A Shared Commonality

In a short period of time, I have attended three (3) college graduation ceremonies. At each event, I looked about the attendees and thought, 'WOW! Look at all the different folks gathered to celebrate a friend or love one's journey.' I could not help but consider a human phenomenon. At all three ceremonies, I noticed the many ways we can separate ourselves as people. The more obvious would be gender, skin color, height and perhaps weight, color of hair or lack thereof. I would bet we can find endless subtle differences between folks regarding political and religious views as well as countless likes and dislikes.

As I had these thoughts I remembered back in the year 1994. That spring, I was invited to speak at the annual USA Basketball Coaches Clinic held in St. Louis, Missouri. A number of college coaches were guest speakers and I was one two high school coaches presenting before some 500 attending coaches. One of the college coaches speaking was the LSU basketball coach, Dale Brown. I thoroughly enjoyed Coach Brown's presentation, which still speaks to me these many years later.

Coach Brown's contention was based on the theory that even though people differ in so many ways they all (every normal person) dream of achieving success if not greatness. Brown believes that the people who 'achieve' negotiate four hurdles, which non-achievers fail to negotiate.

 Hurdle #1...I Can't Make a Difference...With a little talent and a lot of passion you'd be surprised the  difference you cam make.

Hurdle #2...I'm Handicapped...Are you stopped by fabricated 'handicaps?' Successful people do not lean on crutches as excuses to not achieve.

Hurdle #3...I'm Afraid to Fail...I personally believe this hurdle is the number one sickness of people in the 21st Century. I've had three back surgeries. With each the surgeon reminded me that there were no guarantees but there were risks. And so it is with getting out of bed every morning. That's called 'life.'

Hurdle #4...Know Thyself...Ask yourself 'who are you and what purpose do you have?' Once you discover that it's not about YOU but about using your talents and serving family and others you will feel purpose.

Just imagine the hundreds of thousand high school & college graduation ceremonies this spring around the world. WOW.  ALL those folks will need to identify these hurdles and negotiate them if they are to find true happiness.

    (Touch)
Andy Williams

Impossible Dream