Are your steps doomed from the beginning?

Delta airlines napkin — Truth. Keep climbing. Our world needs you. Photo: From yesterday’s flight.

Warning, this post is not short and pithy, but the rest of today’s are.

Being in a position to solve important and interesting problems is a privilege.

The only way you find yourself interested in a problem though is if it aligns with your passion(s).

And then there’s…

The first, difficult, and potentially catalytic task for solving an important problem….

Calling it out.

This can embarrass and anger people – usually unintentionally.

You know, speaking up about what could be better when no one has a clue right now how to make it better.

Most people sense ~~the world’s~~ America’s biggest problems, take obesity or the divorce rate, for example.

But big issues are easy to ignore.

Why?

Because they’re hard.

So we stall, we wait, and we do nothing.

Before any real work gets started, we convince ourselves we need:

Certainty
Easy answers
A quick fix
A guarantee

If we need any of those things, we’re making excuses not to start. The search for quick, easy, guaranteed and certain results will undermine our creativity to begin.

And without the first steps, the next steps, and the ones after that, well, they never get taken.

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Never let your memories be bigger than your dreams

Small town ice cream shop — It’s taken 26 years, but we finally have a community gathering spot.

Never let your memories be bigger than your dreams.

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Wow, what am i doing here?

In 30 days, year nine concludes and year 10 begins.

Who takes a dreaded cultural phenomenon – Midlife Crisis – and turns it into joy, discovery, opportunity, and purpose?

Mid Life Celebration was a crazy idea i had while teaching the four-day Disney’s Approach to People Management somewhere near the turn of the century.

Bob Spina and i were co-facilitating how the language (specific, carefully chosen words) organizations use determines behavioral outcomes.

Note, the lack of intentionally choosing specific words also determines behavioral outcomes – and the outcomes are not crafted, they are by default, random and unintentional, possibly even detrimental.

Also in this discussion were symbols, values, heritage and traditions, as well as traits and behaviors.

And in the moment, as i was searching for a new way to say the same thing, i told the audience, “Do you have a problem or an opportunity, a problem or a challenge, a midlife crisis or a midlife celebration.”

From a tiny acorn, a mighty Oak does grow.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

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Are you dying to live?

family at Church — At five years old in this photo, he had already had three colonoscopies. Everyone is going through a hell no one knows about.

i realize now how important it is to be at peace with our own mortality.

Who else can a dying person turn to if not to their self?

Socrates surmised that human’s fear of death is because humans are selfish.

Hmmm.

Maybe.

Probably.

It’s a deep thought.

Buddha said clinging to life is as dangerous as any other form of ignorance—”To cling is to slowly and ungracefully die.”

i’m living with the wonderful acknowledgment of my death since 1999.

And in these two decades, each year builds on the year prior – so now my awareness and appreciation is at an advanced level.

It is our current level of awareness and appreciation – with appreciation being the key – that we use an ever-present mindfulness to:

Enjoy every moment
Shed anger, grief, fear, doubt, envy, worry
Live in constant forgiveness, generosity, joy, compassion
Keep life simple and purposeful

So yeah, life is good.

Even when i’m going through hell.

We all have the weight of the world on our shoulders.

It is our great privilege to live with burdens and to enjoy life anyway.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

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The key to it all?

School crossing — Yesterday these children were highly motivated to cross when the crossing guard signaled them to cross. It felt like a tsunami of pre-pubescent energy was going to overrun me.

The key to it all?

Do you have a definitive answer?

i believe you should.

Our answers don’t have to match.

But we should both have convincing answers.

Mine?

Motivation.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

If you want to stay on this site and read more posts from this Blog, click here.