(OMG) What have I become?

“You can’t see the label when you are inside the jar” – Clay Hebert

I think it is a good question to ask every once in a while to get a perspective.

The only tough part about this question is answering it honestly.

You have your reasons, and you have your excuses, so it’s hard to see who you are, or are becoming, from any other perspective than inside your own head.

But if you could try to see yourself from 10 feet away, and who you are to others, it can be encouraging, or sobering, and at least instructive about what course adjustments you may want to make. Because maybe who you have become is not exactly what you intended or want. You may want to make some thinking adjustments to be who you want before it’s all over – because after all, from the inner, comes the outer.

Who have you become?

Who are you becoming? 

Peaked in a webinar?

Did you peak in 8th-grade science class?  Did you do you best thinking in the first half of a webinar?

If you want to get somewhere really great you’ll have to focus and work down one road for a long time.

You can make an amazing career or accomplish extraordinary things with discipline and perseverance to a simple but worthy goal.

You have to carry enthusiasm for long-term goals long after the sugar high of creating the goal leaves you.

Day after day, making progress, adjusting, getting closer without getting distracted or turning to go in a totally different direction.

Is that you?

Leave some unplanned time

A life scheduled down to the minute may be efficient, but it leaves no room for discovery and spontaneity.

I do not like days with a “Full Schedule”, meeting after task after meeting…  I never know how long things will really take.  I hate being late and rushed, and I hate not being able to finish something if I am into it.  

Sometimes you have to plan, sure.  But for me, days with my hours claimed before they come are no fun.

Adventure requires uncertainty.  When you get “invited” to do something different, having whitespace in your schedule allows you to take the invitation without knowing how it will turn out.  

The most memorable part of a trip is rarely the airport, the hotel, or scheduled dinner.  It’s the wrong turn, the unexpected person, the hidden trail, or unplanned challenge.

Unplanned time doesn’t mean I will be doing nothing.  It means I can do anything without looking at my watch.

Karma compounds

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions you and I make everyday are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.” – C. S. Lewis

Tolerant of others, strict on yourself

“In others, look for virtue.  In thyself, look for vice” – Ben Franklin

When it comes to others, you cannot expect them to live, act, or behave to your standards.  It’s not possible since everyone has different standards and ways to live, so nobody could possibly please everyone else. Same with you.

But when it comes to yourself, set high standards and have the self-discipline to adhere to them.

When you are your own high standards maker and disciplinarian, you don’t have to be corrected by others, have the most freedom, and are set up for progress and success.