"It's never too late to be who you might have been."

 --George Elliot

This quote hits a little personal for me. 

On October 12, 1993 I started working as a Corrections Officer inside the Warren County Jail in Lebanon Ohio.  I was quite successful at the career, achieving the rank of Corporal within 5 years, then the rank of Sergeant less than a year later, and ultimately the rank of Lieutenant 3 years after that.  I was planning on further promotions, eventually becoming the Jail Administrator (Warden) and planned on retiring after 30 years at the young age of 53 years old.  Well, the Lord had different plans for me; in June 2013, while working at my desk, I had what the doctors termed a "sudden onset stroke".  That was my last day of work in the Warren County Jail.

I went on sick leave and was employed with Warren County for a few more months while I recuperated.  However, in January 2014 I ran out of sick hours and had to make a decision.  I could have asked fellow employees to donate sick leave to me, and I am sure many would have as I always donated to others when they needed it.  However, morally, I could not do so as I knew the chances of me returning to the job were slim; I was still (and do to this day) get dizzy very easy.  So, I made the decision to leave the job I loved on January 30, 2014.

Now at this point I am a 43-year old man with an MBA in a career I can no longer do, I still have a mortgage, a car payment, 2 pre-teen girls, and other bills; what do I do?  I thought for sure it was "too late" to do anything productive.

Today, after a couple of years of trying some careers, I am finding success in the funeral industry.  I get to help people plan a funeral that they want, and make a decent living doing so.  In fact, this year, my first full year in this profession, I should make more than my highest year at the Sheriff's Office.

It is never too late!

"Most 'impossible' goals can be met simply by breaking them down into bite size chunks, writing them down, believing them, and then going full speed ahead as if they were routine".

- Don Lancaster

I remember an old saying, How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  That is the essence of this quote; don't focus on the huge ending, focus on the little steps that get you to the end.

I like to take my family to Disneyworld annually.  We make the long trip from just north of Cincinnati Ohio to Orlando Florida usually in the middle of the night (so my girls sleep through the trip).  Inevitably, I am the only one awake while driving.  If I focus on "600 miles to Orlando", I feel defeated.  Instead, I focus on "50 more miles to Tennessee", then maybe "100 miles to Atlanta", and so on.

It makes the long trip so much more manageable.

That is how we should be with any goal in our life.  I have an amount I want to make this year; it is a fairly large figure but I don't think of it that way.  I think of how many families I must help THIS MONTH to be on pace for the goal.  I have that amount written down, I believe I can achieve it, and I go about realizing the smaller tasks that will ultimately lead me to the higher goal.

Oh, and by the way, if you know me or have ever seen my size, you would know I have eaten an elephant or two in my life.

"This above all, to thine own self be true"

- William Shakespeare

As many of you know, I worked 20 years in a jail.  Often times I would see inmates who could not tell the truth, or would not tell the truth, if their life depended on it.  That was always disturbing.  But what was even more disturbing was the victims.

Often times, we would get a male inmate in for domestic violence, the female being the victim.  Before we could even get the inmate booked in, the female victim was their wanting to get him out of jail.  They would say things like "He didn't mean it", "I love him", or even "I deserved it".  Thankfully, most of the time, the domestic violence charge meant they were unable to bond out of jail until seen by the judge.

This saying says to be true to yourself.  Don't mislead yourself.  In the cases I described above, those victims were operating on pure emotion and often times were telling themselves a story that was not true; they were misleading themselves.

"A Journey of a Thousand Miles Must Begin With a Single Step"

- Lao Tzu

There is an old saying that says the first step is the hardest; how true that is.  Let me give you a biblical reference.

I have never taken a thousand mile journey, I don't even believe I have personally taken a thousand one mile journeys.  But I have taken journeys.  On our honeymoon, my wife and I climbed a mountain just outside of Gatlinburg Tennessee... that was a difficult journey but we did it and we were proud when we reached the top that we had completed that journey; and boy the view by the way.  But way back down that mountain, in that parking lot at the base, where we pulled that little Pontiac T1000 (glorified Chevrolet Chevette for those who don't remember this late 1980's car), we had to take a step and get out of the car - that first step.  It all hinged on us taking that first step.

I have been to many mountains in my life.  I have been to the Smoky Mountains, the Rocky Mountains, as well as mountains in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and the Philippines.  But the only mountain I can honestly say I climbed was that mountain on August 23, 1990 outside of Gatlinburg Tennessee with my new bride.  What is the difference between all those mountain trips?  Simple, on August 23, 1990, I got out of the car and took a step, then another, then another, and then a whole bunch more - I took that first step.  All those other mountains, I didn't take that first step.

"Success comes in cans, failure in can'ts".

- Author unknown

I remember as a kid my grandpa reading me bedtime stories when I stayed at their house.  One I remember as a small kid was about the train engine trying to make it up the hill; you remember, where the train engine kept saying:

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can"

and then as he topped the hill, he started saying:

"I knew I could, I knew I could, I knew I could"

That is the essence of this quote, think you can and you will!  Think you can't, and you wont!

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right".

- Henry Ford

I quoted this to a friend just last week.  It has to do with your thinking, your thought process. 

Yesterday in church, my pastor was talking about living a good life and having the blessings of God on your life.  He stated that oftentimes we don't think we can do anything and therefore we don't do it, and God can't bless our inactions.  He made the statement that we must change our "stinking thinking", a term coined by the late Zig Zigler.

That is what this quote is about.  If we think we can do it, we will try and oftentimes achieve the goal we set out to do.  However, if we think we can't, we will not even try and no goal will be achieved.  There is actually a spiritual law at play here, the law of Reaping and Sowing.  If you sow good things, good things will happen; but if you sow bad things, bad things will happen.

You see, we are right either way.  Let's be right and do something; set a goal, believe you can achieve it, and go out and achieve it!

or not - the choice is yours.

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

— Proverbs 29:18

My most favorite book in the world is God's book, the Bible.  Contained within the Bible are 66 separate books preserved by God for us.  One of the books, the book of Proverbs, contains 31 chapters of proverbs to help us in every aspect of life.

This proverb deals with goals - vision.  If you do not have a vision, a place you are going, a way to get there, and a means to get there; you will never get there.

Set a goal, a realistic goal; outline a plan; write it down; and achieve it.  Without the vision, you are doomed for failure.