What Do I Want to Be When I Grow Up?
What Do I Want to Learn Most/Next?
WHO Do I Want to Be?
How Good Do I Have to Be?
How Good Can I Be?
Strange to some perhaps that I am still pondering that age old question (“Who do I want to be when I grow up?”) as I live out my 64th year on the planet Earth but I assure you I find it as relevant as ever. I have experienced much, learned a bit, and am older and wiser for sure but somehow I thought things would be clearer, that I would have more answers by now. 63 years, 7 and a half months old and I’m still growing up!
If you think of knowledge as an ever growing circle, as you learn and the circumference of that circle grows, you come into contact with and experience a greater awareness of that which you don’t know, an ever increasing and humbling acknowledgement of the complexity of the universe.
More than anything else, I want to be effective, to operate from the highest leverage point possible, to do the most good for the greatest number, for the longest time, to make as great a positive difference as I can, to be the best I can be, to take care of and protect those I love and am responsible for, to create value, to honor the social contract. To love, to learn, to live, to leave a legacy.
All fine words as I ponder the past year and the coming of the new but how to implement? I always try to pick at least 5 themes to work on in the new year, areas in which to progress.
Several thoughts that keep coming to mind for 2016:
“I am responsible for all that I see.”
(Our world view greatly impacts what we choose to direct our attention to and how we interpret it and thus the world we experience. I want to see and create a world that inspires me and others to growth and greatness.)
“Today I will judge nothing that occurs.”
(Judging is often an emotional act that can blind us to possibilities and limit our effectiveness. We can observe and evaluate and even act without judging. I find my judging can lead to anger or excessive “intensity” which can be counterproductive.)
As always, I share what I most want/need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier