Thank you to each of you who responded to my blog “Living Outside the box! Doing it when you don’t feel like it!” This is an important part of life that will be covered in my new book, “Fully Alive.”

If you haven’t read that blog and the comments my friends left, click on the link above and read the very inspiring stories of how my friends face difficult circumstances.

I promised to give you my response to the question, “How do you keep doing it when you don’t feel like it?”

So here it goes.

People often ask me, “Ken, how do you get up and do comedy and present a message of hope on those nights when you don’t feel funny and you not exactly bubbling over with enthusiasm?

I am going to give you my answer in my next blog, but I want to hear from you first.  Benjamin Franklin said, “Many men die at 25 and aren’t buried until they are 75.”  How do YOU keep from throwing in the towel. How do YOU stay out of  “The Box?”

I finally bought a GPS. I fought the idea because I already had a wife. Didn’t need a GPS.  Diane was my GPS. “Turn left in 500 ft – Stay on this road for three miles – Stop! – We’re here!”

Diane was always right and she didn’t need batteries. I travel alone now and I’m not very good at getting to my destination.  On several occasions I’ve found myself in the middle of a corn field, fifty miles from where I wanted to be.  So I bought a GPS.  Named it Lulu.  Lulu has my destination locked in her memory and shows me the perfect way to get there. It’s kind of nice. Lulu doesn’t make me stop to go to the bathroom, she never asks me what I am thinking and she too is always right. But sometimes I deliberately, or by accident, turn right when Lulu says left…or left when she says right.  In those moments Lulu gently instructs me to make a U turn and get back on track.  More often she simply says “recalculating.” Then she comes up with a whole new perfect plan for me. A new beginning from my current position. How cool is that! The destination remains the same… the journey getting there has been adjusted taking into account my diversion.

Today was a tough day.  I lost my drivers license at the airport.  Didn’t realize it until I had cleared security.  I went back out to look for it and found it lying beneath the “check in kiosk.”  I discovered that if one goes through security twice one evidently becomes a national security risk. After much grumbling and lack of gratitude, (Helllooo! I did FIND my license!) I settled into my seat on the plane and read the following story.

After 50 years of service in Africa a weary missionary couple descended the gangplank of their boat.   Their disembarking was delayed by a throng of press and well-wishers welcoming president Theodore Roosevelt back from his most recent safari.  As they made their way through the crowd the husband expressed to his wife how discouraged he was.