View from the Summit

Life is a journey, and a difficult one at that. Hard work and consistently doing the right thing will lead to a life full of significance and success, but as Psalm 34:19 says, even the righteous man will have troubles. One thing I know about troubles from my own experience is that no matter how bad things get, having a supportive spouse greatly lessens the burden.

If you are a dog owner (or even if you’ve ever played fetch with a dog) you’ve probably encountered a scenario in which you threw an object to have the dog run after, and on its way back the dog dropped what was in its mouth to investigate an interesting looking stick. Or, even when the dog is contentedly chomping away at a bone, dangle something else enticing and it will quickly drop the bone to study the new object.

Have you ever heard the story of Buridan’s A**? The short version is that a donkey who was both hungry and thirsty was placed between a bale of hay and a bucket of water. Being equally hungry and thirsty, and being equidistant from the hay and the water, the donkey couldn’t make a rational choice of which form of sustenance to select. The donkey dies of both hunger and thirst because he couldn’t choose whether to eat the food or drink the water first.

If you take a moment to sit back and think about the most successful people in your life, the ones you truly admire, and the ones you call when you need advice about a difficult situation, you’ll probably notice that they all have something in common.

These are people that are driven to soak in as much knowledge as possible. They are lifelong learners.

They read books, travel, visit museums, and pick the brains of people who have more knowledge and experience than them in different fields. They strive to gain a broad perspective on life that helps them communicate effectively with people of all different backgrounds, ages, and personality types.