“Life’s point of no return is that at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back.”

(Dag Hammarskjold)

Of course I’m being naïve, but success in life is fairly simple. All you have to do is find that one organizing principle that defines you, make that one decision that makes all the others.

Those of us who have staked our lives on such a principle have found that going back is simply not an option. (Of course, in truth it’s always an option, but it becomes one equal to the choice of say, drinking MD 20/20, after you’ve tasted Silver Oak, or watching Star Wars: Episodes I-III after you’ve enjoyed Episode VII. Technically you could, but why would you?)

That’s what happens when you discover your single organizing principle: it brings your past behavior, and its aftermath, into such clarity that your present and future become clearer as well.

What’s mine? You can probably guess—peace begins with pause. Everything truly Good I desire begins when I refuse to react, and choose, instead, to respond. Definitely not easy, but certainly simple.

What’s yours?