There are three ways we forget what really matters: the process.
There is only one way to change it: admit no permanent resting places.
When we have an IDEA for execution, say a new year's resolution, we spend all the time developing it to completion. However, the process to get there is filled with slow starts, bursts of commitment, and egging along by our trust network.
When we DO succeed, we claim victory and explain it with a rationale for our success. We are ready to make a linear narrative of steady progress that took us to the top.
When we reach a COMFORT level at our success, we end up looking out for those who need to follow us - our children, team or students. We create a linear path for them to succeed, and we plan for their life to be as linear as it sounds in our self stories.
We mistake our stories for reality.
The reason why our idea worked is that we stuck to it long enough, no matter how slow.
The reason why we did succeed is because we were ready for the ride. You know, the ups and downs, the staring at the cliff drop and the re-routing we needed to do, and the hunt for food as we were close to starvation or death, the few saves from friends, teams, customers or vendors -- whoever pulled us out simply because they saw our thirst and hunger and reciprocated.
The reason we got comfortable is because we didn't stop at one place called success.
Tell that story to your children, friends and trusted network. Don't design their successes, let them structure it through their own risk taking.
As a parent, mentor, friend, supplier, customer -- you are the sunlight, water and air to the seed of others' efforts to make a rainforest of variety, brilliance and diversity.
You are not the pruning shears that shape them into beautiful bonsai gardens.
The process -- is iterative, filled with errors after most trials, and has no end.
There is only one way to change it: admit no permanent resting places.
When we have an IDEA for execution, say a new year's resolution, we spend all the time developing it to completion. However, the process to get there is filled with slow starts, bursts of commitment, and egging along by our trust network.
When we DO succeed, we claim victory and explain it with a rationale for our success. We are ready to make a linear narrative of steady progress that took us to the top.
When we reach a COMFORT level at our success, we end up looking out for those who need to follow us - our children, team or students. We create a linear path for them to succeed, and we plan for their life to be as linear as it sounds in our self stories.
We mistake our stories for reality.
The reason why our idea worked is that we stuck to it long enough, no matter how slow.
The reason why we did succeed is because we were ready for the ride. You know, the ups and downs, the staring at the cliff drop and the re-routing we needed to do, and the hunt for food as we were close to starvation or death, the few saves from friends, teams, customers or vendors -- whoever pulled us out simply because they saw our thirst and hunger and reciprocated.
The reason we got comfortable is because we didn't stop at one place called success.
Tell that story to your children, friends and trusted network. Don't design their successes, let them structure it through their own risk taking.
As a parent, mentor, friend, supplier, customer -- you are the sunlight, water and air to the seed of others' efforts to make a rainforest of variety, brilliance and diversity.
You are not the pruning shears that shape them into beautiful bonsai gardens.
The process -- is iterative, filled with errors after most trials, and has no end.
Brilliant....there is no one place called success.
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