I’m not one who believes there is anything noble about struggling. But most of us will find ourselves in struggle from time to time, a struggle with a decision, a struggle with pain, a struggle with personal difficulty, or even a struggle with loss. As I stood in the barn one morning this week and watched a new baby goat struggle to get onto his feet for the first time I was reminded of this story which, as I recall came from Zig Ziglar.

As the story goes, Uncle Bernie grew up on a farm in Canada. When he was four years old his dad woke him up at 3:00 in the morning. “Cup” his dad said, “get up. We have to go down to the barn.” Cup was his father’s nickname for Uncle Bernie. In German it means “the head” and in his family it was his father’s way of calling Bernie “The Smart One”.

When they got to the barn a mare was giving birth to a foal. “Cup, what do you see?” his father asked.

“I see a momma horse having a baby,” Bernie replied. The mare was in trouble and his father had to reach in and turn the foal.

“Cup, what do you see?” his father asked.

“I see a baby horse coming out.”

“Cup what do you see?” he asked again.

“I see a baby horse shivering on the straw.”

“Cup, what do you see now?” his father asked.

“I see the baby horse trying to stand up and the momma horse licking it.”

“Cup, what do you see?” his father continued to prod.

“I see the baby horse struggling to stay on its feet.”

“Cup, what do you see now?” he asked.

“I see the baby horse standing on weak legs and the mother nuzzling it.”

“Cup, what does it mean?” he asked.

“Daddy, I don’t know.”

“Cup, it means that where there is struggle there is life,” he answered.

Where there is struggle, there is life.

Sometimes I face struggles that seem insurmountable, or maybe they can be overcome, but I’m just too tired and weak to face them. It is then that this story motivates me.

I’m one of the lucky ones. Born a blue baby, I survived when not everybody did. Nearly five decades later I’m still on the right side of the grass. Not everybody is. In the midst of a difficult economy, my business survives.

Dead men don’t struggle. I’M ALIVE!

Today you are going to walk into a world full of struggling people. Their issues and problems are enormous. Their challenges are insurmountable. It’s your job as a leader to help them see their struggle in a different way, to realize the opportunity it presents, and to cause them to be grateful—not for the struggle—but that they are still able to struggle. In so doing you change their attitudes. They think differently. They come to life.

Make a difference today!

A business owner this week reminded me that we’d had lunch at a local cafeteria about a year ago, and that he’d been desperate…..less than 30 days from financial ruin. He’d said to me “I may lose it all, the house, the cars, everything, but regardless I’m all in.”

All in. As in, “Committed.” As in, “Ain’t no turnin’ back.” As in, “Run those ships up on the beach and burn them, we’re not sailing back to Europe.”

I’m reminded that Columbus would have never discovered the new world if he could have gotten off the ship in the middle of the storms. Like it or not, he was “all in.”

How “all in” are you? Are you committed, or just contributing? You’ve heard that old joke about the chicken and the pig discussing the farmer’s breakfast of ham and eggs haven’t you? For the chicken it was just a contribution, but for the pig it was a commitment.

As you analyze your performance in life, is it what you want it to be. Do you only having a toe in the water or are you fully immersed? Are you committed, or are you just pretending?

What fear keeps you from being all in?

Where do you want to be a year from now? Can you get there with your present level of commitment?

Fast forward a year with my business owner friend. He told me this week how grateful he was for all that was going on in his life. His personal income had grown to almost six figures……..A MONTH!………..he’d paid off all his personal debt and had several months of living expenses in the bank in CASH. He said “You know, I’m not a quitter. It never would have happened if I hadn’t been ‘all in’.”

Wow!