As a child I was always enamored by the pace with which my grandparents and Great Aunt and Uncle would go through their day. When you’re in your adolescence you typically went full throttle all day and night. Maybe this is why it fascinated me so. How could any human being possibly get anything accomplished at that speed?

While I spun my wheels, made mistakes and traveled down dead-ends, they were methodically and intentionally knocking out tasks, accomplishing and completing everything they set their sights on. And they did it at a tempo that made sense to them.

As a middle-aged man, their style makes so much more sense to me now. We tend to gather a bit more wisdom from all those wrong turns when we were young. From those experiences we gain wisdom and understand the tortoise is always the winner because he is consistently moving forward over the long haul. This, in turn, doesn’t even make it a close race.

The hare is left in a quandary as he catches his breath while staring off into the distance asking, “How?”

Building custom cabinets is not brain surgery. Nobody will die if the measurements are wrong. Getting cut off in traffic will not ruin your day. Odds are you will get over the flu or that nasty cold. You probably won’t remember that you dropped the ball on your work presentation in 3 years.

Perspective in our lives is such a vital tool in our life kit. It’s a way we can find balance from day to day.

After all, some of the most angry and ornery people I’ve ever come in contact with are the ones that don’t have any perspective in life. They over-react to situations which many others would shrug their shoulders and walk away not giving it a second thought.

It always amazes me when people’s perspective takes a 180 degree turn within moments. Receiving a life-ending diagnosis is one of those ways. I would imagine I would certainly look at work or traffic differently. In other words, it would be in it’s right place in my world.

Let’s not wait for something like that to happen before choosing to have a healthy perspective in our lives.

After all, it’s a choice. Our choice.

The great’s, who don’t want to show their work before they were who they ultimately became, are not doing us any favors.

How can we truly understand the genius in Lucas’ or Kubrick’s work without knowing where they came from and seeing the seeds of what was to come in their first films?

Or the early works of Michelangelo as he committed his life to his craft and ultimately creating one of the greatest works of art ever made by man after completing “David.”

Everyone has to start somewhere. We must embrace the chaotic. The jumbled and the sloppy. We cannot be afraid to expose our flaws and our blind spots. Our curiosity to explore the unknown is rewarded with a refinement, evolution and depth of our skill.

When we accept the role of the neophyte we are committing to the journey into the darkness of the unknown. We are admitting to ourselves that we have accepted the pilgrimage to rise up beyond even our own expectations and create something more than who we are.

The answer cannot be in hatred. It has to be LOVE.

The response cannot be violence. It has to be LOVE.

There’s no way a demeaning quip towards others is going to lift us up. It has to be LOVE.

Selfish acts only isolate us. We have to learn to LOVE.

Berating ourselves and holding onto resentment from our past leads to an unhealthy life of body, mind and soul. We have to learn to LOVE ourselves.

There’s plenty time, money, parking spaces, answers, promotions, seats, positions, and room for all of us to go around. When we come from a place of LOVE.

The answer is always the same.

LOVE.

There are so many ways of saying it; What you focus on expands. Keep your eye on the ball. Or, your car goes where you’re looking.

This is why it’s so important for us to reset ourselves each and every day in order for us to keep our attention where we want it and minimize our drift.

I’m challenged by today’s distractions around me in all shapes, forms and sizes. I find it more and more difficult to keep a singular focus – even for short burst of time.

However, I do realize this makes all the difference in the world and cultivates those matters that I cherish.