Just a
Thought: Just one more thing
By Steve
Walker
Ever wonder why some well thought out
plans for the starting of a business or a career change miss the mark? How
about pending details of an anticipated marriage/relationship that also fall
way short of the anticipated goal? Could there be just one more thing missing
in the equation that makes the difference between success and failure?
Have you ever sat down and put pencil
to paper to devise a marketing strategy that will make your life’s financial or
personal aspirations come to fruition only to realize again that something is
missing to ensure your success?
What about that steak you cooked but
miscalculated by not putting the right seasoning on it to make it taste just
like you liked it? Missing an ingredient?
As I grow older and hopefully wiser,
I have posed the question many times, “What is missing in my life?” I know I am
not alone as there are many others even my age who ask the same question. At 68+
one would think by now I would have figured out life’s missing ingredient for a
successful and productive life.
But then again some of us are slower
than others when it comes to decisions that can be life changing for the better
rather than the worse. For a few of us who are oblivious to our surroundings
due to an apparent bout of attention deficit or an inability to concentrate on
one thing at a time, we fail. Guilty as charged.
Obviously many of us are unable to
deal with the challenges we face in this life or interpret them correctly for
our benefit as we progress in life. The English Playwright William Shakespeare
once wrote in one of his plays, “To Thine Own Self Be True.” There are days
when I still attempt to fully embrace that one. Notice I said “attempt.” I try
to contemplate the true part and sometimes get confused as I search for what is
actually “true,” as compared to the alternative. Again it is about just
one more detail that is missing.
Growing up I was bombarded with
comments like, “one of these days you will hopefully figure it out and make
something of yourself before it is too late.” My father’s prognostications were
not too positive as I struggled to survive my formative years and especially
the teenage years and even into young adulthood. Apparently it is a lifelong
process. (Or so I have heard)
In my earlier columns when I first
began writing, “Just a Thought,” I related how my father, the nuns in Catholic
school and others seemingly placed bets on the eventual outcome of my future
success in life or lack thereof. Fortunately for me in most cases their
conclusions were off the mark. I chalk it up to being a late bloomer vs. their take.
I forgave them.
All those years I felt there was a just
one more thing I needed to be successful. Others apparently thought so too as I
was stuck with the moniker “one brick shy” or “my elevator didn’t go all the way to the
top,” and “the lights are on but nobody is at home.”
But at the ripe old age of 68+ I
believe I have finally discovered the “just one more thing,” I have been
looking for all these years and it was right in front of me, inspired by divine
revelation. It can be summarized in one simple word. The “just one more thing,”
is ‘faith.”
And as always, what I write is “Just
a Thought.”
Steve Walker is
a Vietnam Veteran and former Justice of the Peace and Journalist
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