Like many college football fans, I came to respect and appreciate the role model and character that Manti Te'o exemplified. I came to admire a young man who showed leadership and lived by principles. He fought through adversity and came in second place in the vote for the equivalent to the college football MVP. Then the nation was shocked to find out that he really didn't have a girlfriend who died of leukemia. This news broke on the same day that Lance Armstrong went on Oprah to admit after many years of lying, that he cheated to win his 7 Tour de France titles.
The tragedy is that in both situations the deception began as a little white lie and was perpetuated until it became the enormous scar that it has. Now none of us is perfect (I certainly have made enough mistakes), but as we strive to create the best version of ourselves, we should remember that deception in the smallest of forms can snowball into something that can destroy our character. Practice living a principle driven life by making it your policy to represent the truth in all that you do.
Best wishes to the above mentioned. I don't know all of their circumstances, nor do I judge them. My hope is that they may find the peace that this simple, yet powerful principle brings when made a part of who they are.
Written By: Tim Andrus
I love this photo of an innocent child staring into her reflection in the window. Like this child, I have found that taking time to reflect on my own life is a key component to human performance. Reflection is a quiet form of evaluation. How often do we set goals or have objectives, yet we don't have a mechanism in place to keep us moving forward. A friend of mine tells the story of their family playing a game where the objective was to see who could get the dinner plate to stand upright on it's edge. After a lot of frustration and many fallen plates, they found that it only stood when it was rolling forward.
Let us make it our constant practice to continually be in a state of moving forward, and if we take time to reflect on where we are, evaluate and take action, then we will be living a principle driven life.
Written by: Tim Andrus
As we embark on a sojourn of a new beginning, many of us will look to set resolutions or goals for the new year. The problem is that most of us don't set our sights on the correct goals and attempt to radically make change to our behavior. Because of the difficulty in hitting the mark, most of us will fail shortly after making the resolution (just look at the attendance at the local gym spike and dwindle over the next few weeks). The secret to a foundation of real lasting change was know by the ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians.
Just look at how long their pyramids have stood the test of time. The foundation was laid and the spectacular edifices took TIME to erect. Our challenge is to take our time laying a foundation by making incremental changes to our life. As we make daily changes, at the end of our sojourn, we will look back and will have built our own spectacular destiny as great as the pyramids.
Written By: Timothy J. Andrus
