Meeting Life's Goals

I am still transitioning and trying to figure it out as I go. It’s hard work.

The first time was during my forth year of college when some Dean summoned me to his office and told me that I had to declare a major. I demanded to know why. He said that I’d already broken the rules by not having declared one already.

“Well, what do I have the most hours in?”

“History,” he replied, “but only by three hours.”

“Really? What’s second?”

“You have a tie for second,” he answered, “Religion and Literature.”

So the next year college threw me out with a major in history with a double minor. This was my first big professional transition.

Then I was a successful eight year career as a professional Christian in charge of the Jefferson Street Baptist Chapel in Louisville, Kentucky. Not that we did much that was particularly Baptist. We did generate a lot of press, tremendous growth, amassed money for the place, and had a lot of fun which included creative usage of the baptismal pool. Then the Baptist threw me out and I was transitioning again.

After that it was 23 years at Union Mission where we broke all kinds of new ground. A little tiny homeless shelter was transformed into a multi-campus, multi-million, diverse management company with subsidiaries in housing development, health care, mental health care, and employment services. These things were all accomplished by not doing what we were supposed to do.

In fact I think that most things are accomplished by NOT doing what you are supposed to do. This is how things get created. Creation never happens by doing what you’re supposed to do. That is following. Creating is leading.

Anyway, we created a lot of things that no one else had created, got in the press a lot, won a bunch of awards, helped a lot of people, and tried to have a lot of fun along the way.

It was time for me to move on though so now I am contemplating the next transition. For the moment I am finally living the life that I’ve wanted since I was a child; being a full time beach bum! Well, I’m trying to be a full time beach bum but things keep getting in the way.

It seems that I have obligations with the Street Medicine Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Lucy Hall in Atlanta. All of these people keep emailing and calling asking if I’ll help them raise money, find a job, guide them on how to develop health care, housing, employment and other programs. My Type-A personality disorder means that I spend as much time answering them as I do on the beach or at Bored meetings.

I put on my favorite Jim Morris song (thank you Judi Ross!).

He’s got a life with no distractions
He’s living in his own world
Looking for buried treasure
Hitting on the tourist girls

Now we talking! The people in charge say that the first thing that we’re supposed to do is establish our goals then develop strategies to meet them.

Done!