Ready or not, for better or worse, life keeps moving on! And moving on up to BETTER is much more enlifening than simply drifting with the flotsam and jetsam!!
Unfortunately, the means of “getting us there” – and the sense of URGENCY required – is not so obvious, particularly in the unperturbed moment – usually not until after we find ourselves in quicksand up to our necks!
“Connecting the Dots” for sustainable navigation requires at least a modicum of attentiveness and “Right Reckoning” … judiciously following the path of most certainty and least deviation rather than the path of least resistance. Cogently deciphering what SHOULD happen, COULD happen and HAS TO happen to make life work is the business of “making it” – or NOT!
SOBERING FACT:
MEANING and PURPOSE and DREAMS and DESTINY take TENDING.
As LIFE moves on, we must also connect the right dots to move at the speed of life:
From childhood to youth to adult to parent / leader / teacher / coach / mentor, etc.
From DEPENDENCE to INDEPENDENCE
From CONSUMING resources to PRODUCING RESULTS
From Job to Career to Profession
From Beginner to Novice to Intermediate to Proficiency to Advanced Proficiency
From “Not on the Scoreboard” to Developing Skills to Approaching Mastery to Standard Mastery to Advanced Mastery.
From AUTONOMY to SELF ACTUALIZATION and SELF MASTERY
-
- Able to meet legitimate NEEDS … plus ancillaries
- Able to meet legitimate WANTS … plus ancillaries
- Maintenance of PHYSICAL HEALTH
- Maintenance of MENTAL HEALTH
- Full OWNERSHIP and CONTROL of YOU, Inc.
- Able to add significant VALUE to the lives of OTHERS
Selected “Dots” within the life matrix can help us connect with REALITY and “EVENTUALITY” and DREAMS and DESTINY if we will look in the right places … and if we are open to rolling up our sleeves, getting our hands and feet moving, taking a few risks, and getting a little help along the way. Unfortunately, too many of us would rather hide under a rock, pretend we “have it all together”, don’t “need” the hassle of bowing to anyone else’s dictates or expectations, “race to the bottom” cultivating tribal associations of like-minded others who help justify and indemnify our actions, tune-in to conspiracy theories, claim we’re “only human”, conjure “victimization”, and blame others when things go unrecoverably off-track.
“If everyone would just leave me the heck alone,
I’d be so much better off!”
Sad Lament of the Woebegone Hapless, Hopeless Wanderer
NOTE: UNFOUNDED ASSUMPTIONS, UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS and UNWARRANTED ENTITLEMENTS are not helpful in connecting dots!
Some of the “Dots” we need to connect are obvious but seem so inconsequential – at least for NOW – that we can safely – or NOT – ignore them … defy them … see how much we can “get away with” and “beat the system”.
And, yes, a lot of the “connecting” is challenging … requiring more personal investment than we are willing to commit – at least for NOW … like “getting our act together” and doing our homework – like “Conditioning” – like upgrading our knowledge and skills!
NOTE: With the proliferation of social media, wannabe “Influencers” go to great lengths to fabricate and insert gratuitous “Dots” for purposes of generating their own sense of Identity and “Agency”. These offerings are overwhelmingly NOT helpful! “Bright shiny object” offerings can light up the skies, computer screens and TVs to a point of obliterating “Points of Light” from more germinative and generative sources.
REFERENCE DOTS are extremely helpful and should be consulted frequently … like VIRTUE and the elements of CHARACTER. And like RESPECT and RELEVANCE. Like DIGNITY and DECENCY.
Consider: What is worth CARING ABOUT? Be “bullish” on connecting the DOTS most relevant to what’s worth CARING ABOUT!
OPPORTUNITIES are “Premium” dots, but they are evanescent – they don’t hang around until we “feel like” taking advantage.
TRUST is a top-tier currency, but is hard-earned and too easily lost.
“INCONSEQUENTIALS” are often “dots” that need tending just to keep them from holding us hostage from more “consequentials”. FACT: Stuff won’t get DONE unless you DO it and get “fluff stuff” out of the way!
MAKING TIME and TAKING TIME for connecting and SEQUENCING the dots is crucial. Connect NOW to LATER, starting NOW!
“The time for taking all measures for a ship’s safety
is while still able to do so.”
Admiral Nimitz
RESULTS MATTER! Get more POSITIVE RESULTS! They count as WINNING!
REGRETS are so unnecessarily final. What we “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda … ” done can’t easily, if ever, be salvaged or rationalized.
GONNA DO, GOTTA DO, DOING and DONE are the dot-connecting matrix drivers of success.
CONSEQUENCES MATTER! “If …, Then … “ dot-connector conjecturing helps manage outcomes and associated consequences.
“IF I text and drive /\ drink and drive /\ do drugs and drive, etc., THEN I risk causing an accident.” :: “IF I light a candle, and IF the candle drops onto the carpet or the couch, THEN the house may catch on fire, THEN we may have no house or home, THEN we will have to live on the street.” [Credit to Sesame Street]
Keep connecting generative DOTS! Quartermaster
