Rejoice, but don't stop plowing!

Dear Why Team members, I hope this post finds you well and enjoying your day.

In the ancient text, we are encouraged to put our hands to the plow and not look back.  Why?  Farming as a metaphor I find myself returning to time and time again.  Imagine both your hands to a plow, plowing a field.  How effective would you be, how straight would your lines be, how efficient your effort, if you kept looking behind you?
Living is always in the now and what we do with the now is what determines the quality of our life.  What we do with the now is also our only influence on the future.  Alexander Graham Bell once shared an adage that is often repeated, but not in it's entirety.  He said, "When one door closes, another one opens". What few people know is what he said next.  He then said, "but we... 

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 ...look so longingly at the door that closes, we fail to see the door that opens."  How many new doors of opportunity do we miss when we are constantly looking back? 

Tolstoy said the only place we have any power is in the Now.  No doubt looking back with shoulda, coulda, woulda weakens our ability to get it done NOW.  The past does give us valuable feedback, insight about the quality of our choices, even regrets to inform and form us, but learn what you can and get back to the plow, to what is now and to what is possible when we make the most of what we have - Today and Now.  See the new doors open before you and the past as a mere preparation for living more fully today and thus more fully impacting tomorrow. 

​For surely new doors of opportunity abound.  One needs only to see with new eyes, open to the possibilities each new day can bring.  Today I will rejoice - is an act of will.  It is not I might rejoice, let me check the news, I might rejoice, let me check the weather.  When we are proactively determined to make today great, it more often is great.  Reactively hoping a day will be great makes one dependent upon circumstances and this powerless approach can breed a sense of hopelessness.  Say to yourself, Today, I will rejoice and be glad in it, I will make today a great day. 

​Yet another lesson from the ancient text.  To be all that we are called to be for others, today and in the future, put your hands to the plow.  Do not let the past discourage you, but rather leverage the insight living has brought you, to be all the more diligent with what a new day brings.  Each new day is an absolute gift.  Appreciating this truth is always a great start.  To reap possibilities, we must sow them.  Each new day provides new opportunities to serve and be served by doing so.  Put your hands to the plow, don't look back, make the most of today, and tomorrow will take care of itself.

Make it a great week,

Steve Luckenbach