One More Degree

"It takes only one person with one match to light one candle to fill an entire room with hope." - Joseph Primm

There is a success principle called "212" or sometimes "211 to 212". It is a simple concept to grasp and has to do with the boiling temperature point of water. As we all learned in school, water reaches a boiling point at 212 degrees Farenheit.

The point at which water begins to change form.

One degree less and the water is just very hot. Nothing more than that. Certainly not at a point in which water is transformed. The change from a liquid to a vapor is 212 degrees. A boiling point creates the ability to sterilize, ward off bacteria and other very good fundamental things occur.

It is a point where everything can change.

Stop short at 211 degrees and nothing happens.

Go one more degree in life, that is the principle of 212. To go one extra step, to go where change will happen in your life. The significance is in that one degree.

One degree, one more step, one more person.

That one degree is you.

You can make the difference between nothing and something. You can make the difference that changes everything. You can be that one degree.

Stay inspired my friends!

Little Things We Do

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." ~ Helen Keller

The news headlines grab your attention regarding great new inventions or discovery. It might be the cure for polio developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1952. Or maybe you were the guy who came up with the whole E equals mc squared thing. You might even be a philanthropist gifting billions of dollars to help others.

What of other great people in religion, athletics, politics or business that have come and gone? So many people throughout history have had huge individual impact upon this great world. But do you count yourself among the great people of this world?

You should.

Your life may not grab the attention of millions of people around the globe. But the good things you do in life have an impact on others just like the famous headline grabbing people.

Your impact is just as great and meaningful as others.

Never under estimate the small tasks in life for they are the most noble of all those accomplished.

Stay inspired my friends!

Broken Bubble

“The danger of venturing into uncharted waters is not nearly as dangerous as staying on shore, waiting for your boat to come in.” ― Charles F. Glassman

There is a movie from 2001 titled Bubble Boy, in which a boy is born with an immune deficiency and his parents keep him in an environmental safe room at home. You find out much later in the story that doctor's had misdiagnosed it but his mother was so overly protective, she led him and others to believe he would die by stepping out of the protection.

So he lives his life in a protective room, immune from all which happens outside his door. The insulated nature of his life fuels within him a desire. His story is that of a person wishing to break free of this protective cocoon of safety.

Life is so much more. There is love of life and people to pursue.

The boy decides to risk his life outside of this room in a more portable bubble he has created for himself. He remained in steadfast belief of his need to be protected. He enters the world outside his room with a shield; a bubble that keeps him separated from others just as the door on his room did.

Stepping out to change yet holding on to his perceived truth.

Each of us do this in life. We pursue dreams but with a view of the certainty of things. Those beliefs we simply hold as truth due to the culture in which we have lived in. Some of those beliefs might be absolutely true while others are misguided acceptance.

I for many years had a misguided thought. In it, I had thought Art Garfunkel, member of a popular singing duo from the 1960s had died. Much to my surprise he was performing in Central Park during a reunited concert.

When I look back, as a very young and inquisitive child, a sibling had told me a story of his death. Most likely to quiet me from asking so many questions about why the duo had split up. But I took this information as truth and believed it fully.

My mind was opened to questioning many other truths in life.

You see the idea is not to question and be suspect of everything. It is not meant to live life with paranoia of events and people.

It means to find out as much as you can about the world around you. To live life by stretching yourself beyond the confines of life lived in a bubble.

The Bubble Boy knew he was faced with giving up his bubble of safety for his real dream; the love of his life. When he stepped out of that bubble he found real truth. His long held belief was not true and he was now free to pursue his dreams.

Sometimes we have to face the reality of what we believe.

Living inside the bubble of what we believe has a limiting effect upon our lives. There may come a time when we have to question our beliefs in order to pursue our dreams or goals. Do not be afraid to test those beliefs and take a step outside of the bubble.

You may find the air is fine and the last wall is broken through to a dream.

Stay inspired my friends.

Doing Right

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt

In the late 1930s, Jewish refugees were fleeing a country where persecution and death was almost certain. And during that time, many countries including the United States wanted to deny these people access to a safe place.

Even in the latter half of 1941, as yet to be confirmed news of mass murdering being inflicted by the Nazis, the US Department of State placed even stricter limits on immigration based on national security concerns.

Now many will argue there were no terrorists in the waves of Jewish peoples wanting to escape the horrors being perpetrated upon them. If so, then why deny entry of those persecuted on grounds of national security ... at that point in time.

Fast forward through years of other smaller yet similar mass immigration from the Bosnian conflict to the many de-stabilized African countries. There are political, economic, and religious reasons for many of these conflicts of cause. And now we have a current exodus of Middle Eastern peoples of all faiths who are being persecuted in their journey.

So what is the right thing to do?

Well the gray permeates on both sides of the issue. In fact most debates are never black and white as Facebook posts, Twitter comments and the multitude of blogs (including this one) would have you believe. Social media has taken this into a dimension of absolutes on both sides with very little middle ground.

So the idea of doing what is right remains debated.

Whether it be in daily decisions we make or the big debates of our time, we should all try to do what is right. The absolutes of either side when brought together in the gray mix will yield what is right. There will be plenty of time to sort out the dysfunction which inevitably comes from doing the right thing.

Doing what is right should always be the first thing we do.

Stay inspired my friends!