Where will you be first?

Chicken_eggThere is a story that has held my attention for many years. When I first heard it I was too young to understand the true value of the lesson it held. Somehow though I did recognize it as a story that mattered and it has stayed with me.

A certain world record was broken in 1954.

The record itself is not the reason the story captured my attention. What captured my attention was the fact that once the record was broken, within 46 days it would be broken again.

A feat that alluded so many for so long suddenly became the standard instead of just an aspiration.

The four-minute mile. Two men in 1954 ran a race that changed the possibilities for every runner thereafter because of the barrier that was broken. Many in fact have since achieved even better, faster times.

What I have learned from my own personal experience is that it can be hard being the first person to break a barrier. You fight against unbelievable odds and quite often have far more naysayers than champions on your path.

But when you win; ah when you win you are forever the first. It is something that stands the test of time, even when others improve upon your work. The achievement is remembered.

We are surrounded by many such heroes today. We are privileged to live in a time when many have achieved new firsts, set new standards in nearly every area and discipline.

Those heroes represent more than hope. They also embody purpose. When you combine purpose and hope you go well beyond what we might consider powerful. You are in miracle territory. That is where I believe we are today.

It is the culmination of effort and progressive moments that have brought us to where we now find ourselves. No single act or event has moved us to this point. Many more great moments lie ahead because of what we will choose, even aspire to continue to build. The compounding effect of what is good and purposeful remains within and among us.

I am continuously reminded that each time a runner entered a race after that day in 1954 they knew that it was possible to do better. And so they did. The barrier could not go back in place. It was forever banished. A new possibility was born.

Once of my favorite quotes from C. S. Lewis talks about the fact that while it might be hard for an egg to turn into a bird, it would be much harder for it to learn to fly if it remained an egg. I would take it a step further and say that once hatched, what is now impossible is for that bird to go back to just being an ordinary egg. No, once the barrier is broken there is only one thing left for the bird to do: Fly!

Where will you be first?

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well.

Making the leap from hope to faith

If you want someone to act, give them hope.  That is the cornerstone of every effective plan in existence.  Regardless of inspiration or idea, for us to act, we need to have sufficient hope that there can be an outcome that we want.

By definition, hope is the belief that something can be true or can happen.  It is possible.  It may not be probable but it is possible.

What we must realize is that we want that assurance before we invest ourselves. Before we do the work. Because some work is pretty daunting.

The greater the hope, the greater the chance will be that we will actually take the necessary steps and make the sacrifices.  There is a price for every promise after all.

There is more to the miracle of results though. Because hope without faith is not enough. Hope is different from faith. Its shift may be subtle but its important. It is in the combination we find the magic that makes the real difference.

When we have hope, we believe it can happen.  But when we have faith, we believe it will happen.

That’s true motivation.  It goes beyond the initial leap.  It is walking the tight-rope of life knowing you are going to make it through.

Hope can help us take the first step, but only with faith will we keep walking.

I find that I’m not as careful with hope as I am with faith.  Hope is easy.  Faith takes work.  But faith is where the promise comes true.

Where do you need to take the leap and get on the tight-rope of faith? Are you ready to go from  “I can” to “I will”? Once you are, before you know it, you will be saying “I am.” Two of the most powerful words in our personal language arsenal. I am.

What I love about the process is that the more we do this, the easier it gets to really believe and have faith in what we can do – the difference we can make not just in our own lives but in the lives of others and ultimately in the world.

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Have hope. Practice Faith.

Live well.

Looking for your passion? Try backing in…

There are some people who seem to be born knowing what they want. They have a very clear vision for their life, particularly in their work. There are others who have no notion of what they want and as a result, all too often settle into a life that may be less than fulfilling and does not challenge them beyond whatever level they find themselves.

There is a third group that are driven but do not have a clear concept of how that might translate. There are twists and turns that are less about direction than they are challenges for greater depth and meaning. Because of this it can appear on the surface not to be as progressive in terms of aspiration. This group does not necessarily pursue to rise to the top as it were. Instead, they strive to continuously be pushing to their next best, whatever that may be.

The journey here can be more circuitous than on a steep arc and for those of us on this path that suits us fine. It is after all about the journey, not the climb. As you might have guessed, this is the group where I find myself.

Part of my struggle with this has been how we measure progress. There is still a definite pursuit for excellence. Mastery remains paramount. But it is the fascination of the work that draws us in and holds us. It is a personal measure and expectation.

This can be a challenge to describe to others that expect us to detail out long term goals and ambitions. We most likely do not know where the path is going to take us next. We have learned to bring our best selves to the flow of the river of life and look forward to its current as it takes us to what is next rather than plotting it out.

Recently I heard this put in a way that I thought described it perfectly. The speaker was Brian Tracy, an acknowledged and noted authority in the field of personal leadership and development. He is crystal clear in his teachings about the value of having goals. They are massively important. But his views on passion were refreshing. In his description, he said that we do not pursue passion nearly as much as we back into it. We do not “find” passion and pursue it nearly as much as we find work we become passionate about in the doing of it. That has a very strong ring of truth.

live todayThe key it would seem is to be doing. To allow ourselves as Einstein taught to look for what is rather than what we think should be. We must pursue value over rungs of the ladder of success.

