I sit with a bag of popcorn and watch the frantic climbers of the ladder of success.

The climbers who capture my interest are the ones who consider themselves to be “clever.” But look closely and you’ll see their only “cleverness” is that they are uncommitted and disloyal. Every person is a steppingstone for them and every relationship is transactional.

I ask them about this and they say with pride, “I am an independent thinker. I am my own dog.”

But isn’t that just another way of saying, “stray dog, dog without a home, dog that nobody wants”?

Clever climbers have no master. This means no commitment, no loyalty to anyone or anything other than themselves. But happy dogs have masters to whom they are loyal and committed.

Climbers envision a life of recreation and leisure.

But recreation and leisure are medicine, not a lifestyle.

Medicine, used wisely, restores us to health.

Medicine as a lifestyle is the definition of a drug addict.

When you live for something bigger than you are, you gain identity, purpose, and adventure.

Identity: Who am I?

Purpose: Why am I here?

Adventure: What must I overcome?

We spend our lives searching for security and then hate it when we get it. Security is the death of adventure.

Self-made people speak of being their happiest during days of struggle and uncertainty. This is when they knew exactly who they were, why they were here, and what it was they had to overcome. Hence the saying, “It is the journey, not the destination, that matters in the end.”

This is the self-perception that I will be sending to indy@wizardofads.com.

I hope you will use this same format when you send him your self-perception.

Identity: I am a mailman.

Purpose: I deliver messages.

Adventure: I must overcome ignorance, insulation, and apathy.

Ignorance: I must cause those who don’t know, to know.

Insulation: I must penetrate the insulation that surrounds their brains.

Apathy: I must touch their hearts so that they care.

STEP ONE is to summarize in three, short phrases, your identity, your purpose, and your adventure.

STEP TWO is to explain how you will overcome the obstacles that are the essence of your adventure.

Disclosure: the reason I’m asking you to send your self-perception to Indy is because you will give deeper thought to your introspection if you know that another person – even a lowly beagle – is going to read it. This exercise is not for my benefit and it’s not for Indy’s rabbit hole. It’s for you.

If you deliver good news

and solutions for problems

and try to alleviate suffering

and make people happy,

you are doing the work of God.

You are no longer your own dog.

You are God’s dog.

Roy H. Williams