A definition: WISDOM-The quality of having experience, knowledge and GOOD JUDGEMENT!

The sooner we can assimilate WISDOM, the fewer bad decisions we’ll make in our lives.

And bad decisions can sometimes set our entire life on the wrong trajectory.

It’s really just that simple, but not easy.

So, how do we gain wisdom?

In the definition, the word EXPERIENCE jumps out at us.

Wisdom can come from both good and bad experiences.

A good experience makes us ask, “Why was it good and how can I have more just like it?”

A bad experience makes us ask, “Why was it bad and how can I avoid doing it ever again?”

We shouldn’t wait for someone else to help us build wisdom.

We must be SELF-TAUGHT!

Greater wisdom will lead to greater happiness and fewer wrong decisions.

If not today, when?

This is the Empire State Building all aglow in RED lights while celebrating the U.S. landing on the RED PLANET!

The rocket left Cape Canaveral last July and made a flawless 130 million mile flight traveling at 20,000 miles an hour.

As President Biden said after the landing, “If we work together, with American ingenuity, we can do anything.”

Do you feel something very good is possible in your future?

You MUST BELIEVE IT TO ACHIEVE IT!

I know we have had a lot of bad news thrown at us lately.

But, we’ve got to get up, dust ourselves off and get back in the game.

I’m talking about the game of LIFE, YOUR LIFE.

According to the NASA manager, it took thousands of parts to work perfectly in order to make a safe landing.

If we can do that, what can you do to build a great future for yourself?

Every time I go to the grocery store, I am met by the greeter.

The greeter’s job is to make sure all customers are wearing a mask and to keep the shopping carts organized.

The greeter I see early in the morning is an older man.

He obviously takes his job seriously because he’s always doing something over and above the call of duty.

When there is a lull in customer traffic, he is out sweeping the sidewalk in front of the store entrance.

Or, he’s washing the sliding glass door entrances.

My point is that he does more than is expected of him.

Do you do more than is expected of you?

As a son or daughter? As a spouse? As a parent? As an employer or employee? As a friend?

If not today, when?

He’s 26 years old and has never been on an airplane.

He is a product of Detroit’s inner city. So far, he has led a very sad life.

He has been betrayed by his family.

After cashing his paycheck one day, he was shot by a friend who stole his money.

Although his friend aimed for his head, the bullet just grazed him and removed his left eyebrow.

Out of high school for nine years, he still doesn’t have his GED.

After much sorrow, heartbreak and disappointment, he is boarding an airplane and hopefully beginning a new life.

He has chosen a city in the South where he will try to find work.

He saved enough money to pay for the flight and five days of food and lodging.

If he can’t get a job, he has a return ticket.

He told me he never wants to return.

May God bless him on his quest!

“Thy will be done” is a part of “THE OUR FATHER.”

I believe God plays an indispensable role in our lives if we allow it to happen.

How do I arrive at such an audacious conclusion?

Because of all the coincidences in my life that really aren’t coincidences!

Maybe, the most memorable one is the instant I first saw my future wife. It was a stroke of lightning.

She told me that she was attracted to me as well.

Fifty seven years later, that lightning stroke is still at work.

Have you had your share of non-coincidences?

Some like to refer to this phenomenon as “Listening to your better angels.”

Abraham Lincoln, in his inaugural address, hoped the country would “Listen to its better angels” just after seven states had seceded from the union.

God is talking to you. Be prepared to listen! The message may come through another person, something you hear or read. It probably isn’t a very loud voice or a banner in the sky! Just be prepared.

If not today, when?

Yes, Andrea Bocelli, the famous, blind Italian tenor who gifts all of us with his voice!

He once said, “I COULDN’T SEE. SO, I TRY TO TOUCH!”

He has certainly touched us.

A sightless man is giving such a gift of love to the world!

Can you imagine being blind and traveling the world while coming into constantly changing environments?

He is certainly an inspiration to those of us who have our sight.

Bocelli is another example of someone overcoming obstacles and making a difference in the world.

I am always humbled by such examples.

How about you?

Can this story help you overcome a challenge you’re currently dealing with?

Don’t sell yourself short!

Go for it!

If not today, when?

I believe there is a direct relationship between attentiveness to details and the attainment of a successful life.

A focus on details is time consuming and requires extra effort.

So, it’s like everything else worthwhile, it’s not easy.

One of the benefits of anticipating all the details is that they provide the information you need to decide to drop a project or go after it with vigor.

Have you, at this point in your life, developed the habit of pursuing the details necessary for evaluating and executing an objective?

If not, it’s never too late to start.

Are you hopeful of moving up in your company?

Have you examined some of the major challenges your company is facing?

People who get promoted in corporate America are people who solve problems and “go the extra mile” to help their employer.

Do your homework.

Learn more about your company’s challenges.

Get into the details.

Become a proactive problem solver.

If not today, when?

I learned that saying from my mother.

A graduate of The University of Chicago, she was a deep thinker.

I admired and loved her greatly!

Having given birth to six children, she spent most of her time at home raising all of us.

My dad was a professor at The University of Notre Dame. He would often come home in the evenings to tell us all about some news event on campus.

I think she used the saying as an expression from a very bright woman that she was the one “who stood and waited.”

She did find an outlet in writing articles and books.

She told me near the end of her life, however, that she regretted the fact that she could have done more with her life.

She accomplished a lot. Maybe, it’s never enough!

While vacationing in Florida, we hear the roar of Navy jets overhead.

They are based at the nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station.

They are a daily reminder that the next generation is up there on guard.

They are practicing every day.

They are flying the most sophisticated war plane ever built.

As part of their training they must land and take off (touch and go) from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Mexico.

Senator John McCain was shot down while piloting a Navy attack plane in Vietnam.

We have always had young patriots who volunteer to put themselves in “harms way.”

Those young pilots flying overhead every day are a constant reminder that freedom isn’t free!

Be sure to thank ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY and VETERANS for their service!

If not today, when?

Will the world be better off because you were here?

What should be the means of measurement?

We know Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine. He has spared millions throughout the world who would have otherwise been stricken.

Yes, he made a difference with his life.

But, you don’t have to save the lives of millions in order to make a difference.

No, if you can make just one person’s life a little easier, you have made this world a better place.

Is your next door neighbor lonely?

If so, there is an opportunity to make a difference.

Will you welcome a new, fellow employee who is struggling to become accepted.

Too many of our kids are becoming depressed because they haven’t been to school in a year.

Will you become a sincere listener to their problems.

Forget thinking about you. Begin thinking of someone else!

Make a difference!

If not today, when?