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Daring Greatly: How to Put Life in Your Years

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“Daring greatly”. That was the phrase coined by that whirlwind of masculinity known to the world as Teddy – Theodore Roosevelt. While in Paris in April 1910, Roosevelt gave a speech that has come to be known as “The Man in the Arena” speech. The speech, which I have my boys memorize and have written about here, implores men to take action, to refuse to be someone who sits on the sidelines of life. Such a person, if he fails, at least fails while “daring greatly”, a state much better than merely surviving on the sidelines.

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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

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I ran into an old friend recently and was talking to him about an upcoming golf tournament that he was going to play in. “I’m playing really well”, he said, “I just can’t score”. “I’ve always been that guy who hits it really well but never scores well. I been playing a lot and playing better than I ever have, but can’t seem to post the scores that I should. Honestly, I just need to work on my short game. I play three times a week, and if I’d spend that time chipping and putting, I’d be a really good golfer. Instead, I just want to go out three times a week and see how far I can hit my driver.”

Now, it’s clear that “being a good golfer” is important to my friend. He wouldn’t be playing three times a week in preparation for the tournament if he didn’t want to be good. What’s more, he wouldn’t be talking to me for 20 minutes about the state of his golf game heading into the tournament if he didn’t care about being good at golf. He wants to be good. [Read more…] about The Stories We Tell Ourselves

High School Guy

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I had a blast in high school. I really did. I played sports and made plenty of friends. Those were great years, and I will treasure them for the rest of my life. In fact, I count several friends from high school as among my closest. I’m grateful for those friendships and those high school years, and look forward to our 25th reunion next summer. But the reason that those years are great is that they are only one small part of the journey. I moved on from them. I went to college. I got married. I became a teacher, then went to law school. I’m still a practicing attorney with fantastic clients. Along the way, I had four kids. High school is but a distant memory. My accomplishments during those years are just rungs on the ladder of life. [Read more…] about High School Guy

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