On top

The wind blows hardest at the top of the mountain.
-ESPN Radio

More gratitude

Without gratitude, our lives degenerate into envy, dissatisfaction, and complaints, taking what we have for granted and always wanting more.

From this book:

Gratitude

The great secret joy of life - the prize that we think getting richer will bring us - is the ecstasy of gratitude. Gratitude is how those rich toward God - rich in being, not just having - play the game.

From this book:

Boastful

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Matthew 23:12

Life

"I bought a brand new date book yesterday, the kind I use every year - spiral-bound, black imitation leather covers wrapped around pages and pages of blank squares. Every square has a number to tell me which day of the month I’m in at the moment. Every square is a frame for one episode of my life.

Before I’m through with the book, I will fill the squares with classes I teach, people with whom I ate lunch, everlasting committee meetings I sit through, and these are only the things I cannot afford to forget. I fill the squares too with things I do not write down for me to remember: thousands of cups of coffee, some lovemaking, some praying, and, I hope, gestures of help to my neighbors. Whatever I do, it has to fit inside one of those squares on my date book. I live one square at a time.

The four lines that make up the square are the walls of time that organize my life. Everything I do has to fit into one square. Each square has an invisible door that leads to the next square. As if by a silent stroke, the door opens and I am pulled through, as if by a magnet, sucked into the next square in line. There I will again fill the time frame that seals me - fill it with my business just as I did the square before. As I get older, the squares seem to get smaller. One day, I will walk into a square that has no door. There will be no mysterious opening and no walking into an adjoining square. One of the squares will be terminal. I do not know which square it will be."

from How Can It Be Alright When Everything Is All Wrong? by Lewis Smedes

Wisdom

Seek wisdom not knowledge. Knowledge is the past. Wisdom is of the future.

Complacency II

A certain amount of permanent dissatisfaction with one's talents is probably a healthy thing. Those who are totally satisfied with their work will never reach their potential. The great pianist, Paderewski, achieved tremendous popularity in America. Yet, said Paderewski, "There have been a few moments when I have known complete satisfaction, but only a few. I have rarely been free from the disturbing realization that my playing might have been better." The world considered Paderewski's playing near perfection, but he remained unsatisfied and kept constantly at the job of improving his talent.

Complacency

Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. "Good enough" becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course -- downhill. They draw false strength from looking back.