Learn For Life

This week I was thinking a lot about the idea of settling or resigning ourselves to what we have already accomplished and what that comfort does to the fire we each could and should have for the passions that inspire us.  The questions of why would we ever stop short of our best is one that I wrestle with often.  And perhaps even more haunting, what if our true best is beyond the reach of our imagination?  What if it is a level or a higher plain that will only be reveled with measured and sustained success in the future that we can see? It is in a complete pursuit of that measured and sustained success in the future that we can see and imagine that I have come to realize how much I don't know and how pious and cocky it  is to declare, "I have life figured out."  The more I know, the more I understand how little I do. The more I understand how little I know, the more willing and open I am to continue learning.

"Dare to be naive." - R. Buckminster Fuller

"He who knows most, knows how little he knows." - Thomas Jefferson

"Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself." - Gary Cooper

"Shun idleness. It is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals." - Voltaire

"Diligence is the mother of good luck." - Benjamin Franklin

Self improvement for the sake of self improvement is vain and void.  But self improvement with a laser focused end game is a true testament to a bigger picture.  Don't work out so you can look good at the pool, work out so you can have the stamina to help others in need at the end of a long work week.  Don't eat healthy so you can loose weight, eat healthy so you'll live longer and impact more lives.  Don't work hard so you can get a raise, get a raise so you can afford yourself the freedom to give away more of your time and your resources. Don't travel the world so you have a more exciting set of Facebook photos than your friends, travel the world to understand it and find your place in it.