It's a tough day. September 11 is a hard anniversary to get through. There were a couple years where I think I ignored it. But that was wrong—it didn't help.

I knew people who died in the towers. I know people who escaped the towers. It's still surreal.

I have friends who were heroes during that tragedy. I was just some guy sitting on his couch on the other side of the continent trying to make sense of it all.

The reality: On this day in 2001, our civilization changed. For a while, however, our people coalesced. A sense of true patriotism. Then that stopped. It's been getting worse ever since.

As many of us realize, no institution really has your back. The regime failed you on and in the aftermath of 9/11 and it failed you a couple decades later during the coronavirus catastrophe.

We have the ability, though, to make great change in our own life. We shouldn't be so beholden to the institutions that have failed us, time and time again.

As humans, we possess free-will. St. Thomas Aquinas noted the truth of such a claim, saying, "otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain."

We are thus free to choose. One of today's greatest practical philosophers, Coach Nick Saban, argues that we have just five choices in life.

• We can be bad at what we do. "Not the greatest choice, but a choice nonetheless."

• We can be average at what we do. "Going along to get along." Minimal effort.

• We can be good at what we do. We can likely achieve "good," said Coach Saban, by using our God-given talent without any extra effort.

• We can be excellent.

• We can be elite 

"If you're going to be excellent or elite," Saban explained, "you've got to do special things. You have to have special intensity. You have to have special focus. You have to have a special commitment and drive and passion to do things at a high level and a high standard all the time."

Coach notes that natural ability will get you to good, "but without the rest of it," he said, "I'm not sure you ever get excellent or elite."

Saban won seven National Championships in his career as a collegiate head coach. It took him the better part of 40 years to cement his legacy, but he became elite.

Make the choice: be excellent or elite.

Take the extra effort because nobody is going to do it for you.

As always,

Brian

P.S. – For my Catholic or Catholic-adjacent readers, my friend John DeRosa, host of the Classical Theism Podcast, is hosting a Bible Objection Workshop for Parents, Teachers, and Catechists on Thursday, September 19.

Recently, John made the choice: He decided that he'd be among the elite in his field of apologetics. John's career is a testament to that, and I fully support him.

John is giving you an early bird discount of $25 if you sign up today. One of the bonuses he's giving away—only available for Early Bird Registrants—is an extra 20-minute live Q&A session.

If you use the following link, you'll also get an extra 20% off this Bible Objection Workshop.

There are more bonuses to unlock after you register and you can see them when you go to John's page.

DeRosa only requests 70 minutes of your time for the workshop. Like Coach Saban (also a Catholic), DeRosa will have his own playbook ready for you.

Keep in mind that it is a live workshop, but if you can't make it to the live session, it will be recorded and you can watch or rewatch the workshop on your own time.

The early bird pricing is $50 today and using the above link will knock the price down another $10.

Take swift action, because, on September 14, the price goes up to $75 and I'll have to see what I can do to shake another discount out of DeRosa's pockets.

Become elite. Register for this workshop today.