Getting in to position! “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” Benjamin Franklin

Have you ever stopped for a moment to think about where you have positioned yourself in life? Looked around you and ensured that you have put yourself in a position of successful action. Think about it, a position that will allow you the ability to act successfully when opportunity comes at you. A position that allows you to act when tough times come. A position that will allow you to handle and return those situations that you do not prefer happen.

Positioning yourself in life is crucial to success as well. Be prepared as the scouts say. Nevertheless, it actually goes much deeper than that. Positioning yourself imperative for good.

If we do not position ourselves to receive blessings, are we really receiving all that could be offered? If we do not position ourselves in a place that allows us to be grateful can we truly receive great things?

Positioning ourselves in life in all things is very important. It places us, ready, willing and able to fully receive all of the love and excitement we deserve in this life.

Recently, I was invited by a friend to learn how to play racquets ball. Dan desired somebody to play against. He looked at my physical abilities and the shape that I was in and figured that either I must play, or that I would do well at it. Who knows, maybe he needed a boost to his ego and a good afternoon of beating me would make him feel better. Nonetheless, we met up at the club and headed to the court.

I had always considered this to be one of those yuppie sports that was pretty and really did not offer much in the way of physical fitness. I had no idea truly, what I was getting into. I entered the court and the rules were explained to me.

You see, the key to the game is position and timing. If you are in the wrong position, there is very little chance of you hitting the ball. If your timing is off, you will not be able to get into the correct position either. So with a few other rules, I was ready to begin.

 As the ball was served, I began to truly appreciate how large this court really was. When I had stepped in, I had semi-scoffed at its size. It was roughly 20 x 40 with very high walls. However, as the fast paced play began, I decided that the twenty feet that I needed to cover might as well been a mile. By the time, I would get where the ball it would have already bounced twice. Which of course, is bad?

As I focused on the game, I noticed some similarities to this and life… I began to see a pattern form and felt the motivation for the day that I was looking for.

How many times in life do we find ourselves out of position because we lacked the timing to really put ourselves in the right position? How many times, because of our lack of action have we not even tried to put ourselves in that position as well, hoping that the ball would somehow magically come to us instead?

I can tell you that yes; there are times of course that you will find the ball coming right toward you no matter what you do. However, what about the other 99 time? I found that the more I tried to figure out where the ball was going to be, the better my timing got. It was simple. Through patients and actual effort, I began to figure out the game. I began to be in the right position more often and I hit the ball more often as well. It was amazing. By getting up and not waiting for it, but rather going to it instead, I hit a lot more balls.

Therefore, how do we apply this into our everyday lives? Is there a magic formula that makes each of us more prepared to play the game and ready to be the best we can be by allowing us to be in position and ready to hit that award winning point?

The answer is of course, yes! Without a doubt in my mind, I know that each of us has the ability to do this and reach deep within ourselves to grab that which we have been missing. The ability to start understanding when and where to stand.

I have a simple formula that I have used for years to accomplish this. It has three steps.

1. Read, study, and educate you!

If you do not understand something, why re-invent the wheel. Chances are that there is somebody out there that has some kind of understanding on this subject and even written a book to reflect their understanding of it.

It almost does not matter what it is, education is a key ingredient here. Why make your own mistakes when you can learn how others failed. Learn from those mistakes and be better. Besides, why copy somebody else’s mistakes when you can be unique and create all new ones.

2.Fellowship

My Grandmother used to say, “One bad apple spoils the barrel”. While, to be honest with you I am not sure of the validity of this statement with apples. I can tell you how it works in people. One negative attitude or “bad apple” can pull a group of people out of the stratosphere and cause a terrific evening to change to a horrible one.

Others influence us and our experiences no matter who we are or how well adjusted us seam to thing we are. It is important to consider the idea presented by the Arbinger group in Phoenix. “We are who we are in relationship to other”.

For example, if you wanted to be better in church and one day have your personal worthiness increase you would choose your company carefully. You would not fellowship yourself in bars and places where the spirit cannot be found. If this was your goal, you would not personally associate with people that brought you down or whose morals where not in keeping with the standards of the church. You would, however, find other high caliber church members. You would study scripture during the week as well as go to church on Sunday. You would not only live your faith on Sunday but on Wednesday and every other day of the week. In short you would begin to align yourself to others of similar desires and possibly others that were already more successful than yourself. You would, fellowship in order to grow. In the business world, we have many great names for it… Networking, synergy, group dynamic, circles of influence but in essences is not it all the same. A process to seek out other people that are like minded, that are on our same path, or are as good or better than we are at achieving these similar goals.

