In his book No Limits: Blow the Cap Off Your Potential, John C. Maxwell says, “Everything worthwhile in life — everything you want, everything you desire to achieve, everything you want to receive — is uphill. The problem is that most of us have uphill dreams but downhill habits. And that’s why we have a cap on our production capacity.”
I vividly remember my first trip to Mt Norquay as a 12 year-old skier. I stood at the top of the chairlift looking down the North American run. The ski hill in Hall’s Coulee, a mile east of Crossfield, seemed like a molehill in comparison. How on earth was I going to make it to the bottom. As I stood contemplating my possible funeral, I noticed a young boy, about six years old, zip of the lift and head down the hill. Suddenly my competitive drive kicked in. “If he can do it, so can I.”
Paradoxically, my uphill that day was downhill. By the end of the day I wasn’t dreaming of the Olympics, but Mt. Norquay didn’t conquer me, I conquered it. My real uphill challenge was being asked to take over the goalie position on our high school hockey team. I was in grade eight at the time. My first game was against the Old’s School of Agriculture. I thought I was in the middle of the Dieppe battle. Pucks were flying at me thick and fast. We lost that game 8 – 3 but I won a battle over fear. Hours of practice plus the encouragement of the coach and friends propelled me forward.
Paganini (October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was a great Italian violinist. He is reported to have said, “If I miss a week of practice, my critics know. If I miss a day of practice, my fans know. If I miss an hour of practice, I know.” An uphill dream requires persistent determination and vigilant discipline.
Unfortunately, today we want the greatest possible result with the least invested effort and all that with maximum profit. So, what is it that puts a cap on our potential and makes our dreams illusive fantasies? The villain is called pragmatism. Is this some kind of disease? No! It’s something we believe in even though we may not have heard of it. It is a world view that is rooted in an a priori rejection of binding principles. The general consensus is that there are no absolutes that establish norms of moral behavior, standards of excellence, business practices or our educational philosophy. The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
The pragmatic approach to life has the inherent danger of making success the ultimate criterion of measurement. After all, “nothing succeeds like success.” Therefore, anything that contributes to an increased bottom line must be good.
Pragmatism tends to live in the world of short-term gain without consideration of long-term impact. Debt seduces us into believing that the short-term gain is worth the long term risk.
We all know that a good tree produces good fruit. The pragmatist asks, “How can I get good fruit without necessarily having a good tree?” It is like the young apprentice said to the seasoned craftsman, “Can you show me the tricks of the trade?” To which the craftsman replied, “I don’t know the tricks, but stick with me and I’ll teach you the skill of the trade.” A principle-orientated approach strives to conform to empirically verifiable standards that have been proven to produce “good fruit.”
Pragmatic thinking easily becomes fertile soil for opportunism: That can involve going with the flow, adjusting to questionable current trends, using manipulative marketing methods and even cooperating with corrupt political systems.
Today, like never before, we need men and women who are governed by absolutes. People who have their morality rooted in a transcendent authority or classical conceptions of virtue. A people who are directed by the empirically proven, timeless truths, not the variable subjective impulses that men and women know or feel for themselves – autonomous ethics without a religious or metaphysical foundation. People who will say no to victimhood and yes to personal responsibility. People who will reject entitlement and fully embrace investment of their resources in making others successful. People who will say no to utilitarianism and yes to the investment of their skills in the shaping of cultural stability. A people who know the difference between the strength and security of absolutes and the flexibility of preference. We need history changing, culture transforming men and women who can see beyond their circle of need to a world of opportunity where anchors of truth will release a generational legacy.
Personally, I have requested that my tombstone read, “He died climbing.” The journey has been uphill all the way. There have been times of exhilaration, exhaustion and the temptation to exit. However, what I see keeps me pressing onward and upward. I invite you to join me on the journy to the top.
Duane Harder
