Enthusiastic Ideas

WINSOMENESS (JANUARY 25) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/winsomeness-january-25/ "A person or action which can be described by the [Greek] word kalos is not only good ; he or it is also beautiful . It therefore has in it the idea of goodness which is winsome and attractive. Very often the best translation of it is 'lovely'" (William Barclay). WINSOMENESS IS ONE KIND OF GOODNESS — IT’S TH...

CRAFTSMANSHIP (JANUARY 24) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/craftsmanship-january-24/ "Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship" (Zeuxis). IF WE HAVE TO ADMIT THAT WE SPEND MORE TIME CRITIQUING THE WORK OF OTHERS THAN WE DO IMPROVING OUR OWN CRAFTSMANSHIP, THAT’S NOT A GOOD THING. Most of the worthwhile things that human beings are called upon to do require some skill and ability. It’s a...

CAMARADERIE (JANUARY 23) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/camaraderie-january-23/ "It must be obvious to those who take the time to look at human life that its greatest values lie not in getting things, but in doing them, in doing them together, in all working toward a common aim, in the experience of comradeship, of warmhearted one hundred percent human life" (W. T. Grant). WE OFTEN UNDE...

IMAGINATION (JANUARY 22) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/imagination-january-22/ "The necessity of loyalty between friends, the responsibility that the strong owe the infirm, the illusion of ill-gotten gain, the rewards of hard work, honesty, and trust — these are enduring truths glimpsed and judged first through the imagination, first through art" (Michael Dorris). IMAGINATION WAS GIVEN...

FEEDBACK (JANUARY 21) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/feedback-january-21/ "Because of its value, some people have called feedback 'the breakfast of champions.' But it isn't the breakfast; it's the lunch. Vision is the breakfast. Self-correction is the dinner" (Stephen R. Covey). FEEDBACK IS THE THING THAT LETS US KNOW HOW WE’RE DOING. The word has some other scientific and technical def...

REALISM (JANUARY 20) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/realism-january-20/ "The very greatest mystery is in unsheathed reality itself" (Eudora Welty). TRUTH, WE’RE OFTEN TOLD, IS STRANGER THAN FICTION. I would agree, as long as we use the word “strange” to mean “wonderful,” i.e., “producing a sense of wonder.” Compared to what we sometimes wish to be real or prefer to be real, what is real...

SPONTANEITY (JANUARY 19) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/spontaneity-january-19/ "Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy" (Samuel Johnson). OF ALL THE FUELS THAT CAN FIRE US UP, ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL IS SPONTANEITY. Of necessity, we spend the greater part of our time “taking care of business.” Things like food,...

SERVANTHOOD (JANUARY 18) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/servanthood-january-18/ "They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing" (Hindu Proverb). MUCH MORE THAN OCCASIONAL ACTS OF SERVICE, WHAT WE NEED IS A “SPIRIT” OF SERVANTHOOD. Although acts of service are good as far as they go (and we can’t say we have the spirit of servanthood if we don’t actually serve), it would...

ADMIRATION (JANUARY 17) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/admiration-january-17/ "To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind" (Théophile Gautier). TO BE ABLE TO ADMIRE — AND TO ADMIRE THE THINGS THAT ARE TRULY ADMIRABLE — IS A CHARACTER TRAIT WORTH CULTIVATING. And mind you, being “able to admire” is a trait that has to be cultivated. If there are few things th...

HUMANENESS (JANUARY 16) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/humaneness-january-16/ "A jeweled pivot on which our lives must turn is the deep realization that every person we meet in the course of a day is a dignified, essential human soul and that we are being guilty of gross inhumanity when we snub or abuse him" (Joshua Loth Liebman). ALL OF US ARE “HUMAN,” BUT HOW MANY OF US HAVE LEARNED T...

DISCIPLINE (JANUARY 15) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/discipline-january-15/ "He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions" (Samuel Johnson). LIFE PRESENTS US WITH NO GREATER CHALLENGE THAN WHEN IT ASKS US TO DISCIPLINE OURSELVES. There aren’t many good things that can be accomplished without self-mastery, but this kind of discipline i...

EXHILARATION (JANUARY 14) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/exhilaration-january-14/ "Suddenly I feel myself transformed and changed; it is joy unspeakable. My mind is exhilarated; I lose the memory of past trials; my intelligence is clarified; my desires are satisfied. I grasp something inwardly as with the embracement of love" (Hugh of St. Victor). NOW AND THEN, WE EXPERIENCE AN EXCITEME...

