A Newspaper Epiphany

Three decades ago I had burned myself out trying to keep up with all the brilliant people at Duke University Medical Center. I was bored, stagnant, frustrated and apathetic. 

I felt like the student when the teacher asked, “Johnny what’s apathy?” 

And Johnny answers, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” 

One Sunday morning I dragged myself out of bed to go jogging. The misty, cold day reinforced my gloomy spirits. As I plodded along head down, barely putting one foot in front of the other, the driver delivering the early morning paper hit me full in the chest with the Sunday edition. 

I looked around. There was no reason to toss a paper in that particular place in the road: there were no houses around, but for some unexplained reason this stranger tossed a paper that struck me…hard! 

That errantly tossed paper made me understand that I must do something different in my life. I realized that cultivating my own misery was getting me nowhere. 

I began looking for new opportunities. A few months later we returned to Texas where some very positive changes began to take place. 

Sometimes we have to be hit hard to make changes. It’s much easier to continue to make the same mistakes, to plod along using the same inefficient methods, to stay in the old familiar rut. 

But to be refreshed we must look for new opportunities, fresh ideas and different behavior patterns. 

Burned out? Tired? Frustrated? Bored? Stagnant? Apathetic? 

If so, take the time to consider what three changes you want to make about your life. Write the changes down. Begin making those changes. Now. 

The newspaper is in the air headed directly toward you.