/At sunset/ Nature is painting for us… day after day… pictures of infinite beauty. 

– John Ruskiin

– Sonal Kashyap 

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” (Michael Jordan)

This man led his team to numerous NBA championships.

This man, when breaking into professional baseball–his second sport–arrived earlier and stayed later than anyone else.

This man would not dream of blowing off a team workout with the pathetic excuse “it’s just practice.”

This man wrote a book entitled I Can’t Accept Not Trying (fittingly subtitled Michael Jordan On The Pursuit of Excellence).

There’s a reason why the Michael Jordans of this world are so rare.  Will you take the challenge and lead your team–whatever your team is–to a much higher place with your excellence and toil?

Image…

We’ve all either given or received the career advice: “Follow your dreams.”  “Do what you love.”  “Love what you do.”

Recently, there have been an increasing number of counterarguments making the case that if we were all going to “do what we love,” we’d starve doing it.

I came across a 2006 post by Paul Graham: “How To Do What You Love” that offers what may be the best thought-leadership on the subject that I have read.

Graham is an essayist, programmer, and investor. In 1995, he co-developed the first web-based application, Viaweb, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998. He has an AB from Cornell and a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard, and studied painting at RISD and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence.  Graham’s blog is one of the most followed in the blogosphere.

It is an essay (longish for those of us with…

It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit.

– Antoine Rivarol

Beautiful shot and post-processing by

– Tejasvi Batria

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton)

Power comes in many different forms.  Executive position, influence, knowledge, ability, pedigree, wealth.  Whatever your station in life, you exercise varying degrees of power.

Some of us are single and are empowered to direct our own lives and influence the people around us.  Some have positions in the marketplace carrying significant executive weight and accountability.  Others of us are born into privilege and responsibility, a greater degree of power carrying commensurate benefits or consequences depending on its stewardship.  One can’t help thinking about the Kennedy’s and the Rockefellers.  Or the House of Windsor.

I’ve noticed, after nearly five decades of living, that power, when given—as in, say, a sizeable job promotion—tends to bring out what is hidden in the heart of the one to whom it is delegated.

For some, it brings into relief the most noble qualities—service, care, efficiency…

Assume-To take for granted, or without proof; to suppose as a fact; to suppose or take arbitrarily or tentatively.

Today I want to share some truths that I had to discuss with my kids last Friday. We haven’t attended church on a regular basis up until now, so I had completely forgotten what the church atmosphere can be like at times.  Here are 12 things you never assume about church.

1) Never assume that everyone in church will welcome you or your calling.

2) Never assume that everyone that goes to church has your best intentions in mind.

3) Never assume that everyone that goes to church is going to be friendly.

4) Never assume that you won’t find bullies in church.

5) Never let just anyone lay hands on you or pray with you. Someone with a wrong spirit can defile you if you let them pray or lay hands on you.