Finding trustworthy people these days can be difficult. I believe this is not because fewer trustworthy people exist than in previous generations, but because many of our relationships are transitory. People move around, switch jobs, and live at a furious pace. Trust takes time to incubate. Trust requires a certain amount of intimacy and transparency. To make matters more difficult, nearly everyone has made the mistake of judging the wrong person trustworthy. Betrayal can hinder our ability or willingness to make the leap. But the fruits of being a person worthy of trust far outweigh the difficulties. If we ourselves…
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The boundary lines in our lives are often indistinct because we err in one of two ways in calculating what belongs inside them and what does not. Scott Peck, in his classic work, The Road Less Travelled, divides these people into those he calls neurotics and those who have a serious character flaw. (By the way, this is a must-read) The first take the blame for everything while the latter takes the blame for nothing. While some of us fall clearly within one of these two categories, most of us straddle the fence between assuming responsibility for everything and refusing…
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Contentment is a radical choice these days. Our culture is consumer-based which means that the world continually reminds us of what we do not have. We follow wealthy celebrities in part to experience wealth vicariously. We almost always believe we could handle it better than the shallow but beautiful people who live out their private moments in front of a camera. Contentment is not merely radical these days; it is immoral. If we are not constantly striving to be more, have more, and have a greater impact, then we are copping out. The rat race is a moral imperative for…