Obsession with service
Utilize the imagination
Rapid Response
Strategy in all things
Truth and trust
Old school work ethic
Relationship focus
You get what you give
Ashton.Gustafson
Pause by the orchid. Listen to the bluebird sing. Be love.
Category Archives: Imagination
Spelling Bee
Most school systems fail us. If you are a teacher, that is not a poke at you – it is a poke at the system.
School (the system) has taught us all that spelling is big deal. It used to be. Multiplication and division is important – why? I can do almost any math problem with my phone now.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 only is important because it is the answer to our 5th grade test. What was truly important was the idea that the world was not flat. The system forgets to teach that. A world that was not flat that was an Internetesque idea in its time – a game changing concept.
What if our kids had the chance to reenact landing in America on Santa Maria? What if they planned what they had to pack for the trip? What if they had to communicate with the locals upon arrival? What if they learned how to sail the ocean? I can assure you that dreams would start if a teacher had the platform to encourage his/her students to go prove their prospective worlds are not flat.
Yet the system demands that clubs or groups be created in order to engage our creative. When you hear things like the debate team, glee club, photography club, and entrepreneurship club your mind autopilots to Dorkville. Which is fine, just don’t teach your kids that mentality. Give it time, and they will find out that names like Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Buffet tend to be the mayors of Dorkville.
So you won the spelling bee? Big deal.
So you never won the spelling bee? Whoopdeedo.
Why do we even have spelling bees now? Bill Gates won the spelling bee for all of us when he created Word.
We all win when you are placed in atmosphere to create and imagine the next Windows or Facebook of the world. Only you win when you remember how to spell baccalaureate.
The Ways Of Love Are The Way To Music
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end. The Message 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Now we can answers Tina Turner’s question.
What’s love got to do with it? Everything.
Love is in the business of challenging the status quo.
Without it our souls, our businesses, and our lives are bankrupt.
With it we can orchestrate wonderful music and the world around us will join in with song and dance.
Chapter: Today
Everyday we begin a chapter in our story entitled “Today.”
Don’t leave this chapter undone. Finish it.
When the sun sets, close out today so tomorrow can be opened and begin anew.
Your steps today are not meant for yesterday’s shadows, and don’t allow your steps tomorrow to fall victim from today’s laziness.
Chapter “Today” will make or break chapter “Tomorrow” in your story.
Mud Puddles and Oceans
Utilizing our imagination reduces the chances for the mundane to creep into our lives.
The minute creativity and newness leaves our lives, businesses, and families we allow the water to get stagnant.
No matter the area of our live’s we look into, if “that’s how we’ve always done it” is the chorus in our music – soon that music will stop.
“That’s how we’ve always done it” puts us knee-deep in inescapable mud.
“What if we….? Could it be…? Imagine what the world would be like if……..” – These questions drop us in the deep blue waters of Capri.
Mud puddles are lame. Crashing waves, on the other hand – I can get lost in those all day.
The question is not how can I utilize my imagination better, but where does imagination gets its spark from? I’m not too sure, but I tend to feel the rays of her warmth every time I question, every time I challenge the status quo, and every time I stop and listen.
An eager ear given to a small seashell just may be able to unlock the secrets of the ocean your trying to decode.
Ashton.Gustafson 