The Good Guys Win

Scouting has always been a great place to find heroes.  It has built more great men of character and principle than any other organization I know of.  Out of the 312 people who were selected as astronauts since 1959, 207 came from a Scouting background.  Of the 24 who traveled to the moon, 21 were Scouts.  You find the greats in sports, the arts, military, education and even Presidents who were Scouts.  These heroes do not show us that they are great, they show us that great things can be done.

                We forget this important fact many times when we look at life and all the challenges and difficulties people face.  People have always faced challenges in life.  People have always overcome them.  They still do.  You can still find heroes in this world.  They are not hidden.  What has declined is not people who do extraordinary things but people who are looking for them.

“Fairy Tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

– G.K. Chesterton

(1874-1936) Author

                One of the goals we have in Scouting is to help young boys and men to see that greatness is not just for the other guy, it is for you.  You really can be anything you wish to be.  You can do the extraordinary and reach far beyond your dreams.  When Neil Armstrong was growing up in Ohio and became an Eagle Scout, he did not realize that one day he would be the first human to walk on the moon.  He remembered his Scouting days and greeted Scouts from the Apollo 11 on his way to the moon in July of 1969.

                Success comes in many ways to many people; however, it comes to those who believe it is possible.  Each day we are faced with the impossible and things that others believe cannot or will not be done.  Success-minded people know that just because something had not been done before does not mean it will not be.  Even more, they believe it could be done by them.

                Always be aware that people, just like you and me, do wonderful and impossible things every day.  Yes, there are dragons out there and they are big, strong and nasty, but they are no match for the person who believes they can be beaten.  Believe in yourself and the power that God has placed in you to achieve your dreams.  When you do, you will be the warrior who stands tall and proclaims, "Tonight, we are having a dragon for dinner!"

                You matter!  You matter to the world and to yourself.  Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Scouting Out of Uniform is a personal blog based on the lessons learned from Scouting that relate to personal development and success principles and is not an official site of The Boy Scouts of America. John Patrick Hickey does not represent or speak for the Scouting program; however, he does completely support and encourages Scouting for both young and old. John Patrick Hickey is an author, speaker, Personal Development Coach, and proud Scouter. To read more from John Patrick Hickey or to get his books, training and book him to speak to your church, business or group, visit our website at www.johnpatrickhickey.com.   © 2019 John Patrick Hickey

SOU 1929 Duty to God

Imagine That

I have been involved in many brainstorming sessions in my day, but none can compare with brainstorming with a group of 10 - 12-year-old Cub Scouting boys.  The ideas are fast, crazy and full of impossible things.  They do not stop to think if something could be done; if it was dangerous; if it was expensive or even if it was within the boundaries of reality.  You ask for anything and anything is what you get.

                The crazy thing is that out of all that confusion and extremism, you can find some great stuff.  This is what real dreams are made of and some can go on to doing wonderful things that affect mankind as a whole.  And then there is the dark side.  Some boys are told that they are unreasonable, silly and impractical enough that they believe it.  The dreams become nothing more than smoke and drift away never to be seen again.

                One of the goals of Scouting is to ignite the fire of imagination and keep that fire burning. Scouting helps boys and young men to know that their ideas may be wild, out there and sometimes impossible, but those are the very conditions needed to change the world. Scouts are encouraged to believe the impossible and therefore the impossible often become reality. Eagle Scout and astronaut, Neil Armstrong knew that to walk on the moon was crazy and impossible, but the Scout in him also knew that impossible was never a reason to give up.

“Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

– Pablo Picasso

(1881-1973) Artist

                So how do we help others, and ourselves, go from the wild dreamers to the achievers of great things?  I have three ideas that will help you and those you love to become all that they can be.

1)  Think like a child

                When I say think like a child, I do not mean to be childish.  What I mean is to recapture the ability to let your imagination run wild.  To think of things on a grand scale and to be willing to sound foolish to capture that one great idea.  You never know what kind of wonderful things you can come up with if you try.  Remember the words of the great Albert Einstein who said, "If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."

