"No one can really pull you up very high -- you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet you can climb mountains." - Louis Brandeis

"No one can really pull you up very high -- you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet you can climb mountains." - Louis Brandeis

Sort of like: "You can give man a fish and he can eat for a day OR you can teach a man to fish and he will eat forever"...to paraphrase badly. But the note of the quote is the same. If someone "gives" it to you - you just don't value it...or lose your grip. Also, you have no ability to recreate/reproduce it. Its presence in your life was not earned with experience...therefore you have no ability to cause it on your own. Worse, you run the risk of being dependent or even addicted to the giver/puller.

This alludes to the "failure" of our culture to embrace and encourage "failure"! Its this fear of failure that makes us "easy road to riches", quick-fix kind of world. There is no ebracement of "hard" work or practice or development/training. We want our fame and glory now...so we will take the pull up or the free fish for today...and to heck with the consequences or the termporariness of the "fix"!

- Economic stiumulus or real analysis of and acceptance of the true impact of our bankrupted economic structure/lifestyle!

- So you didn't make it to third or even fourth place...here's a "participation" badge...don't worry, winning isn't everything!

- Here's another diet promising that you will lose 20-lbs in 7-days!

Instantaneous fortune/fame....youtube! Your 15-seconds of fame has been reduced to 15-nanoseconds....but it's yours! Take it!

Its not unlike "our" American cultural fear of depression. Take a pill. Eat! Drink! Do anything, but don't face yourself and your thoughts. Run from it! Turn on the tv or watch youtube and it will all be better!!!!

IT'S TIME TO PULL OURSELVES UP...TO LEARN TO FISH....TO CONQUER MOUNTAINS...ONE STEP AT A TIME!

"A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction." - Rita Mae Brown

I spent the day dealing with traffic, incompetence, delays, bureaucracy and I am frustrated. I stated that I am not tolerating "unworkability" in my life and guess what...that's what's showing up!

Surprise!

"The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense." -- Arnold Bennett

This quote speaks to me of PRACTICE. Of PATIENCE. And of MASTERY. As a culture we are so easily distracted by shallow promises of 'easy routes' and 'overnight success' -- so few of us are prepared to do the work that's involved. We all want instant fame and enlightenment. Just take this pill. Take this course. Read this book. All of that is great/good/useful...and it still take HARD WORK. And that is the reward. Somethings cannot be gained by shortcuts. And only taking shortcuts deprives one of certain learning and development...that is invaluable and inestimable. Until you come up against that short-fall. Then it's too late OR you rise to the ocassion and take on your work! Mastery is or at least has been undervalued culturally. But I do sense shifts or even transformations in the zeitgeist or collective cultural story. Maybe...

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." - Peter Drucker

A great play! A novel/movie/opera...any one of a number of "things" can be a testament to a courageous decision...including business decisions. We tend to honour and respect the arts/sciences more often than we do 'business' -- but what impacts most profoundly, daily, are the business-decisions that are made every minute of every day by business people and executives. They affect the way we live and work and play and think and interact. And courage is most often a rare commodity. So anywhere it is witnessed, it must be lauded and commended...in ourselves and in others!

I am thinking about what courageous decisions have I been making lately?

That's an interesting 'context' to bring to one's life. Will courageous decisions give one a courageous life and/or a courageously lived life? I think so and certainly and out-of-the-box life! Nothing ordinary!

And that's what I want: A truly EXTRA-ORDINARY life!!!!