On January 17, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a water emergency. Specifically he said. “I’m declaring a drought emergency in the state of California because we’re facing perhaps the worst drought that California has ever seen since records began being kept about a hundred years ago.” In response to this crisis, he is urging that all of his citizens conserve water. He is asking each and every citizen to do their part and help in this toughest of times.
Wait a second! This is a crisis. The last I checked, the fountains were still spouting in Disney Land and the Lego Land was still open for business. Maybe Mr. Brown needs to reconsider what a crisis is. No wonder the rest of the world sees us as spoiled brats. There are people in the world without running water and we are in a crisis? We are so use to getting what we want, we haven’t realistically thought about what we need.
Most of us live our lives in this way. The things we tend to complain about are so insignificant. We are upset when our team loses or when we can’t find the right color shoes. Our biggest crisis is choosing between an Android or Apple mobile phone. How do we expect to pursue success, with the unrivaled rigor that is required for excellence? When did we become so superficial, weak and inconsiderate? Most of the world would die for our problems. Most of us would die, if we had theirs.
This attitude limits our potential greatness. Our society has become lazy and weak. We wake up each morning with expectations rather than aspirations. We spend far too much time complaining about what we don’t have, instead of being grateful for what we have. We don’t realize that our crises aren’t really crises at all.
Why is this important? It is important because sailors aren’t made on smooth seas. We can’t be the best if we always have it easy. Life is hard and success is even harder. If you really want to succeed, you should expect it to be difficult. If the seas are always smooth, you aren’t going to be a very good sailor.
Slightly different,
doc mu.