“When you spend serious time and effort on transcendental things, it puts your little world into…

“When you spend serious time and effort on transcendental things, it puts your little world into proper context and takes the focus off yourself.”

Arthur C. Brooks, American author and speaker

Image from Unsplash by Chang Duong

The few months we recently spent in Florida have been revealing in two significant ways:

The first is how often we design our lives from the outside in.

The second is that we have even more opportunities to design our lives from the inside out.

The warmer climate definitely offers us greater freedom from the choice of clothes we wore to the time we spent outdoors. Both increased the likelihood of daily exercise and the enjoyment of nature.

Spending time in our senior community also helped me see how people’s priorities shift as they age.

Although there is always a bit of gossip and the focus on little things, most people seemed far more interested in what was most significant and meaningful given the finite nature of their lives.

EXERCISE:

How and where are you spending your precious time as the days and years go by?

Where and how could more transcendental things fit into this picture?

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it’s stupid.”

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it’s stupid.”

– Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist

470Image from Flickr by phalinn.

A major paradox in goal achievement is the premise and practice of working to improve our weaknesses. We often spend too much time focusing on weaknesses at the expense of strengths. Who hasn’t, as a child, had a parent review their report card and make strong suggestions to improve the Ds and Cs toward As and Bs?

Unfortunately, this produces a double-whammy for the student. They usually lack the desire to work on these areas, and this parental feedback fosters their belief in their inadequacy and even stupidity regarding the subject.

Instead of working on our weaknesses, we will achieve much more by playing to our strengths and fanning the flames of a fire that’s already burning.

Exercise:

If fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, what areas of natural talent and ability can you develop in yourself to realize your own genius?