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stop learning because they have come to believe that you go through twelve years of school and then you go to college for four years and then your education is over. But a good education really does nothing more than prepare you to stretch and learn for the rest of your life. Then there are people who stop trying because of bad past experiences. They say, “I tried that once before,” or, “I’ve already done that.” They allow one failure to put a lid on their abilities.
    When you stop stretching, you become boring . Nothing bores me like people who haven’t had a new thought in the last year. They bore the socks off of me. That’s why I think it’s so important that in every area of our lives we continue to stretch.
    The other day my father, who is retired and living in Florida, called me and said, “Son, I just want to tell you that life is so exciting. I’ve got more work than I’ve ever had in my life. I’m scheduling more meetings; I’m traveling more. My correspondence is getting so heavy that I’ve got to get a secretary. Life is not boring at all; I’ve been so busy.” My dad is in his early sixties now, and I have no doubt that in his early eighties he’ll still be excited about life. He is determined to live until he dies.
    Why do people stop stretching? Let me give you four quick reasons. The first is that they have surrounded themselves with people who are both bored and boring. Stay around people who are vitally alive if you want your own blood to continue to flow. This is the reason so many elderly people die fast when they enter retirement centers where there is nothing for them to do. When all of a sudden they realize all there is to do in life is watch the sun set, they’re in trouble. They’re going to be setting themselves.
    Number two, work ceases to be a challenge. For many people, work is nothing more than an assembly line, and so it becomes automatic. That’s why we always need new goals, new visions, or new dreams.
    Many people stop stretching because they have learned to get by with shortcuts. Nothing is more damaging to growth than getting by with second best. There is a difference between taking shortcuts and working smart. We all want to work smart. Working smart takes less effort but is more effective. Shortcuts not only require less effort, but they’re less effective. So I’m not talking about working smart, knowing priorities, and understanding how to arrange your work so you can do it more quickly. I’m talking about settling for less than the best.
    I find that many pastors learn early in their careers that they can just open their Bibles, study a text a little bit, and get up and “wing it.” They stop taking the time to write their messages out and make sure they have developed some depth. I know many pastors who have to move to a new church every three years because they’ve used up their resources; they’ve taken shortcuts all their lives and forgotten how to study.
    Many times we stop stretching because we see our value based on our relationships, not our resources. Marriage is one example.
    If we stretched as hard after our marriages to make our mates happy as we did before our marriages, we wouldn’t have marriage problems. After the wedding, we figure that our spouses will love us just because we’re married. So we stop stretching, and our marriages stop growing.
    Let me apply it in another area—work. I’ve known people to start a new job and work really hard for six months. Then they become friends with the boss and start slacking off. They mistakenly think a relationship means they don’t have to pull as hard on their resources. They stop stretching.
S TRETCHING —Y OUR F INEST H OUR
    Most people will look back at their stretching experiences as their finest experiences. Why? Growth is happiness. The happiest people in the world are growing people.
    We have in our society a lot of false hopes for happiness. We have what I call destination disease .