Over the course of days, weeks, months and years, snipets of inspiration have slipped through the fog that seemed to warrant representation at least as footnotes. Here are a few footnote snipets from 2010 … which seemed to be a particularly “footnotable” year (the year before I retired):
CATCHING A DREAM
Problems in maximizing human potential are not trivial. Just getting started and laying down the tracks is probably one of the biggest hurdles. Sometimes folks simply take up the absolutely biggest challenge confronting them and wear it down until they are on top. This seems to be a common theme for those labeled “Unlikely Champions”. Wilma Rudolph couldn’t walk, so she forced the issue AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, and with every ounce of fortitude, to become an Olympic champion.
Those of us not so sorely afflicted or divinely inspired have trouble figuring out how to spend large blocks of unscheduled time.
“Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves
on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
Susan Ertz
So they end up standing on street corners smoking cigarettes, hunkered in corners playing video games, or sitting on bar stools nursing stiff drinks lamenting the incompetence of the “Powers that Be” in making life easier for them.
As “Unlikely Champions” have demonstrated over and over, the opportunities to make worthy and enriched lives for ourselves are far greater than anything the “Powers that Be” can do for us, yet we let so many of those opportunities go wasting. How do we “lock-in” a life Dream that we can follow – indeed, one that will CARRY us if we simply submit – “bridle” – ourselves to it? This hallowed state happens when we find something sufficiently larger than ourselves that we can become purposefully and passionately engaged with total intentionality.
UNSTOPPABLE
A person who is strong enough, dedicated enough, desirous enough, crazy enough, prepared enough, and sacrificial enough cannot be stopped.
THINK LIKE A CRIMINAL
Connive to make good things happen – despite the “odds” … despite “not feeling like it” … despite having to carry most of the water yourself. “Beat the System” by doing exquisite due diligence in preparation and execution. And don’t get caught red-handed (except in doing the exceptionally commendable): ferret out all the things that could possibly go wrong that might cause your foibles to be found out. Eliminate the foibles up front.
ANCHORING ENGAGEMENT
What is your most effective/frequent/defaulted anchoring engagement … that activity to which you invariably retreat for consolation/regeneration/centering down when fully spent?
… or when you don’t have anything “Else” to do?
… or when you don’t know what “Else” to do?
Is it …
Tobacco?
Caffeine?
Meditation?
Exercise?
Social Media – connecting with co-miserable others?
Video Games?
TV?
Food?
Shopping?
Shower/Hot Bath?
Is there something more appropriate/fulfilling/profitable you could be doing?
What’s the best thing you could do in the next five minutes?
MAKING LIFE BETTER
Life will get worse all by itself – with or without our help.
Weeds grow. Debt accumulates. Iron rusts. Prices increase. Dust bunnies pile up. Dishes and clothes eventually need to be washed. Shoes and socks and underwear get dirty and wear out. Rent/mortgage needs to be paid. Etc.
Less visible and rarely understood or accepted is the fact that subsidies, entitlements and conditional love that make life better than we actually deserve eventually run out. Even “unconditional love” can wear thin.
Making life better requires a substantial investment – including blood, sweat and tears – either ours or someone else’s on our behalf.
Deserve more. You can make it so or you can let it go.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Life of any consequence is replete with unfinished business. There are jobs to do, money to earn, bills to pay, loved ones to look after, goals to achieve, broken things to mend, messes to clean up, etc. It’s the “Cost of Living”. And just “becoming” is a never-ending process – except, unfortunately, for those who decided to stop the train and get off … who then spend the rest of their lives making excuses, blaming the “system”, elaborating explanations and fending off regrets – a never-ending process in itself. Unfinished business gives one an agenda – a reason for being – and should be as closely tied to goals as possible.
Unfinished business left untended can quickly get out of hand. Unpaid bills become ballooning debt. Slow drains become clogged. Leftovers in the refrigerator gather mold. Deadlines get missed. Credibility gets damaged. Sanity suffers. Accountability tanks. And anxiety increases. Managing unfinished business is as much art as science and requires due diligence. The “art” is in deciding which unfinished business to tackle first next. The “science” is how to do it. The “art” is how creative we can be. And the “science” is diligence is in doing it NOW.
INDEPENDENCE
[… thinking of both the elderly, who have long since become dependent on others but can’t give up the idea of living independently, and the young who don’t realize how ill-equipped they are to make it on their own without the considerable subsidies of family and social support systems…] Independence is great when you have the capacity to navigate independently. But it becomes an imponderable burden when you can’t. Fighting for independence against all reasonability can play out to one’s detriment. Above all, be “helpable” … and enjoy the support. It’s unlikely that you’ll “make it” otherwise.
