100% Effort, 100% Of The Time

Ya know, sometimes you have to sift through crap to find a diamond.

I think of this every time I’m reading a personal development book. Sometimes, I have to read through hundreds of pages to find one thing which I didn’t already know OR something that was told in a new way. Still, once I find that bit of good info, it makes the read worth it.

That doesn’t just go for books, but for movies, conversations, whatever I’m trying to get something from. Over the last several days, I’ve been kinda obsessed on two things:

Learning all I can about this economic meltdown

And

Trying to be Zen about this economic meltdown

It seems like every show has a different take on the cause and outcome of this mess. Who’s really to blame? I’m starting to get an idea, but still, this is so complicated, it could take years to figure out.

Tonight, in hopes of finding more explaination, I flipped on Fox News. No luck in the economic education market, but I did get something good. Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, has this new show on Fox…and it’s just terrible.

Huckabee seems like a real good guy. The kind of person I’d like to have dinner with, or play a round of golf with. But this show? Yeesh. Just embarrassing.

Yet, after his lame attempts at humor and talking points about whatever he’s thinking, I did get one good piece of info. And on marriage, of all things!

Huckabee explained his view on marriage. That is, so many people think marriage is a 50/50 deal. Huckabee says this isn’t right. To be perfectly balanced all the time is a set up for failure. If you look at it as 50/50, someone will always think he/she is giving 55% and only receiving 45%.

Instead, Huckabee says, marriage needs to be 100% from each person, 100% of the time.

And ya know? This makes a HUGE amount of sense. If I’m constantly striving to be the best husband I can be, I can’t concern myself with how my wife is slacking (which she doesn’t do, I’m just makin’ a point!).

This marriage philosophy is like the definition of excellence according to Townes Van Zant. Townes is a singer songwriter who said, well, just look at the top of this blog. Excellence is in the striving…and whether its in marriage, business, economic clean up or some completely unrelated faction, it’s something I, for one, intend to keep working toward.