Soap box

Ok, give me just a moment to drag my soap box out. So, now that I'm on it, when did we decide that giving it our all became less and less of a priority? I know that life is demanding, I live every day minute by minute just as the rest of society, but when did it become socially acceptable to become complacent? If there is something that I really want to do, I find time, but when it becomes inconvenient for me or a little too demanding, I just don't have the time. I can, and have used the excuse, "I just don't have time, " or "so-and-so is too busy, we can't..." When do we stand up and finally say enough is enough?! Baseball can wait, hunting doesn't matter, shopping will be there tomorrow, relationships, if worth keeping, will hold for a few minutes. We have this "here and now" mentality. I want it, so give it now. When I played the clarinet, I had to work for what wanted. When I put practice off I sounded just that, off. Ok, so I sounded BAD when I didn't practice, but one day I learned that if I put some effort and passion into what I wanted, it paid off. When I was in the 8th grade I was competing for a solo part. I wanted that part so badly I could taste it. I practiced and practiced and eventually my hard work paid off and I was playing a beautiful solo piece in the top band at the Bass Hall. I don't know if you know anything about the Bass Hall, but for a kid of 12, that was a huge accomplishment. If we want to succeed at anything, we must be willing to put time aside consistently to achieve our goals. There are no excuses for failure, and failure is only achieved when you refused work at something to prefect it.