On radio this morning, Glenn delivered a passionate monologue about the men he most admires and the qualities they share. More often then not, Glenn looks up to people who have overcome adversity and battled through trial after trial. While bad things happen in life, the people who are able to pick up the pieces and use the experiences for good are the people who triumph.
“I was thinking over the holiday of writing a book about men I admire. I admire the men who have just trial after trial after trial in their life and become better and better men,” Glenn said. “Do the bad things in your life destroy you? Yes, for many people, they do. [When] bad things happen in your life, you make the choice: I cannot get out from underneath them, OR that is not going to define who I am.”
The way Glenn sees it the bad things that happen in life are what facilitate the good things that eventually follow.
“There is no success without failure. There is no success without pain. There is no success without making mistakes. I have made a ton of mistakes. I have had colossal failures in my life, but they don't define me because inside of each of those mistakes and inside each of those failures is a valuable lesson,” Glenn explained. “Lessons I ignored a good portion of my life because I was too busy whining… I was too busy getting bitter… And getting bitter was not the lesson. Getting bitter only led to more trouble.”
Gauging success is different for everyone, and it is not always clear what makes one person more successful than another. But Glenn asked the following questions to his listeners this morning, and he told them to answer them honestly:
- Do you think you have it bad?
“I want you to answer this question honestly, right now, in your own head. Say it out loud, if you are in the car by yourself,” Glenn said. “Do you have it bad? If you answered yes, then I can guarantee: You do. If you said, no, then, brother, you don't.”
- Do you think someone else deserves more than you do?
“Answer it out loud. Do you think someone else deserves more than you do [because] then they do have ore than you,” Glenn reasoned. “I guess we should have asked: How do you define ‘more’? More money? More success? More happiness? More fulfillment? What God are you worshipping? My God does not promise me success and riches. My God promises me happiness, peace, and fulfillment. That's all I need. That's all I want.”
- Are you going to be successful?
“If you answer yes – you will be. If you answer, ‘Well, I don’t know a lot of things have to happen...’ Nope. If you answer, ‘Well I've got this one person on board…’ Nope. You won't be successful. It's about you. And it's about perspective,” Glenn said. “There is always going to be somebody out there that is going to be prettier, more handsome, taller, not quite as fat. You will always look at someone and want their humor, their hair, their face, whatever it is… But have you ever considered somebody looks at you and says, ‘I wish I had…’ Most people don’t think that.”
While we all probably admire someone else for various reasons, we often don’t stop and consider that people might admire us for a whole other set of reasons. There is something inside of each of us, and we must learn what it is and use it to the best of our ability.
“There is something in you, and you may not even see it… The people who you think are better [than you] don't have your experiences. They don't know what you know. They can't imagine what you imagine. You have a secret weapon that they don't. It's you. Keep it in mind. Keep it in your heart.”
The road to success will not be without its hurdles, but Glenn believes the more you trip and the more you fall, the stronger you become.
“You are going to trip. You are going to fall. The world is going to seem like it's absolutely stacked against you. And if you are really fortunate, it's going to seem like the world is stacked against you all the time,” Glenn said. “You will say to God, many times, ‘Can you cut me a break here. I'm doing my best. Can you cut me a break? What more do you want from me?’ That's what you will feel if you are really fortunate.”
“But with proper perspective and knowing the secret weapon you were born with, you, the miracle of you, you will make it. You will be happy,” he concluded. “I don't even say ‘trust me’ on this. I say: With the proper perspective on who you really are, with the right understanding of who you really are, I guarantee you will fulfill everything that you were supposed to fulfill. And you will be happy.’”