…isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be.
On the flipside, something beautiful unfolds when we ponder what will be the the necessary solutions and answers for the questions that will be asked of those that we serve tomorrow and in the days to come.
We have moved from an economy of standardized tests to one powered by the pop quiz.
Ears.
Eyes.
Be ready.
…of ordinary that is.
For one to achieve something outside of the ordinary, they must leave ordinary circumstances, moments, and mentalities.
A worthy goal, with the right mindset, is to make each area of your life as unusual as possible.
Sleep time, wake up time, practice, play, rest, relationships, work ethic, energy, failure/success, belief, study time, watching, listening, note taking, connecting…these are the areas we must pursue an awareness of and enter into with unusual, and hopefully habitual, thinking and action.
2 Things:
Normal is going to get you normal every time.
&
You’re going to want to be called weird.
You can make a wrong right.
You can’t go back and pre-perfect the wrong that has passed.
We are works in progress, not works in perfection.
Perfection is about punctuation that marks an ending of something. Right is about a progression and continuation of that which is true and noble.
Perfection touts the finish line. Right boasts in the journey.
Doing, building, and pursuing what’s right inches us ever so closer to living a life that can one day look back with the hope and sense of perfection.
Leonardo da Vinci was a relentless note taker. He literally left behind thousands and thousands of pages with his thoughts, interpretations, suspicions, and beliefs about anything and everything.
If one is to thumb through his notes, they will consistently find the words “Dimmi” written over and over.
Dimmi is translated as ‘tell me’ in Italian.
This has rattled me.
It appears that there were very few thoughts, moments, and wonders where da Vinci didn’t ask to be taught or offer himself as a student of what could be illuminated in the scene transpiring before him.
There’s so much this place wants to tell us.
Ask and you shall receive.
I crossed paths with a wonderful thought this weekend on a wall at a children’s clothing store. The words came from Henry Ward Beecher and read, “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots, and the other wings.”
These words were spoken nearly 200 years ago.
They were true then. They’re true today. And they will be true tomorrow.
This week, may the Muse fasten our music in ‘why’ and, in doing so, let it soar with purpose.
Ashton.Gustafson 