One of the greatest places to be in a group is in the middle to last place if you desire to grow, especially if you want to be the best. If you are the top dog in a group… who motivates you? Yes, you spend a lot of time working to stay there, but what do you learn and gain from others?

Our greatest triumphs in life come when we stand tall and enjoy the loss. As my boxing coach says, L on your card means, “Learn more”. Not loose. None of us really is losers unless we choose to be losers. It is our choice to be great, or to be mediocre. We can gain from the experience and grow, or we can wallow in our own self-pity for not being the best that we can be. I choose to learn, grow and be better next time.

Much like the game that I played, I was the one receiving the schooling and I learned a lot. While I most likely will not beat him, next time. There will come a day that he will stand up and take notice that I have learned my lessons, become better and now… He will one day realize in a game that now is the time for him to be educated on the game he once educated me in. Each time we lose we begin to understand what not to do. Armed with that clear knowledge we can now begin the process of figuring out what to do. It is our choice in life to be positive and move forward or not.

Recently I was in a spar session with a very fit man, he landed a beautiful left cross that took me quit unexpectedly because my guard was down. After words, I told my adopted mom about the experience of being clocked in the ring and how cool it was. How impressed by the skill in which it had been delivered

As she looked at me, she said, “You know, you are the only person I know that get punched hard enough to see stars, and walk away happy and positive. That is how I prefer to be. Loosing gives us all the opportunity to do better, to learn about ourselves, to realize we are not perfect and that we have room to grow.

3. Get up and do it

 There is a lot to be said for the very simple phrase from Nike “Just do it”. I think that it is so simple that it is sometimes over looked. Alternatively, not really understood. Personally, I love it, even though it has taken a while for me to really implement this into my daily life, and honestly, there are still days that I just do not.

However, success only comes by doing it. It is great to read all of the books on it study it in school and have all of the great friends in the area to feed your spirit, but there comes a time when you have to get off your duff and just start doing it. Move forward, move left, but just move in a direction. I hope that you will take your newfound motivation and knowledge and apply it. I believe though that as long as you use this method, how can you go wrong?

Life is often measured in the chances that we take. This is not to say that we should leap first then look. That risk is everything and prudence nothing. This is meant of course to say that taking a chance on getting out there and doing it is how we are measured. Sometimes we find that having all of the information and knowledge on a subject can be nerve racking. It is when we finally stand up and do it, take the chance and move forward that we become alive.

In a great movie, it was said…

“When I arrived in the catacombs I watched as the criminals who tied Albert to a wall and threatened to cut off his finger and send it to his father as evidence of his abduction. The boys reply to all this was, "Do your worst." Life is a storm my young friend, you will bask in the sunlight one moment be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into the storm as you shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst for I will do mine. Then the Fates will know you as we know you as Albert Mondego, the man.”

Life can certainly be a storm. Standing up means taking a chance of being knocked down. Standing against the storm is an evening bigger one to say the least. Nevertheless, as long as each of us need to this time to have the courage to take the chance to live, to love and to be loved in return.

The thing to understand through these hard times is that you are not alone no matter how much you seem to think you are. It is in those moments of aloneness that Heavenly Father wants us to turn to him and truly trust in him. That this ordeal, no matter how big or small is just a passing moment. My Dad used to look at me from time to time when I was having a hard time and say, “this to will pass”. As hard as it was for me to believe it in those darkest of moments, and I have certainly had a few of those dark moments. It passed every time. The most constant thing in life is change. We can be in the darkest of moments and feel completely alone and the next day, poof it can be better. Of course, some trials are not that easy. This is of course not to say that all of life problems are that easy, but in reality, they can be.

Positioning ourselves to be ready to receive the good times is crucial for our success, and positioning ourselves to weather through the bad times is equally important. Without this key ingredient of getting into position is a key.

