Running With The Right Baton?

First he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing. ­– Esau (after his father blessed his brother, Jacob, in his stead)

Let’s take a short mind stroll. You are the forth runner in a 4 by 100 meters race. You are not just the fastest in your team but the fastest on the tracks that day. The cameras are on you and you can imagine the commentaries said of you to the listening ears of your loved ones back home. 
        The surge of adrenalin, which you are now used to and enjoy, flow through your veins and you are set to take another medal for your team and country. The gun goes and within seconds you spring to your swift feet, receiving the baton and hit the tracks with lightning speed. It is only when the race ends that you realize that more-than-normal excitement of the crowd wasn't just because you have crossed the finish line first, but that you crossed it holding on to the wrong baton!

“Impossible,” you may think, but many folks have won some life races with batons they weren't supposed to be holding. This makes their toil, energy and excitement, best described as, “wasted effort.” Some are presently in higher institutions reading the wrong courses, some are in relationships they shouldn't be in (disclaimer: this doesn't apply to marriages), some are in professions they care little about.

Indeed, we pick the wrong batons when we inherit prospering businesses we lack passion for, or when we continue to build our lives in the pattern chosen for us because the field is “professional,” or when we make life decisions based on fear of losing the favor of someone we earnestly want to please – say our parents.

 {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

Suffice me to interject that a wrong baton may not be wrong in itself. What makes it wrong is the fact that it shouldn't be in your hands. In the hands of another runner it is the perfect baton but in yours it condemns you to failure. Are you running with the right baton?

In the next few articles I will be writing about running with the right baton from different perspectives, starting with how to know if you are holding on to the wrong baton. . I look forward to having you with me as we make it a jolly-good read.