virgin islands scene

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
-- Robert G. Ingersoll
 

 

Wednesday, February 26, 1997

Direction

When you know where you’re headed, you know what to do next.

Imagine starting off from New York to drive to Los Angeles. On the second day out, the alternator on your car goes out. With a clear sense of direction, knowing exactly where you’re going -- Los Angeles -- you know precisely what to do next. Get the alternator fixed and get on with your trip.

But what if you didn’t have such a clear sense of direction? What if you had started out, just kind of thinking that it might be nice to drive west? Then, when the alternator goes out, you don’t really know what to do. Take a bus back home? Stay here for a while and look for a job? Is the car really worth repairing? Maybe you should just get another one. Perhaps going west wasn’t such a good idea after all.

On a daily basis, life presents us with distractions, obstacles, and problems. When we have no direction, we dwell on these problems and distractions to the point that they become our reality.

With a strong, clear sense of direction, however, the obstacles and distractions are merely stepping stones on the way to the ultimate goal. Know where you’re going, and each thing that happens along the way, whether “good” or “bad", becomes a means of getting there.

— Ralph Marston

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Copyright ©1997 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.