On Growth
Have you ever tried to raise a plant? Or a pet? It’s nearly impossible to do so without quite a lot of work, and continuous work at that! You can’t stop watering a plant or feeding a pet and expect it to continue to grow (or live).
Every aspect of our lives follows the same principles. You don’t become an expert at something without long and steady practice (Malcom Gladwell says 10,000 hours). Friendships and loves don’t just happen, they are the result of patient and conscious effort. Popping into church once or twice a year doesn’t make you religious.
Frankly, you don’t get to control who you become without first deciding who you want to be. Lewis Carroll puts it this way (paraphrased from Alice in Wonderland), “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
Seth Godin refers to the human urge to abandon a project right before the moment of full commitment as “Lizard Brain” and argues that it must be overcome to accomplish something meaningful. Avoiding commitment is a coward’s way of never having to change. Never having to grow. After all, if you never commit to something, you’ll never to have to sacrifice for it.
Other posts in "miscellaneous"
- SXSW Panel on Client Interactions
- Updated Feeds
- So Long Frank Frazetta
- Outside The Office
- Beautiful Ad from Skoda
- Nice Interruption
- Quotes
- SnowCraft Fun!
- The Invisible Artist
- TSTC Web Curriculum Committee
- A Visit From Matt
- Spreading Joy
- Social Media Participation FAIL
- The Beauty of the Pentatonic Scale
- Odd Brand Placement
- Why is the web great for everything except fonts?
- The Patent Process is Broken
- Strong Connections
- In Search of America’s Next Unitard
- Lost Labs
- Expressive Error!
- If the Shoe Fits…
- Microsoft Chooses Tricks over Treats
- Survey Time
- Fake Web Content
- C’mon, we know you’re dying to know…
- Hey Unitards! Foot in the Door
- Spore
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