We must be willing to move beyond who we think we should be in order to become all we can be.

This reminded me of one of my favorite thoughts from the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke:

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the question now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually without even noticing it live your way into the answer.”

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Just that. Live today. Live well.

 

Excellence as the new perfection – 3 questions to get you there

Excellence has long been my objective. I was captivated by Tom Peters and Nancy Austin’s work in A Passion for Excellence. Having standards and expectations of quality are important and productive values.  There is no question in my mind that good can be the enemy of great. I have seen far too many people settle at a level of performance that did not leverage their full potential. We should not let anything prevent us from stretching to the remarkable, from aspiring to whatever pinnacle matters to us in terms of achievement.  But we also need to remember that excellence is not the same as perfection. It is easy to get them confused, especially if you are a perfectionist by nature. Because when it comes to perfection, excellence will always be the better measure.

As a recovering perfectionist, this is a place I can still struggle.  When is good really great and I just don’t recognize it?  When is good enough, good enough?  There’s an art to knowing.  More importantly, there’s significant value in knowing.  When I find myself struggling with what I call my “analysis paralysis” I have learned to turn to what I call my three “freedom” questions as a way to move beyond where I am.

Question #1:  Will what I have get the job done?  (If yes – it’s finished.  If no – what is left to do? I then focus only the minimum steps left.)

Question #2:  What will happen if I let it go as it is and it needed more work?  (Usually – nothing.  Sometimes – something.  If something, then I close the risk gap but only that.)

Question #3:  What was my original intention for the work and what is it costing me to not be finished?  (This is often where I come face to face with where I’ve allowed my motivation to shift out of focus. With that lens adjustment, the need for results overpowers the need for false perfection.)

It’s pretty simple.  It’s either enough or it’s not.  It is also important to remind ourselves that perfection is a false measure.  It’s not universal.  It’s not evergreen.  It’s not real.  But let’s face it, we each continue in our own ways at times to pursue it. Let’s try a better way. Let’s make excellence our new perfection. Let’s dismiss that false taskmaster and focus instead on excellence by generating value for ourselves and others.  It’s an amazing freedom.  And in the end, produces higher quality work because we focus on specific, tangible, measurable and attainable standards.

Where do you pursue perfection?  What would you be able to accomplish if you traded in perfection for excellence?  Amazing things.

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well.

It’s not just another day. It’s a gift.

As we come into this season of gratitude, I went back to the archives to find one of my favorite videos featuring time lapse photography from the incomparable Louie Schwartzberg.

The first time I featured Moving Art on the blog was in 2013.  I found myself sharing it again in 2014. And now it is appearing for this year. It is a work that continues to come back to me and stays front of mind because its message is so compelling.

Our days are as unique as our fingerprints. No single day is just like another. That philosophy is expressed here beautifully.

We spend our day well when we treat each one as if it is our first and our last. By doing that from a place of gratitude, that spills out to the world as a blessing and our day is enriched even more.

“You think this is just another day in your life.

It’s not just another day.

It’s the one day that is given to you today.

It’s given to you. It’s a gift.

It’s the only gift that you have right now.

And the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well

 

Enough for the day…

stockfresh_2655114_time-management_sizeXSRecently I have had some moments where there has been a sense of overwhelm. My vision for my life and work is considerable. More than I have ever allowed myself.

Because of my commitment to life harmony, another first is that it touches every part of my life. The vision includes my health and fitness; the work I want to do in the world; and, the daunting task of finishing and launching my next book.

Each of them matters. Each represents a valued priority in my vision and purpose at this season of my life.

I am no stranger to taking on more than seems reasonable. I thrive on the impossible deadline. The pressure of more to do than time to do it keeps my performance at its peak. But lately, it’s been different. I started to feel an internal shift saying “enough”. But I know it’s not the right message. The message needs to shift. Because my “why” is very powerful and there can be no compromise allowed. There is an art piece in my office that says this: “If we did all the things we were capable of doing we would literally astonish ourselves.”  No author is credited and I’ve never found a claim for it but those words challenge me every day. Every day I am driven to astonish myself!

As I’ve thought about this it became clear that when we begin to feel overwhelmed, it is undoubtedly because we begin to focus on the distance we have to travel to the “end” vs. the actual work. In this season of life what I have come to know is this: There is no end.  There is only now and next.  I can’t tell you or myself what the “end” of this work looks like. And within that realization is the miracle.

So when we feel that overwhelm for doing “enough”, let’s shift it to “enough for the day”.  We only need enough for the day because we must stay hungry. We must stay motivated. Most importantly, we must continue to put our faith in our promise and not in our current provisions. We stagnate when we look too long at what we have instead of what we are capable of becoming. A part of that miracle is also that our promise is never limited because we continue to grow.

A mindset shift. A shift that keeps us on the “edge of what’s next” every day. By doing enough for the day. Knowing tomorrow brings its own work.  And it will be good. It is stunning to realize that within each of our days there lies a snapshot of our life. That means every day we can claim that: “Today will be my best day.”

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well.