I Win

"I didn't lose, I just ran out of time at the end of the game."

I laughed the first time I saw this quote on the back of a T-shirt. I figured they are either in denial, or they had a real grasp of what life is always about. Never giving up on your dreams. The teams that lose a championship one year and come back to win it the next - those are the organizations I really have respect for.

I believe there are two keys to living an untethered life.

1. Never give up on your dreams. It is never too late to do great things. At 62 Tolkien published the first of his Lord of the Rings stories. At 71 Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest man to climb Mt. Everest. At 89 Albert Schweitzer ran a hospital in Africa. At 95 Nola Ochs became the oldest person ever to earn a college degree.
2. Embrace the journey. If I am going to be 95 when I get my diploma, or 71 when I reach the top of Everest, I am going to enjoy the journey along the way. I would love to see all my dreams and aspirations come to fruition tomorrow, but it's just not going to happen. I have a series of successes and failures ahead of me, so I will revel in the victories and learn from my defeats, but I will continue to cherish this path God has set me on till I finish the course.

So win or lose, victory or defeat - I win at life. I embrace the journey, cherish the moments along the way and at the end of the day, maybe I will be remembered for something exceptional, but if not, rest assured that it was a great ride.

Managing Defeat

"Before success in any man's life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and perhaps failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do." Napolean Hill

A few years back I had the privilege of working with a friend who ran a men's shelter. My perception of homeless shelters was a place reserved for drug addicts and the most challenged social classes of our society. I was surprised to learn that most of the men came from typical middle-class backgrounds, but somewhere along the way had suffered some devastating defeat in their life. They went through a divorce, had a child die, or were downsized from a longstanding position in the corporate world. Rather than address the problem, it was easier to escape into a world of self-pity and doubt.

I realized then that a very thin line existed between my own failures and defeats and those fighting daily to reclaim the most basic elements of life. "But for the grace of God, goes me." I have been through divorce, depression and discouragement. I have come very close to quitting on things that really mattered. I have spent mornings unprepared and unwilling to wade through another day of disappointment, struggle and hardship, but here I am - one day closer to eternity, one day closer to victory.

I don't have all the answers to managing defeat and failure. I wish I knew how to best overcome the struggles of discouragment and depression. The one thing I am confident about is this. If you want to succeed, you can never surrender your dreams. What sets you apart, lifts you above the masses, the single character issue that places you in the small minority of winners is an unwillingness to quit - for as Napolean Hill correctly stated, "That is exactly what the majority of men do!"

Trent Wheeler

Start executing your plan today.

"A good plan violently executed is better than a perfect plan executed next week." George S. Patton

I can't recall how many times I have said, "Things will be better when . . .," or I have heard someone else say, "I could be happy if . . ." The real question is what are you waiting for? You want a happy life! You want a fulfilled life! You want less stress, a better job, more freedom, real change begins in your mind. Abraham Lincoln, with all the stress and heartache he endured reminds us, "Most folks are as happy as they make up their mind to be."

You want a different life, an untethered life, the life you dreamed of - start taking some action. The people who have accomplished great things aren't really any smarter, competent, or talented than you are - but they do tend to have two very important characteristics that set them apart.

• They are people of action. They don't wait for the world to hand them their dreams on silver platters - they execute their plans violently. They don't allow naysayers, or negative people to hinder them from fulfilling their dreams - they act on them.
• They are not easily discouraged. Most successful people have endured monumental failure. They fail greatly and they succeed greatly. Consider these words by Teddy Roosevelt delivered on April 23, 1910.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

So, what are you waiting for?