April 19, 2019 Issue, Page 4 of 14

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Serving Western Oklahoma Since 1901 April is for sports Mame ) SP Anvkeal MM eet comics.com EMAIL: [email protected] Going from paycheck to purpose Glynda Lomax is a Chris- tian author and podcaster who resides in the Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkan- sas with her two very bossy look not at my paycheck, but up those around you? Our dogs. She wrote her first About to find purpose in what I was burden always feels lighter Life... column in 2003 for a doing to make sense of a dif- when we focus on how we newspaper in Dallas.She is ficult situation. can give to others instead of planning her next book. Making money is great and thinking of ourselves. making money to meet your Your purpose is always “Link paycheck to pur- monthly expenses will moti- linked to your passion. What Pose.” -- Robin S. Sharma vate you to go to work every are you passionate about? Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook day. But nothing will moti- Is there a cause, a group of drives against Minnesota guard Jared Terrell during a Do you work at a job or vate you more than finding people, a certain way of doing regular season game. Photo by Star Tribune. career you hate because it’s your purpose and fulfilling it. things that has always stirred what someone else thought Payday motivates you on the you? Look for ways to link GlyndaLomax you should do? Because it outside, purpose motivates your passion to the work you By Don Munsch can buy you things others say you on the inside. Purpose You know you have found Editor you should want? Because it gives what you are doing last- doRealize now. you are not in that your purpose when you see comes with a fancy title and ing value. It leaves a legacy job by chance and you are not you are making a difference April often finds sports makes you feel important? that will be touching others a going to be there forever. in the lives of others and you fans glued to their TV Because it is the only job you year, five years, 10 years or Realize that purpose is feel apeace deep within your- screens. are qualified for right now? Look at what you do in your longer from now. something that has meaning self for ajob truly well done. The Final Four. The job every day. Will the work in So how do you find purpose above and beyond you. Pur- your work? How do you pose always creates a lasting trying Some jobs (and bosses) are so beginning ofthe Major you do and the contact you that the most you can League Baseballl season. have with others have made a make an everyday meaningful? job more effect on the lives of others. Strive for excellence. do is to smile at others and Stanley Cup Playoffs. NBA real difference ten years from Your purpose is always There is no job that cannot be do every task with the utmost playoffs. The Masters. now? If you answered no, you related to the people on your made better by striving for And, yeah, the NFL draft. are working for a paycheck. If excellence. you answered yes, your work path. You find your purpose excellence. Strive to do every Always leave the people Lots for fans to watch and has purpose. by studying first yourself, single task with excellence, and the places you touch binge-watch even. Over the years Ihave then who and what is around no matter how small or how The Oklahoma City Thunder began its first round playoff you. As you study yourself, insignificant it seems at the better for your having been worked several jobs I truly there. series Sunday at Portland, but the sports story ofthe day — detested during times when consider what other people time. Determine to do your if not the year - was Tiger Woods’ victory at the Masters, the job market was tight. compliment about you most. job better than anyone else The people around you in giving him his fifth green jacket and his 15th overall major Working a job we hate is Your gifts are linked to your could do it. Real purpose your job are there by destiny. championship in his career. agonizing because we spend purpose. Are you an orga- should always be executed Some people enter our lives approximately one-third of nizer? An encourager? Do with excellence. for a short time, some for lon- From my sports-watching couch - or, actually, recliner - our time working. In jobs I you have a gift for bringing You make your work mean- ger. Tiger and the Thunder share one commonality: I don’t have All for a reason. But the found uninteresting, tedious comfort to others? Are you a ingful by finding things in it ones that leave their smiles avested, emotional interest in either. or when I worked for some- good teacher? Maybe oth- every day that have meaning The Tiger story attains a compelling arc not found in other one downright obnoxious my ers around you feel as down for you. You give it lasting in our hearts are the ones sports happenings, as the golfer won his first Masters since days felt longer, more tiring, as you do and you can make value when you use your per- we remember forever. They 2005. Fourteen years between green jackets. Pretty long less joyful and meaningless. a difference by encourag- sonal gifts and talents for the are the ones that knew their time. The question now is, can Tiger build on this win and Inone particular job my su- ing them. Do you work in a good of others in the course of purpose. catch and surpass Jack Nicklaus for the most number of ma- pervisor was so difficult every healthcare field where many doing your job. Your purpose Tom Brokaw said it best jor championships? Nicklaus, aka The Golden Bear, owns 18 single