Be yourself, everyone else is taken
I’m at an age now when I need my reading glasses to bring words into focus.
Without them, everything is just a blur and I can’t make sense of the words that I am trying to read.
Sometimes, our future can look blurry.
Where should I go? What should I do? Am I headed in the right direction?
This is post number 2,500 on this blog.
What started originally as a way to stop wasting my evenings has turned into an obsessive exercise that has resulted in over 500,000 words and 2.5 million views.
I’ve written from hospital beds and hotel rooms, with nothing (so far) getting in my way of delivering something every weeknight for the past 9 and a half years.
It has taken a lot of effort and there are times when I wonder how much longer I can keep going for. Do I have the time, the ideas, the energy? So far, the answer has been yes.
It’s easy to get caught up in the distant future.
We wonder what it will look like.
We set long-term goals and have lofty aspirations.
That’s OK, so long as we don’t spend too much of our time or energy there.
If we look too far ahead, we forget about the action that we need to take today.
When setting your goals, be specific.
Vagueness doesn’t cut it.
It’s too easy and comfortable to be imprecise.
“I want to lose weight, I want a better job, I want to travel.”
Vague, vague, vague.
This won’t get you anywhere.
You’ll never run out of reasons to encourage people.
You’ll never run out of opportunities to add value.
You’ll never run out of ways to express your love to those close to you.
You’ll never run out of reasons to smile and laugh.
You’ll never run out of great ideas and insights to share.
We are creatures of habit.
We tread the same well worn tracks.
We do what we know to be safe.
We repeat yesterday and the day before.
And yet we yearn for adventure, for something different, for something better.
A snake entered a carpentry shop, and as it crawled to the corner, it went past a saw and was scratched a little bit.
Alarmed by the pain, it turned around and bit the saw, cutting himself badly in the mouth.
Then, thinking that saw was attacking him, he decided to roll around the saw to suffocate it with his whole body.
As he squeezed, the saw cut deeper, leading the snake to get angrier and squeeze harder, until eventually, the snake died from its self-inflicted wounds.
I stumbled across this wonderful quote today:
“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it.
Autograph your work with excellence.”
Today, I want to encourage you to look back on your work over the past week and how it reflects on you.
Does it say, “Near enough is good enough?”
You’re not a small cog in a very big machine.
You’re not an anonymous sheep in a very big flock.
You’re not a tiny sardine hiding in a very big school.
You’re not a little sapling in a very big forest.
You’re a person.
Don’t look to gain for yourself, look to make a contribution to the people around you.
Don’t rely on others to make you smile, be the one who brings joy.
Don’t sit back and let others do all of the work, roll up your sleeves and join in.
Don’t yearn for attention and constant praise, be the one who encourages and highlights the good work of others.
Don’t sit there complaining about your surroundings, get involved in finding solutions.
