When you’re young, you think about your future, actually taking steps to practice being in that role: you dress up and play as a doctor, as a princess, as a knight, as a soldier. Playtime (and practice) helps build skills - remember that book “All I really I need to know I learned in Kindergarten?”
You probably remember that book's “top ten” list (people love lists):
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put thngs back where you found them.
5. Clean up your own mess.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put thngs back where you found them.
5. Clean up your own mess.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
We subconsciously use lists all the time. For instance, when you buy things for yourself, family or friends, is “speed” at the top of that list, such as how fast you can get the task completed? Speed isn’t important unless you are buying a Porsche or you forgot to make a list and are running late for the birthday party. I bet your list centers on quality when thinking of others.
If the above is your “kindergarten" list, what’s your "grown up" list? Do you even have a list? You should. How will you know if you are exceeding your goals if there’s no ‘list'?
Work forces you to accomplish things on a list. You make a grocery list (it may or may not get used). There’s a house chores list. These are little things and you take time to make a stupid list - what about the big things?
The most important list is the one that inspires you every day - to do the right thing, to be a good person, to sleep well at night. The best lists are the ones that uplift and remind you of who you are, who was that little person that’s now a big person and can change the world.
To help you get started, you can pick ten things that are meaningful to you and how you want to live your life - then find inspiration.
Here’s my list, and while I need to focus on them all everyday, it’s important to start… start with a list, and start remembering what is important.
1. Intent: It doesn’t matter what you say you believe - it only matters what you do. - Robert Fulghum
2. Learning: Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever. - Mahatma Ghandi
3. Attitude: I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. - Jimmy Dean
4. Achievement: Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. - Francis of Assisi
5. Faith: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. - Jesus Christ
6: Reward: Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. - Vince Lombardi
7. Dream: There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. - Nelson Mandela
8. Companionship: The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best. - Epictetus
9. Patience: In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. - Dalai Lama
10: Service: Silence is Prayer; Prayer is Faith; Faith is Love; Love is Service; the Fruit of Service is Peace. - Mother Teresa
You can’t drive forward when you are looking in the rear view mirror.
Look to the horizon as we enter the new spring season this weekend and blossom into who you really were born to be!