hour felt like a test not are ill and in need of comfort? is personal and comes from a when he said “It’s easy to to pick up my purse and run Do you have knowledge oth- place deep inside you. Your titles. Even casual and non-sports fans can finding something out the door. It was during ers could benefit from where true purpose will always make a buck. It’s alot tough- to draw them to this story, especially given how Tiger has these times that I learned to your teaching gift would lift inspire and motivate you. er to make a difference.” come back from his lurid personal troubles and tough medi- cal challenges. That said, I don’t profess to be a Tiger fan. Don’t neces- sarily root against the guy, either, or at least not anymore. I heard something on the news that there’s been a change in A tax policy lifting Oklahoma his personality, that he’s more relaxed now. Good for him. Whatever the case, when someone has revived his career like this, you can’t help but be compelled to want to watch and see what happens next. families out of poverty As for the Thunder, I don’t have anything against the team, family, and many low-wage comes that they owe very lit- but my team, the Dallas Mavericks, failed to make the play- families lost even more. tle in income tax. Such a boost offs, and so my interest in the playoffs plunged after that. For example: from even a small portion Which pretty much is true every year. I hope Oklahoma City A married couple with two qualifying for refundability has a good run now that my team is done for the year. Up until 2016, Oklahoma children earning poverty-lev- By Oklahoma Institute for could pay for some utilities, On the other hand, my home area NHL team, the Dallas Child Advocacy CEO Joe not only issued its own EITC, el Asingle wages ($24,600) lost $264; parent with two groceries, prescribed medi- it was “refundable,” meaning children making Stars, made the Stanley Cup Playoffs and I caught all or most a taxpayer could claim a tax Jost $231 dollars; $10 an hour Dorman cines or a myriad of other of their first four games against Nashville. As I write this column credit even if it exceeded his Asingle parent with one necessary expenses that far April also is a time for college football spring games, and on Tax Day, or April 15, or her tax liability. Around child making minimum wage too many Oklahomans must the Oklahoma Sooners played their spring game Friday. we mostly likely will have 348,000 Oklahoma house- (87.25 an hour) lost $169. juggle on amonth-to-month Oklahoma State’s spring game is Saturday. Do I have a root- about one month left before holds received the EITC. This lost income directly basis. It is also important to ing between OU and OSU? Well, I received some sage advice lawmakers adjourn the 2019 While all of these households impacts vulnerable children. note that the EITC subsidizes legislative session. I want benefited, the EITC helped to CBPP research has shown and supports only employed, on that rivalry from someone back in Texas who used to to take the time to reflect on lift 121,000 Oklahomans out that children in families who work in Oklahoma: Don’t get caught in the middle of that. one ofthe major tax policy of poverty, including 69,000 get an income boost from the working Oklahomans. For Too late. If had to favor one, it’s OSU. In my vast college discussions being held at the children EITC (as well as other poli- those who argue that we need T-shirt collection are some threads from OSU. Ihave always Capitol: The Earned Income Unfortunately, in 2016, cies like the Child Tax Credit) to reward hard work, the Tax Credit (EITC). the refundability of the EITC quickly show improvements EITC clearly does that. liked OSU - including Eddie Sutton’s basketball teams- and As the Center on Budget was eliminated in Oklahoma in health and school per- To see how it could Iremember as a boy, my dad owned an Oklahoma A&M Ag- and Policy Priorities (CBPP) to help address the state’s formance relative to other impact your home county, gie hat, Kinda makes sense, given that my dad’s college pref- defines it, the EITC is defined budget woes. Numbers pro- low-income children who did go to https://oksays.com/ erence is Texas A&M - his father attended the school - and as “a federal tax credit for vided by the Oklahoma Policy not receive this extra help. In low- and moderate-income Institute show that this policy addition, children whose fam- eitc/#county-impact to the university’s nickname is the Aggies. A&M is my favorite working people. It encour- change resulted in more than ilies receive that boost have review the numbers. Please college team, too. Unfortunately, the Aggies’ football rivalry ages and rewards work as 200,000 Oklahoma families higher school test scores, on also contact your lawmakers with Texas has been discontinued, so we no longer have that well as offsets federal payroll losing some, or all, of the average, and are more likely to encourage this incentive to look forward to. and income taxes. Twenty- value of their EITC. State- to go to college and to work But the OU-Texas rivalry lives on, and know this, Sooner nine states, plus the District wide, low and middle-income and earn more as adults. which could move many Oklahomans out of poverty of Columbia, have established working families lost nearly Many of the Oklahoma fans: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So we have that their own EITCs to supple- $28 million due to the cut. families that are eligible for status and off state welfare in common. ment the federal credit.” That’s an average of $121 per the EITC have such low in- programs,