Archive
There are two ways to live life. One is to live as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is to live as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein
I recently attended a excellent lecture given by Michael J. Gelb about some of the concepts that he outlines in his book, How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. It was by far one of the most inspiring talks that I’ve been to in a long time, and several of my next blog posts will be on themes and thoughts that have come both from the lecture and as a result of my reflections after it.
I love clichés. Some people think they’re cheesy. I love cheese too. It ages well. And it goes great with wine. Clichés are a way of talking about life. That goes great with wine too. Maybe that’s why I love clichés.
Like the one about time and money. Time is money. You can invest money. You can invest time too. But investing money produces more money. Investing time… doesn’t. But it can produce things worth more than that. You can invest it in friendships, personal growth, life experiences, lotsa stuff. I think time might be better than money.
That’s one of the things I learned recently. Time is valuable because you can never get it back. You must invest it. Everyone invests it, whether they know it or not. Some people just end up investing it in junk bonds, worthless things that suck up their investment and don’t have any return. But we all invest it.
That was a new idea for me. I never thought about it that way, that deliberately. I need to be smart about my investments, and smart about the time that I spend.
Not just spare time. All my time. Whether it’s figuring out how to invest my time at work so that I learn a lot, or deciding what to do with my spare time so that I can further my personal legend the most, or if it’s deliberately calling up someone to have coffee when I feel like sitting at home being a couch potato, I’m the only one that can control that investment.
I’ve never thought about life that way before. I always compartmentalized it – there was the “required” life things, like work and sleep and obligations and such, and then there were the “optional” things like hobbies, friends, naps, motorcycle rides and the like. I like this new way of thinking.
I had a chat with my pastor the other day, and he reminded me that I don’t own anything. I’m a steward of the things that God gives me – the talents, the opportunities, the friends and family – but most importantly, the time I have in this life.
I don’t think I’m doing the greatest job managing all of that. I want to do better. But like my pastor said, the plan of “I’ll try harder” usually isn’t a good one. I need to put things in place to help facilitate the changes that I want to see in my life.
Like coffee. Coffee goes great with talking about life. It also goes great with friends, and friends go great with life. Coffee shops make me think. They let me people-watch, and let me free my mind. They let me drop all the constraints of the world, let me think freely about anything and everything. Da Vinci thought freely and about anything that came to mind. He was a genius. I can be one too I think.
Coffee doesn’t go that well with cheese though. Hm. Maybe I’m not a genius. But that’s ok. I can try. And I can encourage people around me to try too. After all, we all want the most out of this life right?