Aiming High

Today’s quote is from Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.” 

It pays to dream. To think on the future and where it will take us. What our hopes are and what we would like to experience eventually. It goes hand in hand with the great questions of all time: Who am I? Why am I here? What will I do with the rest of my life? 

These questions are big picture ones. They are huge. They pull us out of our mindset or ‘boxes.’ Creativity and innovation come from this type of thinking. It is a good thing. But it is also daunting.

When we ask the big questions, the really big ones, we know that much of our future cannot be planned. We cannot personally control it, or the actions and events by others that affect our life paths. We can get prepared for such things, however. And we can take charge and do some active planning to make what we dream about actually come about in our lifetimes. We can do that. We can work towards that. We may be successful at it; on the other hand our best laid plans may crash down around us. 

When we set plans we naturally identify actions we can take or prepare for. Some of those actions are large and complex. We break those tasks into smaller parts so we can digest them better. We take action in short bits and pieces in the short term. As long as we have a good view of where it is we’d like to end up, we can calculate our progress towards the long-term goals. We can see we are getting there slowly. And hopefully surely! 

The trick is to aim high. Setting our sights low may make us feel successful, but low achievement can be catching; we can undershoot what needs to be done and become satisfied with less. Think lowest common denominator. How much of what we deal with day in and day out is the least we can do to get by? How much of this is written into our institutions and businesses? How much of our life is aiming low? Not high? Not challenging? 

We cheat ourselves if we don’t strive for the best. Along the route of striving, we learn a lot about what we can do, what we are weak at, what we need to strengthen. We also learn the same about those people surrounding us. Are they the collaborators we need at this time? Or should we work to find others better suited to our task? Or are the ones in the here and now capable of growing into the collaborators we need?

Not easy discerning the truth here. Attempts, stabs, tries…all are part of the process of trying, making mistakes and learning from those mistakes until we reach our goal. We learn so much on this journey. And so do our compatriots who accompany us on this path.  

In our busy lives we often shirk paying attention to this work. This is very personal. Who will know that we sloughed off a bit? Who will notice that our goals are not being met? Who even knows our personal inner goals? 

Well the obvious answer is: I know; we know. Besides, succeeding in life involves much more than nice homes and cars, good clothing and fancy vacations. It is not about money or symbols of wealth. It is about values and happiness and quality of relationships with others. It is also about positive outlooks and a sense of ‘can do.’

So if we are aiming low, we know about it. And our satisfaction is wounded. It is not fully realized. And that drags us down. That is OK if we realize it and use it as a motivator to sharpen our focus and aim higher. 

Doing this sort of work is basic to personal development. It makes us different people with better strengths. And those are obvious to others, especially our kids, spouses, family members and neighbors. We become models to others whether we realize it or not. But the real value is the role model we build for our own personal self. We know when we are doing OK, when we are excelling. We don’t need someone else to tell us. We know for ourselves that we are on the right path. And that the path doesn’t have a real or concrete end point.

That’s what makes life on this planet so good. The results are never known qualitatively. But we are always in the process of discovering our self-ness. We are in the process of discovering. How exciting!

April 1, 2012