Pride

When I originally saved this picture to use as a Thought of the Day, I had one thing in mind. However, as time has gone on, I have found a new meaning for this phrase, a new foundation to tie this Thought to.

A line of my fraternity's Object states that "every member shall be honest with himself, as with his brothers."A key part of that honesty is knowing when to ask for help and when to speak your mind. This is something that I particularly have struggled with at times. You see, I hate asking for help. I hate appearing weak and unable to take care of my own business. By not asking for help, I sometimes do not tell my brothers what is actually going on in my life.

I think we all can relate to this situation. As prideful humans, we don't want to appear that we need help. Let go of your pride. Be honest with your brothers, your friends, your family. Will you ask for help?

Happiness

I must confess, today's Thought was one of those happy coincidences that just fell into place. Heck, I didn't even find this Thought. Usually when I wake up I look for a new Thought of the Day and I post it on my fraternity's bulletin board. As luck would have it, someone beat me to it today. To be completely honest with you, I have no idea whether this story is actually something that happened. For all I know, the poster could have made it all up.

But I prefer to believe in the goodness of humanity, so we'll roll with this Thought today. Buddha is implying that in order to find happiness, you must remove ego and desire from your life. I can see the merits of this. How many times have you messed something up because your ego prevented you from admitting that you were wrong? I know I've been there. But is finding happiness really this easy?

Each and every one of us has a unique take on happiness. We all find joy and happiness is something different. One of my greatest sources of happiness has been teaching. Something about seeing a student understand an idea and apply that idea to their own life just gets me every time. For me, teaching isn't an isolated event that happens only in the confines of a classroom. For me, teaching is a way of life. And by extension, the happiness wrought from that teaching is a way of life. You see, teaching is one of the most selfless acts out there. It's not about you, it's about the students. It doesn't matter what recognition you want. It's going to come down to what the students want. With that, desire and ego is gone. All that is left is happiness. What does it mean to live out happiness in your life?

Hungry

Today's Thought comes from the great mind of the late Steve Jobs. While this isn't his most popular quote, I do believe it speaks strongly to folks of my age. It's so easy to get caught up in trying to do things by the book, get the A+, get a good job that we forget what it's like to be hungry and foolish.

At the beginning of my summer, I thought back to another great summer experience: attending Washington Leadership Conference (WLC) through FFA in Washington DC. What made WLC such a great experience? What made it fun? In the end, I came down to two points: 1) I had no expectations and 2) I had a desire to prove myself. In short, I was hungry to show what I was all about, I wanted to prove my worth.

Think back to one of your best experiences in your life. What made it so great? I'd venture a guess that you too had this sense of hunger to prove yourself. Or maybe it was on the other side of the spectrum. Maybe you just didn't care what people thought of you. You found a way to stay foolish. So don't worry so much about what's supposed to happen. Don't worry about following the path. Maintain that sense of hunger. Stay foolish.

Rabbits

Now I realize a lot of you are likely confused by this Thought. What does it mean? After all, isn't it just a stuffed energizer bunny? Well, yes, you would be right. It is 'just' a stuffed rabbit. However, the message behind it is what I am trying to get at.

Throughout this summer I was always amazed at the ability of my co-workers to identify and stay true to our organization's mission and vision. Sure, they were always looking for new ways to fulfill that purpose, but the purpose itself was never in doubt.

I wondered about this until the CEO and President told me a story. He said that a number of years ago, when the organization was just starting out and starting to gain traction and expand, there were many many different directions the organization could go. The temptation was great to stray from the core mission of the organization into other (very worthy) causes. For Christmas one year, his co-workers gave him this stuffed rabbit. It came with the message "Don't chase the rabbit". Wait, what? What rabbit? Don't worry, I was confused for a second too.

You see, his co-workers equated these worthy, though ultimately off target ideas to rabbits. So by saying "don't chase the rabbit" they were telling him to stay on target, stay on sight with the organizations purpose.

Have you ever gotten off target? It's easy to do. With life, there is no manual. We just have to go with what feels right. And many times, there are ideas or activities that while seeming to be ok, are truly off target with the people we are striving to be. This target or purpose would be called your values and morals by many people. Strive to stay on target. Don't get away from the values, purposes and visions that you hold dearest. Don't chase the rabbit.

Repair Man

I have to start out by saying, I love this line. I thought this line from the television show Community hits particularly close to home. My fraternity has the motto "Builders of Men". This motto sums up our entire purpose, our Object that I wrote about in an earlier post. I believe that this line says the same thing.

Recently, I have been struggling with a very difficult decision. I can't say what that decision is but I can tell you that it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. It seemed like no matter what I did, I would be in the wrong. As is usually the case though, someone is always there. In this case it was one of my best friends and best brothers from my fraternity. He spoke truth that I wasn't able to speak to myself. In the end, he was simply looking to help me, he was looking to repair man. Maybe you have someone like this. Maybe you're that person. No matter what your place is now, we all can be a True Repair Man. In all things, seek to help your fellow man. Seek to be a True Repair Man. Will you repair man?

One

Today's Thought comes from the character that is Ron Swanson of the television show that is Parks & Recreation. I apologize if anyone is upset by the language present in this piece, but I believe it is a great message.

How many times do we multi-task in life? Tonight at my fraternity's meeting, one of our advisors spoke a few words on the idea of multi-tasking. I'm not sure of the exact text of her speech, but it had something to do with this idea of doing too many things at once. When we divide our attention, we don't do any of our tasks justice. We must devote our full attention to one thing at a time.

Do you 'whole-ass' one thing? Or are you more of a person to nibble around the edges of multiple projects? I know in my life I have struggled at times to maintain the balance. At those times nothing that I was working on turned out very well. Correspondingly, when I focused my entire attention on one thing, it turned out pretty good. Don't divide your attention. Do one thing and do it all in.

Awakening

I suppose I should be grateful to have any readers after my brief hiatus. It has certainly been an eventful last few weeks. Let me take you through it. First, I ended my internship in Kansas City. That experience alone was huge for me, I owe so much to the people I encountered and worked with. Next, I moved to Minnesota just in time to work all twelve days of the Minnesota State Fair. Neither heat, humidity nor crowds stopped me from doing my job. Which brings us to today. Tomorrow is the first day of classes at the University of Minnesota, also the first day of my last year at college. After a while of all this moving around, you get a little run down, feeling like you just are in a fog. You need to wake up.

Today's Thought is courtesy of Anonymous from the movie V for Vendetta. Fantastic movie with an interesting social justice-y type theme. In the movie, Anonymous is trying to upset the established order, a tyrannical dystopia controlled by a wealthy few. He calls for this idea of global awakening. While starting school is no earth-shattering awakening, it is a nice reminder to constantly be awake to the new day's opportunities. My awakening from the fog of constantly changing jobs and venues is loading. Tomorrow it takes it's flight. What awakening are you seeking? Perhaps it's taking the next step in your education. Maybe it's a little deeper than that, waking up some dormant internal state that urges you onward. Begin loading your awakening so that when tomorrow comes, you are prepared to seize the opportunity.