Meaningful Mondays - Arrows Out

“Gratitude does not remove pain. It gives pain purpose.”
– Lee Brower

“When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation.”
– Henry B. Eyring

“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.”
– Rumi

“Few things are worse than running in the wrong way enthusiastically.”
— Lee Brower

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles, 1841

Emerson was right. But here’s what he didn’t say. “It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.”
— Arthur Balfour, 1900

Nearly sixty years later, Balfour named the problem. Enthusiasm without truth isn’t a gift — it’s a counterfeit. And counterfeits don’t just misinform. They crowd out the real signal.

The ancient Greeks called it en theos — God within. A quiet, persistent pull toward what you were made for. Not performed. Not manufactured. Received.

Which means the most dangerous thing we can do to someone we love is layer our enthusiasm on top of theirs — and drown out the voice already speaking inside them.

“Hype seeks applause. Enduring Enthusiasm develops people.”
— Lee Brower

This week’s Monday Morning Message is about learning to tell the difference — and asking an Empowering Question you may have never thought to ask before.

"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
- Marcus Aurelius

"Conflict may visit us without permission... but contention only stays when we invite it."
- Lee Brower

Conflict is inevitable. Contention is a choice.

“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”
— Viktor Frankl

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
— Helen Keller

"A grateful heart looks for light — and light is what keeps you walking straight." "Your Enduring Vision isn't a destination. It's the sun. Always there. Even when you can't see it." "Most people don't drift because they want to. They drift because the clouds rolled in — and they forgot to look up."
— Lee Brower

Where there is love, there is life. — Mahatma Gandhi "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart." — Helen Keller

Watch the full press conference on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HacpRDfCbnw

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
— John Dewey

"Naming a moment radically improves the flow of wisdom across generations."
— Lee Brower

"A moment named is a moment that never stops living."
— Lee Brower

"Your most valuable assets have never appeared on a balance sheet."
— Lee Brower

"Go B.I.G. Begin In Gratitude. Not because life is easy, but because life is the gift."
— Lee Brower

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
— Marcus Aurelius

"Memento Mori"
"Amor Fati"

Dr. Marshall Duke, Emory University psychologist, found that adolescents who knew their family's stories — especially stories of resilience and moral choice — showed significantly greater self-esteem and lower anxiety. Science is validating what Larry's family proved in one conversation.

"An experience becomes Enduring Wealth only when it is shared — and unnamed, unshared assets die with you."
— Lee Brower

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
— Pericles

Take it to the Limit, one more time.

We don't build a meaningful life in the big moments. We build it in the quiet, often unseen choices to go "one more time"... when it would be easier not to.

"One more time..." is not about a destination.

There's no finish line. It's a commitment to the next moment."

It's about doing your best again -- not because the circumstances are easy, but because you've been given one more day.

A grateful heart doesn't ask, "When will it get easier?" It asks: "Since I've been given one more day -- who can I bless one more time?

The Brain You're Building

Are some of our most prominent leaders unknowingly diminishing the very capacities we most need from them?

"You don't have to wait for the rainbow to enjoy the rain."
-- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Gratitude doesn't deny the storm; it changes the mind we bring into the storm."
-- Lee Brower

This week's RIPPLE: "Knowing what you know now, if you had the chance (or opportunity) to do this over, what might you do differently to make it even better?"*