Seasoned mariners are never far from their trusty tide tables.  They know it’s senseless to sail without them, that a successful voyage hinges not on hunches nor on drafting behind vessels in the vicinity.

Who influences your choices about money, relationships, career, health, values, spiritual faith?  

The man who led Japan to post-war superiority in industry and technology, W. Edwards Deming, preached, “It is not enough to do your best, you must know what to do, and THEN do your best.”

Sincerity of motives is not enough, he says; it’s the validity of your information that counts.  Are you charting your course by an unreliable, albeit widely accepted source?

The man reputed to be the wisest ever wrote, “Start with God – the first step in learning is bowing down to God.  Only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.”

If each of us is navigating “under the influence,” whose influence are you under today?