2)  Believe in magic

                Why is it that young people can come up with such crazy things?  It is because they believe those things could really happen.  Here is the amazing part, they do happen all the time.  Look around you, almost everything we use today was at one time considered impossible.  The human mind can create magic.  Not the hocus pocus that some call magic, I mean the real magic of awe and wonder.  You were created with the power to think and create.  Tony Robbins said, "If you believe in magic you will live a magical life."  I believe that is true.

3)  Read great books

                There is nothing greater that one can do for them self in life than to read.  Reading is not just something we do to learn or because we need instructions, it is the food of thought.  If you want to think and have great ideas you have got to read.  There is no shortage of wonderful material out there; great and exciting books of all kinds for every kind of person.  Reading shows that we think and if we think we can achieve great things in life.  As Mark Twain once said, "The only thing worse than the man who cannot read is the man who can read and doesn't."

                You matter!  You matter to the world and to yourself.  Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Scouting Out of Uniform is a personal blog based on the lessons learned from Scouting that relate to personal development and success principles and is not an official site of The Boy Scouts of America. John Patrick Hickey does not represent or speak for the Scouting program; however, he does completely support and encourages Scouting for both young and old. John Patrick Hickey is an author, speaker, Personal Development Coach, and proud Scouter. To read more from John Patrick Hickey or to get his books, training and book him to speak to your church, business or group, visit our website at www.johnpatrickhickey.com.   © 2019 John Patrick Hickey

SOU 1928 Dirty Inside or Out

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A Real Education

We put a great value on education.  Every student is encouraged to go from High School into College.  It is believed that the more education you get the better your life will be.  Students accumulate tens of thousands of dollars in debt for an education that studies show they will more than likely never use.  As actor, Mike Rowe correctly said, "We are lending money we don't have to kids who can't pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist."

                I believe in education - in case you are starting to wonder - however, I do not believe in education for education sake.  If you attend most colleges and universities in this country, you are expected to take, and pay for I might add, a series of classes that have nothing to do with your major.  Why is this?  It is because some bureaucrat who has no idea who you are or what you wish to do, decides you need this education.  So, the student pushed through the classes to get them out of the way.  They may have received an education, but they have not learned anything.

“In Scouting, a boy is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed.”

– Robert Baden-Powell

Founder of the Boy Scouts

               

                One of the great benefits of Scouting is the merit badge program. Here the Scouts must study the area for the badge (at the time of this writing, there are 137 different merit badges ranging from art to zoology), perform tasks and present their work to a merit badge counselor. This allows them to experience a bit on many subjects. They can pursue the ones they like and leave behind the ones they are not interested in. Many a Scout has gone on to follow a career which they first learned about while doing a merit badge.              

Learning is an act of our will.  You do not need a college education to learn.  In fact, most of the real learning you will do in life will happen outside of a classroom.  Albert Einstein said, "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."  Why is it that Bill Gates and many others found their greatest discoveries after they left their formal education?  It is because real learning, true discovery, comes from the active process of seeking knowledge not from being told what you have the learning.

                Success-minded people have come to understand that there is a time when higher education can be of help to them, however, their destiny, their path to success is not in the degrees they gather but in their ability to learn and grow.  They hold the key to their future, not some school system.  Students must see that education is a tool to be used, not the other way around.

                You matter!  You matter to the world and to yourself.  Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Scouting Out of Uniform is a personal blog based on the lessons learned from Scouting that relate to personal development and success principles and is not an official site of The Boy Scouts of America. John Patrick Hickey does not represent or speak for the Scouting program; however, he does completely support and encourages Scouting for both young and old. John Patrick Hickey is an author, speaker, Personal Development Coach, and proud Scouter. To read more from John Patrick Hickey or to get his books, training and book him to speak to your church, business or group, visit our website at www.johnpatrickhickey.com.   © 2019 John Patrick Hickey