RESPONSIBILITY (JANUARY 13) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/responsibility-january-13/ "Duty done is the soul’s fireside" (Robert Browning). YOU’D BE HARD PUT TO NAME A BETTER FEELING THAN THAT OF KNOWING YOU’VE DONE WHAT WAS RIGHT. The simple knowledge that we’ve acted with integrity, doing to the best of our ability the thing that most needed to be done, is not only one of life’s great...

PERSPECTIVE (JANUARY 12) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/perspective-january-12/ "The last thing one knows is what to put first" (Blaise Pascal). PUTTING FIRST THINGS FIRST OBVIOUSLY REQUIRES DISCIPLINE, BUT IT ALSO REQUIRES WISDOM. We can’t give priority to the things of first importance if we don’t know what those things are, and it’s wisdom that provides that information. And where do...

RENEWAL (JANUARY 11) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/renewal-january-11/ "Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up" (Pearl Buck). NONE OF US HAS ENOUGH INNER STRENGTH TO LAST A LIFETIME. We simply can’t make it. If we are to keep going and reach the end of life with our integrity intact, we must be “renewed” fairly often....

CHARACTER (JANUARY 10) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/character-january-10/ "Unless the vessel is clean, what you pour into it turns sour" (Latin Proverb). CONCERNING CHARACTER, IT’S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOOD CHARACTER COMES FROM OUR DECISIONS, NOT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES. Those who spend their lives waiting for their ship to come in, thinking that their true character can’t be develo...

STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS (JANUARY 9) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/straightforwardness-january-9/ "Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another" (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing). HOW REFRESHING IT IS TO DEAL WITH THOSE WHO ARE STRAIGHTFORWARD! In a world where we often have to wonder if we’re being told the whole trut...

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS (JANUARY 8) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/conscientiousness-january-8/ "Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything" (Laurence Sterne). FEW OF LIFE’S PLEASURES RIVAL THE SATISFACTION THAT COMES FROM BEING CONSCIENTIOUS. The knowledge that we’ve both done what is right and given our best effort to it has to rank somewhere near the top of life’s mos...

WHOLEHEARTEDNESS (JANUARY 7) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/wholeheartedness-january-7/ "Purity of heart is to will one thing" (Søren Kierkegaard). THESE DAYS, WE’RE PULLED IN SO MANY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, A TOTAL COMMITMENT TO ANYTHING SEEMS UNREALISTIC. Conflicting values and multiple priorities are so common that our minds are in danger of going numb. In such an environment, we must...

TENDERHEARTEDNESS (JANUARY 6) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/tenderheartedness-january-6/ "The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best hearts" (Henry Fielding). AMONG THE VIRTUES VALUED TODAY, TENDERHEARTEDNESS IS ONE OF THE LEAST VALUED. In the minds of many, tough-mindedness is the key to success in the real world, and tenderness is seen more as a we...

ASPIRATION (JANUARY 5) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/aspiration-january-5/ "It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them" (George Eliot). ONE OF OUR MOST MARVELOUS ENDOWMENTS IS THE ABILITY TO ASPIRE TO GREATER THINGS THAN THOSE WE’VE KNOWN BEFORE. Unlike o...

AWAKENING (JANUARY 4) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/awakening-january-4/ "A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be born slowly" (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry). LIFE IS ALWAYS FILLED WITH THE PROMISE OF AWAKENINGS. In the case of some of us, we have slumbered through life to such an extent that we’re desperately in need of being awakened. Others...

PRINCIPLES (JANUARY 3) View on Website --  https://wordpoints.com/principles-january-3/ "There are principles that govern human effectiveness — natural laws in the human dimension that are just as real, just as unchanging and unarguably 'there' as laws such as gravity are in the physical dimension" (Stephen R. Covey). AS WE GROW IN WISDOM, WE COME TO SEE THE VALUE OF LIVING A PRINCIPLED LIFE. Inde...

EXCELLENCE (JANUARY 2) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/excellence-january-2/ "No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction" (Charles Kendall Adams). WE SHOW GRATITUDE FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE WHEN WE STRIVE FOR THE HIGHEST AND BEST...

BEGINNINGS (JANUARY 1) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/beginnings-january-1/ "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it" (W. M. Lewis). WITH THE DAWNING OF EVERY NEW DAY, WE’RE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE NEW BEGINNINGS. Although we often take it for granted, the clean slate offered to us each morning is one of the best aspects of our sojourn...