Month: April 2025

Hope Is Not A Four-Letter Word.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”—Albert Einstein

The title is borrowed from the band, Shinedown*. I love the band (I would love to interview the lead singer on my …We Have a Spiritual Problem podcast, if anyone of influence is reading this). I find the lyrics (below) of this song reassuring. Hope, after all, is a good thing. It is something we need in our present world.

Hope is the very essence of “be your best today; be better tomorrow.”

Hope requires action. It is not blind optimism or trust. It is the faith that if we “learn from yesterday, live for today,” hope for tomorrow will bring good things. We must live in the expectation that the circumstances of the moment are for the greater Purpose—something that is not always easy, especially when the circumstances are anything less than pleasant. Nevertheless, let this post be one of encouragement.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

…and the world will be a brighter place tomorrow.

Hope

Look at the battle we’re inI was never one to pick a fight I couldn’t winLook at the secrets we keepThey terrorize me every night in my sleep
Afternoon tea with the impending doomCounting the elephants here in this room
You can be twisted but still optimisticBe the black sheep but not a statisticMay not know who you areBut you know what you’ve gotSo hang on to the absurdHey, have you heard?Hope’s not a four-letter word
Put on a happy faceMake a scene and leave a permanent traceShow me that rebel insideWhere the leader of the revolution resides
Afternoon tea with the impending doomCounting the elephants here in this room
You can be twisted but still optimisticBe the black sheep but not a statisticMay not know who you areBut you know what you’ve gotSo hang on to the absurdHey, have you heard?Hope’s not a four-letter word
Careful, you might catch yourself going underCareful, you might lose your breath like the othersCareful, you might slip and never recoverCareful, you might burn to death like the others
You can be twisted but still optimisticBe the black sheep but not a statisticMay not know who you areBut you know what you’ve gotSo hang on to the absurdHey, have you heard?Hope’s not a four-letter word
*Songwriters: Brent Smith / Dave Bassett / Eric Bass / Zach Myers

Complacency.

“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”—Andy Grove

You don’t have to be paranoid to survive (i.e., evolve Spiritually and to grow Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially). You simply have to a growth mindset.

It is interesting to consider that “success breeds complacency” but failure breeds growth and success. Failure is not always the result of complacency. Yes. Allowing success to get  to one’s head or allowing success to create rigidity does breed complacency—because failing to take risks leads to not taking risks and not challenging oneself. I disagree, to an extent, with Andy Grove. Complacency cannot breed failure, because it involves no risk of failure.

Failure is an essential stimulus for growth. The “overload principle” from exercise science applies to SPIES—for a body system (or a dimension of well-centered fitness) to adapt, it must be challenged to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed. In challenging oneself, failure is inevitable—it is essential if one is to grow. Failure is essential for continued success.

Failing to fail is complacency. Once we begin to “play it safe” and rest on the laurels of our success, we stop growing—we stagnate. If we are not growing, we are dying.

Success should not breed complacency. Rather, it should breed a greater hunger for challenge and growth.

“I have high expectations for myself – as an athlete, as a man, as an individual – and wrestling has helped me build a lot of character knowing that I have to remain humble but also fight complacency.”—Jordan Burroughs

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!