When I was a child, my dad used to share a riddle about how to get into a house with no windows and no doors. I always chuckled, but never really understood what he was talking about. Unfortunately, its clever meaning was lost on me until I was old enough to figure it out.

Similarly, it wasn’t until I had served over 20 years in the military this occurred to me: since I entered active-duty service on 3/4/1986, I had officially ‘marched forth’ on March 4th. Sadly, I’m sometimes not so bright.

So what better month than March to march forth toward fulfilling your purpose, achieving your goals, or making the world a better place?  What thoughts do you have on how best to do that? Here are just a few that come to mind for me.

Start a blog or some other venture. My good friend, a retired educator and fellow retired senior enlisted leader, recently created Charlie’s School House. It’s a site that provides educational information, interesting content, and links for students (and parents) that may be temporarily at home. I suspect it will endure long beyond this present crisis to serve as a simple resource for encouragement and learning. Well done, Mike.

Start (or ramp up) a personal reading program. In his book On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft, author Stephen King stresses the importance of reading in relation to being a proficient writer when he states “You have to read widely…”. I agree that being well-read is important to being a better writer. And I join many others who recognize the tremendous value of avid reading for other reasons such as gaining knowledge and for entertainment. Reading has made me a better writer, speaker, conversationalist, and communicator for sure! It helps that I love to read. In fact, I typically have a number of books going simultaneously…both print and electronically. While I enjoy some good fiction, most of what I read is biographical or historical, motivational or educational. Right now, besides reading through the Bible in a year, I’m into the pages of The Final Days – The Classic, Behind-the-Scenes Account of Richard Nixon’s Dramatic Last Days in the White House; Meditations – The Philosophy Classic Marcus Aurelius; Decision Points by George W. Bush; Jimmy Buffett A Pirate Looks at Fifty; and The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes. Trouble focusing much?

Volunteer. It’s comforting that during times of crisis, people seem to step up and show a much greater sense of community and compassion for others, albeit short-lived. It’s disappointing, however, that it takes tragic events like the terrorist attacks of September 11th or the present COVID-19 pandemic for us to experience this (brief) universal unity. If you need an excuse, use our current situation to do something nice for someone else. Volunteer to help elderly or higher-risk friends or neighbors by delivering groceries to them; participate in a group that helps teach or read to students online; join one or more community, fraternal, or civic organizations in your area and stay engaged after this passes. In other words, get involved with something that not only benefits you, but helps others, too. Service to others is a great way to forget about our own troubles for a while and to realize we’re not alone.

Get your fitness goals back on track. Even if you haven’t completely fallen off the fitness wagon, chances are by now your new year’s resolutions are more like mere suggestions or distant memories. Maybe the forced fitness of basic training doesn’t appeal to you at this time in your life, but perhaps there’s value in cultivating a mindset of constant improvement or committing to a structured workout plan to help revitalize those fitness goals. Besides, if ever there was a time to feel better, it’s now. Physical activity, even low-key/low-impact, can improve your physical, psychological, and emotional well-being.

Will you join me, especially now during this time of worldwide chaos, in marching forth into the future with renewed commitment to making ourselves, our neighbors, and our world a better place? Situations like this equally bring out the best and the worst in people. There’s a lot more each of us can do to show our best…and it all starts by stepping-off with the left foot.

So how do you get into a house with no windows and no doors? You keep running around and around it until you’re ‘all in’. I finally figured it out, Dad. And I’m all in.

Get Strong. Be Strong. Stay Strong.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. – Psalm 46.1

King, Stephen (2000).  On writing: a memoir of the craft. New York, NY: Scribner.