Contribution is the great precursor to the places, moments, events, feelings, and fulfillment we’re all after.
He occurs before…
the promotion,
success,
having a follower,
having a following,
“thank you”,
“I’ll have another”,
&
“Welcome back”.
Contribution…the holiest pre-party you could ever host.
You’ve got the dream of a big business, but are you willing to be a great small business?
You long to make big sales, but are you willing to make small calls and contacts?
You’re after a big symphony, but are you willing to master the small riffs?
The heroes I have with huge lives are masters at all things that are small.
Aim small – miss small.
May your moments be guided by this question – If I stopped doing this would I be missed?
Here’s a model and mantra for your next startup…We do things you won’t forget.
That’s a mindset and mission that makes enterprises soar in any economy.
A hero of mine once wrote, “I’d love to start again, go back to innocent – and never leave.” That hero would be David Crowder.
At two years of age, my daughter rarely has a day that wasn’t at some point a blast or leaves her awestruck saying “oh my!”. I’m starting to think that innocence has a lot to do with this.
We finish our days locked in our inbox instead of gazing at the cosmos and we start our days fogged in the breaking news in-lieu of being lost in the rays of possibility that the sunrise holds.
Could it be that we know too much and experience too little?
I’ll never forget the day my life changed. Mid February 2006. That was the day I went from “wondering generality to meaningful specific.” It was also the most innocent day of my life.
I try to go back to that day everyday now.
Innocence makes color jump off of the blank canvas and leaves us saying “oh my!”
Is this fiction or non-fiction?
That’s a great question for our moments of thought and vision.
Asked another way, are we seeing things as they truly are or as we choose to see them?
Seeing fictionally is typically grounded in assumptions of others, things, and circumstances.
On the other hand, seeing non-fictionally requires empathy, pause, and bravery – there is no harder work out there.
Take a moment to step out of your story. Revisit the past pages and then please dive head first back into the non-fiction you gleaned from your pause.
Sometimes we must actively step out of our story to read it and find the character we’re becoming.
Ashton.Gustafson 