Years ago, I would play catch with my son. He was so cute with his little mitt and wanted nothing more than to catch the ball. Therefore, I would stand him in a position, put his little glove in front of him and carefully toss him the ball. As expected, it would land in his glove and he would quickly pull it into position. The smile on his face as he caught it was overwhelming for me to say the least. He is a great kid to this day, and I am always proud of him. The idea of this is just the same though. Heavenly Father wants us to catch the ball, all we have to do is learn to position ourselves where he wants us to be. Just do as he says. It really is just that simple. We stand, put our glove out and poof we catch the ball. However, how many of us take that time to listen closely enough to hear him tell us? How many of take full advantage of all of his teaching. The answer of course is not many of us.

Years ago, my in-laws had an Aunt Mary. She was a catholic nun and had been one for over 60 years. She was the sweetest person I have ever met.

I asked her one day as I picked her up from the retirement rectory that she lived in, Aunt Mary…. What is it that you do all day long?

She sweetly looked at me and began to explain.

She said that her day began at six every morning, especially Sunday. She would rise and dress which took her 15 minutes. At 6:15 until seven in the morning she would pray, it was the least that she could do. From seven in the morning until seven-thirty she would eat and then spend the next hour cleaning and preparing the chapel. Then she would pray for another hour, it was the least that she could do. As you might be able to tell, she ended up praying most of the day. She was very sweet, she prayed for several hours a day and still thought it to be the least she could do.

Now, think about for this for a moment. What could a 70 something year old nun in a retirement convent possibly pray about for several hours a day? What could she possibly have to say to anybody, especially Heavenly Father for several hours a day! She was keeping herself in position for blessings and understanding. She spent the majority of her time listening quietly in meditation. However, she had, over the course of over half of a century built a relationship with her father.

This is the extreme example of the most amazing father / daughter relationship that I could possibly come up with. However, think about it for a moment, think about the level this little woman had achieved. She had the strongest relationship with her father I have ever seen.

Let’s think about this for a moment, think of the position she had placed herself in. She was having daily conversations with her Father in a real and meaningful way. Think about it like this, when is the last time you spoke with Heavenly Father when things were good, in private, just the two of you? In your car, in your closet. So how would you feel if your kids spoke to you as much as you speak with your Heavenly Father?

How ready to give us blessings do you think he is, if we never talk to him? While I am sure that, he of course wants the best for each of us. He would appreciate a pleasant chitchat occasionally as well. If your kids only came to you in the morning and at nighttime with a two-minute talk, always asked for something and did not take the time to listen. How often would you really want to listen? Now, add to that. When they come to you during the day, it is always with a need and desire for you to help them and they still do not listen. Now how willing to help would you really be.

My guess and experience is that we must talk to him often. In secret, in public. With good news and with bad. We need to share our victories and or our fears. We also must take the time to listen to him as well.

Some of my best conversations with my Father are when I run along the river. There are times; I just do not want to stop. We are communicating; I am hearing him as if he were my running partner. I am feeling him, because he is my best friend, without whom I could accomplish anything. As I run along the river, I can feel everything. The wind fills my sails and my path has a destination. I feel every step, every heartbeat, every brisk of wind.

I love it, I talk with Heavenly Father and we are friends. My life becomes clear and has meaning. The well of my heart is refilled with his living waters.

Now, just know that I am not encouraging you to go run 15 miles in order to pray, or that this is the only time Heavenly Father and I talk. Nevertheless, it is the time that I hear him the clearest. My feelings are the most tender, I am not sure why that is, maybe it is that I am so tired that nothing is left to be hardened against his voice, maybe it is the scenery, maybe a hundred different reasons. Really, it does not matter, the fact is…is that this is part of my favorite time with my Father. He is the VERY best running partner that I have ever had and always will be.

Like my Aunt Mary, he has become a friend that I can call on twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. He even talks to me on Christmas and Easter. This helps me keep myself in position for his blessings, his help, and his guidance.

So, how do we get there? How do we gain this in our life…?

As expressed, it is still the three steps.

1. Read, study and educate ourselves
2. Fellowship with the successful and people who lift us
3. DO IT!

If we follow these three steps we will begin to realize the keys of being the best at whatever it is we want to be the best at. We will begin to be able to add those key individual steps in between. We will know that for example… Faith, Prayer and Love are key ingredients in building our religious heritage. We would learn this from our study, we would be told this and be witness to example by our fellowship and we would practice this in our Do it phase.