growth, achievement and success. And one such opportunity stands out among all the rest: the call to leadership. 

Every choice, every decision you make is an opportunity to affirm the strength of your character. So if you stay true to yourself, then the choices you make will always parallel your character. 

And decisions made on this basis become the deeds that reveal the core, fundamental truths about “you”. A genuine, unmistakable and lasting image of the very best part of you. 

This mass – “who you are” – begins to work in concert with the leader that resides within. There is power in that collaboration. 

Your character becomes an irresistible force. 

Spreading ever outward, casting an indelible impression on the people and the world about you. 

Leadership that is only begotten of character.

“Luck comes to a man who puts himself in the way of it. You went where something might be found and you found something, simple as that.”

— Louis L’Amour 

Going where something might be found has nothing to do with luck. Rather, it is an intuitive way of looking at opportunity. 

Before you can put yourself in the way of it, you have to apply yourself in ways that will get you there in the first place. Expending energy and effort. Making a personal investment. And staying the course. Not just once. Nor ten or a hundred times. But always. 

A level of commitment that doesn’t just put you in the way of one thing. But many, many others just like it. Making things “luck” if you want to call it that. 

Yet in reality, you are expanding opportunity. 

But only through your steadfast commitment.

I am sure that you have worked to muster a level of will, faith and fortitude to maintain and nourish a sustained level of action. Cleared a path that is best suited for a pursuit of excellence. Dedicated yourself to finishing – no matter what. And then, enacted the personal changes that serve to  reflect your highest intention. 

What then will be different? 

James Allen once offered that, “…men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.” 

It cannot be kept secret because how you think, speak and act become apparent.  They are shared.  Engaging with others in all manners.  Becoming a virtual depiction of you and ultimately what you wish of others. 

The same holds true of commitment. Thoughts, choices and actions not only declare your intentions for all to see. Nor do they simply lend themselves to creating the circumstance of the moment. 

They will forever broadcast the oath you have made. 

Your promise to be something bigger than yourself. 

Not just what makes you different. 

And more importantly.

What makes them important.

“Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.”

James Baldwin 

It is a trait of character that enables one to approach the daily grind with the enthusiasm and joy typically reserved for a rare and desired event. To invest yourself fully into the smallest moments, making it a reflection of the best that is in you. 

If you can approach things from a perspective of privilege instead of duty, then you get to partake in the joy those moments bring.  

You GET to do those supposedly menial tasks.  Even if it is only taking out the trash. 

This level of effort, engagement and enthusiasm for making the most out of every instant – and you – is never wasted. 

It all adds up.  Nor can it be lost. 

It all adds up. 

For nothing is ever wasted.  You may think those situations do not matter.  But they do.  

 Adding fuel to the fire. 

YOUR  fire.