Pablo Picasso, the great Spanish painter and sculptor, once said this about his ability: “My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general; if you become a monk, you’ll end up as Pope.’ Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.” No lack of confidence here!
But he would have agreed with Abraham Lincoln. “Whatever you are,” said Lincoln, “be a good one.” He demonstrated the wisdom of that advice with his own life.
And Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
I think it helps to remember that excellence is not a place at which we arrive so much as a way of traveling. To do and be our best is a habit among those who want to live well.
Viennese-born composer Frederick Loewe, whom we remember from his musical scores that include “My Fair Lady,” “Gigi” and “Camelot,” was not always famous. He studied piano with the great masters of Europe and achieved huge success as a musician and composer in his early years. But when he immigrated to the United States, he failed as a piano virtuoso. For a while he tried other types of work including prospecting for gold and boxing. But he never gave up his dream and continued to play piano and write music.
During those lean years, he could not always afford to make payments on his piano. One day, bent over the keyboard, he heard nothing but the music that he played with such rare inspiration. When he finished and looked up, he was startled to find that he had an audience – three moving men who were seated on the floor.
They said nothing and made no movement toward the piano. Instead, they dug into their pockets, pooled together enough money for the payment, placed it on the piano and walked out, empty handed. Moved by the beauty of his music, these men recognized excellence and responded to it.
Whatever you are, be a good one. Because if you believe that what you do is of value, then, at least in the important things, you and I can’t afford to be content with mediocre output. Like Albert Einstein said: “We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility.”
And when you choose the path of excellence through this life, then like Frederick Loewe, you may find encouragement from unexpected sources. And it will have been worth it.
-- Steve Goodier
Image: flickr.com/Gil Garber/
Do you ever feel as if you just aren’t getting anything done? “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.” Here are three simple steps I try to use to guide my work.
1. Just DO it.
Sometimes we just have to decide to go for it.
A “road warrior” stopped at a small town motel in the American Midwest. "How's business?" he asked the owner.
"Not very good," the tired looking man answered.
The customer nodded sympathetically. "Well, what's your next step? Do you think you’ll look for ways to get your name out there to build up business? Or are you thinking you may have to close?"
"Well," said the owner dryly, "I've never made enough in this motel to stick with it, but I've never lost enough to get out of it. I'm hoping to do one or the other this year."
All he has needed these years was to make a decision – one way or the other. Sometimes we just have to decide to do it.
2. Do it NOW.
One farmer decided to raise a few sheep. He bought a fine ewe which soon gave birth to two lambs. However, had no pen in which to keep his sheep and a wolf ate one of the lambs. The farmer remarked, "Well, I guess I'd rather have one fat lamb than two skinny ones" and decided to accept his fate and not build a fence this year.
A few days later the wolf killed and ate the second lamb. This time the farmer reflected, "I supposed it's all for the best. Now the ewe won't be bothered with them.” With no lambs left, he again chose to wait on building the fence.
A couple weeks later the ewe was eaten up and the farmer became more pensive. "I know it's all for the best, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how.”
I find peace in learning to accept what cannot be changed. But there is also wisdom in doing what needs to be done WHEN it needs to be done.
3. But do it RIGHT.
One poet put it like this:
"If a task is once begun, never leave until it's done.
Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all."
I think a case can be made that not everything has to be done well all of the time. But more often I have to ask myself, “If I don't have time to do it right, when I will find time to do it over?”
I have a friend who likes to say, “Slow is fast.” What she means is that if I will slow down and do the thing right, I won’t have to redo it later. Slow is fast.
For me, it helps to just do it, do it now and try to do it right. And then maybe celebrate when it’s done.
-- Steve Goodier
When was the last time you were challenged to do something really... well... great?
President Abraham Lincoln helped me to understand that there is a bit of greatness within all of us. It is said that he often slipped out of the White House on Wednesday evenings to listen to the sermons of Dr. Phineas Gurley at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.
He generally preferred to come and go unnoticed, so when Dr. Gurley knew the president was coming, he left his study door open. On one of those occasions, the president quietly entered through a side door of the church, took his seat in the minister’s study, located just off the sanctuary, and propped the door open just wide enough to hear the preacher.
During the walk home one Wednesday evening, an aide asked Mr. Lincoln his appraisal of the sermon. The president thoughtfully replied, “The content was excellent... he delivered with eloquence... he had put work into the message….”
“Then you thought it was an excellent sermon?” questioned the aide.
“No,” Lincoln answered.
“But you said that the content was excellent, it was delivered with eloquence and it showed much work,” the aide pressed.
“That’s true,” Lincoln said. “But Dr. Gurley forgot the most important ingredient. He forgot to ask us to do something great.”
There is nothing wrong with average lives and average accomplishments. Most of the good of the world is built on the accumulated efforts of everyday people. But, as Lincoln seemed to know, a life should strive for some greatness.
Are you part of a relationship that, if given more effort, could be outstanding? Or do you volunteer for an organization which is truly doing something excellent? Have you joined a cause that is attempting something great? Or have you ever said to yourself concerning a beautiful dream, “I could never do that,” while knowing that if you were to attempt it and succeed, you just might accomplish something significant?
If Abraham Lincoln is right, then every life should strive to reach a little further today than it did yesterday, for there is some greatness in each of us.
-- Steve Goodier
Image: Flickr.com/Gage Skidmore
