day no. 15,422: down the way, to the place, toward the purpose

"Effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems." -- Peter Drucker

Effectiveness is a product of purpose. Purpose is a positively-defined destination to which you proactively aim all of your time, energy and talent to accomplish. It begins with seeking, knocking and asking in order to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you that help you reach your goal. It recognizes that there will be problems and obstacles along the way, but the destination is the motivation, the way is the method and the obstacles are merely anecdotal. They will come and will be dealt with, but only as a product of continuing to progress down the way, to the place, toward the purpose of any and every effort. That is effectiveness.

In other words, as I've said somewhere before, be someone else's fire. Don't bother yourself primarily with the problems of other people's fires. Pursue your own flame and fan it into a frenzy that becomes a problem for someone else and then be ok with being someone else's problem. Let someone else be problem-minded if they must, but as for you, be opportunity/productivity-minded for God's glory, your neighbor's good and your own personal growth.