In tune. Eye-locked. Active listening. Responsive.
These are the charming characteristics of one who engages.
Could it be that our addiction to technology is being fueled by its ability to now listen and respond to what we are saying?
We don’t forget those people and things that engage us.
Slap on some charm.
Victor Hugo once said ‘music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.’
The same can be said for our lives.
In the end, your music will be what we call your life and your life will be what we call (and what you call) your music.
Few of our spoken words will hang frozen in time, but our action and love will echo for ages.
Couple this idea with Shakespeare’s thoughts, ‘If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” This now takes us into the law of reciprocation in which all areas of our lives can benefit.
The pursuit of more life begets a deeper and wider life.
The pursuit of more love begets deeper and wider love.
The pursuit of more music begets deeper and wider music (remember, this is that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent).
More X More = More and More and More and More.
Life, love, and music, when pursued, reciprocate the pursuit with themselves and there’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.
Remember elementary school? Remember the golden rule of raising your hand?
Well, good news, you no longer have to raise your hand for permission to do something, ask a question, or make a statement.
In this new (and what appears here to stay) economy you just need to start the doing, the questioning, and the statement making.
We used to fear raising our hand for one of two reasons: we were afraid of what the teacher’s reaction would be or we were afraid of what our classmates would say behind our back.
Now, with hand raising no longer in the rule book, the fear lies in starting something great, asking great questions, and making a great statement.
The resistance will pour you a glass of fear to drink if there’s any chance of you making or doing something great and worthwhile.
Three things:
1) Starting is step one and must happen for step two to occur. Talking about step ten will never make starting step 1 easier. Just do it.
2) Questions > Answers.
3) The statement I’m talking about here is the metaphor you were sent here to show us.
You can put your hands down now. Go.
As a leader, your response to the question from your followers ‘what should I paint?’ should almost always be ‘you tell me.’
Of course the easy thing to do is hand out coloring books (let’s call these manuals) with prearranged lines and drawings to color within, but where’s fulfillment, where’s the creativity, and where’s the bravery that a blank page or canvas invokes?
Leadership boldly leads followers to the blank canvas, swaps eye contact between the canvas and the followers eyes, smirks, and then says ‘show me what you see.’
In the end, being told what to paint will never compare equally to simply being asked to paint what you see.
We are all one of two painters: one that is free or one that is imprisoned.
Imagine having to paint behind bars and knowing there’s the option of painting with eyes pointed towards the sun rising or starlit horizon.
Ashton.Gustafson 