Hi Friend
This past week was a grinder. Shooting virtual messages, engaging multiple client calls, putting together proposals, creating new resources, learning new skills – it was one of those weeks where you just “do the work”. The days felt a little longer. The output feels a little slower. The assurance of consistency is your friend, even while the world seems to be spinning in slow-motion.
I’ve been doing some self-work also. One of the discoveries about me is that I have a need to maximize every opportunity. Turns out our strengths also fuel our weaknesses. In essence, making the most of our days, seems like an honorable, carpe-diem trait. Interestingly it can also cultivate an insatiable discontent that prompts a perpetual nudge for more.
My mom and I were talking about it. I wasn’t an overachiever as a kid. Neither of my parents are Type A personalities where I felt the need to strive to achieve for their attention. I got B’s. I played baseball, but was as content on the bench chattering (which I was pretty great at) as I was being in the field.
The only thing I recall working really hard at was BMX. I had a quarter-pipe in my side yard and I would spend hours, days and weeks “grabbing air”. Higher, faster, cooler was the goal. Eventually gas powered mobility diminished those dreams.
The persistent, relentless joyful drive seems inextricable from my personality now. However, it’s origin is nestled in my early twenties when I tripped into purpose.
Calling congeals characteristics otherwise untapped.
Evolution is a priorities-based progression. Our becoming is rooted in what’s important. When we define that, it alters our actions. Left undefined, we aspire towards comfort, convenience and continuation.
I was never studious until I valued personal growth, then I couldn’t stop reading.I was never a hard worker until I valued excellence, then details mattered.I was never interested in responsibility until I valued results, then I reached for it.I was never in charge until I valued serving, then being a leader appealed.I was never entrepreneurial until I valued generational impact, then using finances strategically happened.
Where can you trace your conversion from who you were, to who you are, in light of your values? Is there yet more you aspire to become?
The curious journey of humanity is that as seasons change, experiences and disappointments occur, surprising ups and downs play out, people come and go, jobs are won and lost, death and life persist; through it all the anchoring of our souls lies rooted where genuine care resides.
It’s why learning is so powerful. We discover new things to care about that open our imagination to who we can become.
Small thinking = small caring.
And vice versa. When our heart is inflamed with passion we constantly consider ways to bring to fruition that vision. From young love to enterprising endeavors, grandiose scheming reveals a deep cherishing that obligates relentlessness.
Tenacity exposes love. Love exposes values. Values expose motives. Motives expose actions.
Apparently I woke up feeling poetically philosophical today. 😆
Of course the great tragedy of humanity is when we care most for ourselves. Purposely placing our wants and needs above all, ironically has a way of eventually taking us low.
Instigating Idea
1. Attach a personality trait to an incorporated value.
2. Describe to someone where you have a sense of calling.
3. Jot down a behavior that reveals you lack caring in an area you’d like to.
4. How does one of your strengths also create a weakness?
In my own life, I’m contemplating ways to temper a ferocity that exists with no exertion on my part. Have you ever said “That’s just how I am”? I’ve not only said it, I think it and believe it. What’s cool about discovering, defining and determining values is they not only ground us, they act as a sail that lifts us beyond our current reality.
In every way we can grow. From our deepest desires, we can become. Caring elevates our existence beyond ourselves and offers our being an expanded evolutionary opportunity. Let’s seize it! (Dang it, there I go trying to maximize every opportunity!)
I dare you to reflect on how you spent this past week and list out the values revealed from your priorities. I would love to hear about your clarity around what you care about and how it impacts your choices and behaviors. Please Share.