Thinking and doing and being

Olympic champions, bodybuilders and dieters, sales representatives, and all your basic goal-setters keep before them a clear picture of the desired end results even as they work toward them from afar off.

You see, our brains are gullible: they believe what they are consistently told.

The teen berated as a screw-up continues as one; the girl ostracized for being different becomes a loner; the man who confesses he has no willpower succumbs to temptation. On the other hand, the child praised for being thoughtful continues to be; a student who believes she can overcome dyslexia does; a disadvantaged young adult rises to the challenge of being a single parent. All of us act according to what we believe we are capable of doing, to the degree we believe it.

Sometimes the "facts" are irrelevant. You wish to be a professional musician, but you're simply not proficient enough. That may be true. But it doesn't mean it always will be. A professional musician practices many hours every day to hone and maintain his or her skills; so does the aspiring professional musician. We must take on the habits and behaviors of the professional before we actually become the professional. 

When I was in junior high school I enjoyed a couple of semesters of Mechanical Drawing, where we sat at large drafting tables and used the T-square and triangles and scale ruler and dividers and compasses to draw 3-D objects on a piece of paper taped to the table. Mr. Dotter insisted that he did not mind us making mistakes, declaring often that "He who makes no mistakes, does nothing." But he did warn us about making grooves in our work. We all had a tendency to push hard on our pencils, firmly and irrevocably etching our decisions forever. Sure, we could erase the line if it was wrong, but we couldn't erase the groove in the paper the line created, so our mistake remained even though we had repented of the error.

We may not always be sure of our exact pathway to progress, but we can tread lightly as we train and develop to avoid unnecessary and unsightly "grooves" in our professional lives that may mar ourselves, our relationships, and our future. To do anything at all guarantees that we will, from time to time, make mistakes and fail. That is certain. So the issue is not when or what we fail, but how we fail and recover, while consistently reconfirming to our own minds the purposeful image of our destination.

It is the willingness to do what it takes; to purposefully banish negative, destructive, and counter-productive thought patterns, and substitute them with uplifting, edifying, and encouraging ones to motivate a change in our behavior. It is to accept in faith that which we cannot see as though it is. And to act upon that belief to fulfill our own greatest potential.

MasterPoint 56

Think to believe; believe to act; act to become. 

©Tim Herd    

follow at www.scene-herd.blogspot.com        

herd.tim@gmail.com  

Tim Herd is a Certified Park and Recreation Professional and the Executive Director of the Stroud Region Open Space and Recreation Commission, East Stroudsburg, PA. He currently serves as Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society.

Monica Newcomb's father, Andre Budd, passed away recently. 

PRPS Board Member, Donald V. Joyce, 82, passed away October 9, 2011. Don was a PRPS member for 44 years and provided over 30 years of dedicated service and leadership as Finance Committee Chair and as a member of the PRPS Board of Directors. He was a founding member of the Educators Branch as a member of the Penn State University Department of Parks & Recreation faculty from 1968-1985.

Don was awarded the PRPS Fred M. Coombs Honor Award in 1980, was presented with lifetime Honorary PRPS Membership in 1993, and received the first PRPS Lifetime Service Award in 1996...and continued to provide leadership and service to PRPS for another 15 years!

Don visited the PRPS office at least once or twice a week, to share his friendly smile and hearty laugh (and sometimes even a song and dance). He was a friend and mentor to many in the Society and will be greatly missed.

Cards of sympathy for Don's family may be mailed to his daughter, Sharon Joyce, 56 Deming St., San Francisco, CA 94114.

To view the obituary click on the link below.

LERN 

The fall offerings are now online and available for registration! Quite a few very interesting new courses have been added to the list for the fall. Please take a look and remember that by taking a class you help support PRPS who in turn helps support you. Any questions please contact Jeremy Bean, Training Coordinator at jbean@prps.org or call 814-234-4272. 

http://www.yougotclass.org/courses.cfm/Prps