Choices, Part 1

Benjamin Franklin did something quite remarkable early in his adult life that made him the great man that he was in history.  I read recently that Franklin noticed that he had difficulty getting along with people; he argued too much, and he had trouble making and keeping friends.  At age 20, keenly aware of what he believed were his own character defects that hindered him, he determined to do something about it. 

He made a choice: He chose to examine his own personality, list what he considered undesirable personality traits, and do something about them.  He then selected 13 virtues he wanted to enhance in his life that he believed would help him become a better person. The virtues he aspired to enhance were:

1. To be temperate, especially in the consumption of food and alcohol.

2. To practice silence and to speak only words that benefit others.

3. To live an orderly life.

4. To resolutely do what ought to be done.

5. To practice frugality.

6. To work diligently and manage time well.

7. To be sincere and honest.

8. To do what is right and just.

9. To be moderate in all things.

10. To practice cleanliness.

11. To remain tranquil and calm, particularly in situations that cannot be avoided.

12. To practice sexual constraint.

13. To learn humility by imitating the figures of Jesus and Socrates.

Though these sound very much like SJ strengths, other temperaments can certainly possess them too.  However, the SJ is often identified by such strengths.

It was not because Benjamin Franklin was an SJ that made him great though.  It was his choices that made him great!  He chose to develop the strengths that he was given at birth and to use them to become a better person and to help his country and his fellow man.

Suppose he had not made the choice to develop this list of strengths.  He would not have become the admired and respected diplomat that he became.  People would not have looked up to him or chosen him to represent them.  France would not have responded to him positively and probably would not have helped the young nation that was emerging.  What effect did his choice for his own life have on the history of America?

Your choices about your life may not affect the world to the extent that Franklin’s did (although they might), but they will certainly affect YOUR life.

Wishing won’t make it so, but your choice can.  How is your life going right now?  Is there anything that needs changing?  I know there are areas in my life that need work.  Recognizing our needs is the first step, just as it was for Ben Franklin.  The next step is the one that will make the difference.  One good decision could change everything. 

The choice is yours.

Discover your strengths.  A great aid to that discovery and to developing your strengths is INNERKINETICS — Your Blueprint to Excellence and Happiness.

Stubborn Determination: SJs

Biographies and autobiographies are very interesting to me.  It must be something about the reality of someone’s life — how they lived, what struggles they encountered, and how they made it through that appeals to my SJ way of relying on the past.  There is something very encouraging about hearing the difficulties, which are often greater than any I have faced, and celebrating a person’s survival.  Funny thing: the people who share the stories I have read never complained.  They always felt that they were better for having gone through their trials.

Louis Zamperini, the hero of Unbroken (movie and book), in his book Don’t Give Up, Don’t Given In, tells of how much he wanted to win a mile race.  He had watched the 1934 NCAA Track and Field national championships in Los Angeles when Glenn Cunningham raced against Bill Bonthron in the mile.  Cunningham had already run an indoor 4:08:04 mile and had an outdoor time of 4:09.8.  He was about 8 seconds behind Cunningham — a long distance in a mile race.  Cunningham was his hero because Louis had read the story of how Cunningham had been severely burned as a child in a fire that had killed his older brother.  He had lost a great deal of flesh and all the toes on his left foot.  He was burned on both legs and up to the middle of his back.  Doctors gave him little chance of walking again, let alone running.  

“Cunningham epitomized resilience and resolve,” wrote Zamperini and he described how Cunningham had massaged his legs to stimulate blood flow, endured physical therapy and willed himself to stand, then walk, and finally to run.  Cunningham’s efforts and sacrifices inspired Zamperini and says he knew of no story as compelling as Cunningham’s.

Cunningham lost that 1934 race to Bonthron and Louis Zamperini determined that someday he would get that record back for Cunningham.

Louis got his chance in 1938 when he raced for USC in the NCAA championships.  His coach told him the night before that the opposing team coaches were going to tell their milers to do “anything they can to knock [Louis] out of the race.”  The runners did as Louis’ coach had predicted: cursed Louis, ran their spikes through his little toe, gashed Louis’s right and left shins, elbowed him in the ribs - and cracked one when Louis tried to pass.  In the last 120 yards, the other runners loosened up because they thought their leader was far enough ahead. Louis took advantage, fighting through the pain, and turned it on to win the race and establish a new record of 4:08:03 that stood for 15 years!  What a finish!

Newspapers the next day showed in photos the extent of how he’d been beat up, but the real story was that, according to Louis, his “persistence, perseverance, and unwillingness to accept defeat when things looked all but hopeless were part of the very character traits [he] would need to make it through World War II alive.”  The rest is history.  His story is one of a real hero!

In Louis’s own words: “Of course, you don’t have to live through a war to have those qualities work for you every day.  Sometimes a day in the office or raising kids is just as challenging.”

His story inspires me!  Whatever you are going through today, just remember that what you need is to find the way to get through it.  Getting through it will be a WIN!  And the character you build in the process will be what you need to find the way to win the next battle you face!  Life is about building and building takes work in the form of persistence and perseverance — something a lot of people describe in us SJs as “stubborn determination.”  So be it!