Achievement Is Talent Plus Preparation — Friday After Ash Wednesday

Achievement is talent plus preparation. — Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers.
Are you already struggling with your Lenten Discipline? Whether you are or not, you will soon learn that true discipline is hard work.
I’ve always been fascinated by Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule. To learn about his defense of his theory I recommend his article in The New Yorker.
A Lenten discipline does not require 10,000 hours, and a Lenten discipline year after year, after year, still doesn’t approach 10,000 hours, but then again how do we measure achievement.
One day of fasting, prayer, meditation, and service moves us closer to God, and what could be more important than that?
I think we miss the point if we try to measure achievement during Lent. i.e. “I haven’t had a piece of chocolate in six days!”
Concentrate more on what are you learning about God, your neighbors, and yourself as you journey.
The measure of Lenten success is found in the enlargement of one’s heart.

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

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