Home Runs
Guest Post from James L. Smith
by Capazin Thornton
One of my sons is notoriously messy. Room is messy and he never makes his bed. I told him that I recently heard an inspiring commencement speech. The speaker was a former military special ops person.
Out of all the things this highly skilled, highly trained, highly disciplined special ops guy might have said to point young people in the direction of daily success, this is what he said:
“The one thing you can do daily that will ensure your first success of the day is to make your bed. It’s easy and it can be the success that you can build on throughout the day.”
A few days later, I noticed that my son had started making his bed. Within a few days from my first telling him about this speech, he hit a home run in his baseball game. At the time he hit the home run, I had forgotten that I told him about the commencement speech.
A few days passed. I asked my son what was the correlation between keeping one’s room tidy and in order and one’s outcomes. He said that he didn’t know. I told him, when your room is cluttered, your life is cluttered. When your life is cluttered, your mind is cluttered and you spend all of your time thinking about everything and focusing on nothing. When your “room” is organized, your mind is clear and you can be focused. A few days later, my son hit another home run.
Not related to the above, but proximate in time to those home runs. This particular son has a harder time with slow pitchers. In fact, he doesn’t do very well against them. One particular game, his team made up of 18 year olds was playing a team made up of 16 year olds. The pitchers were slow and my son struck out the first two times at bat. The third time up he hits a home run over the scoreboard and over a second fence – approximately 420 feet. Two days later, he gets up to bat, and hits a home run—the 4th home run in two weeks.
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Taking just one small step toward getting your life in order can produce huge dividends. What steps are you taking toward un-cluttering your life and becoming more focused on things that matter to you? Please feel free to post your comments.
James L. Smith is First Vice President-Investment Officer, Wells Fargo Advisors LLC in Centennial, Colorado. He is happily married, father of three sons, a fitness buff and sports enthusiast.
Capazin Thornton is a Christian speaker and author in Orange County, California.
One Response
This is so good! I feel our whole life is like this. The clutter in our home does spill over into our lives. And the clutter in our minds can keep us from reaching all that the Lord has for us to do for Him. This was excellent to get us back to first things in our life that really count!!