Onwards and upwards

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” – E.B. White

I couldn’t describe my daily dilemma better. You see, I believe I am a planner, a dreamer and a goal-achiever. The sentiment roused in me by this quote: desiring to fix the world and desiring to enjoy it, defines one of the greatest battles I have within.

Fortunately, I am lucky in that for the most part – and more now than before – I believe my job enables me to achieve a bit of both. That is, I am an engineer of words that can help draw attention to the more important things in life (example: instilling a pro-bono ethic among professional service providers) across the world.  And, at the same time, I live in Brussels – which I’ve dubbed “the Capital of Europe” – a location that places me 2-4 hours outside of nearly every “hub” on this continent. It reeks of opportunities to experience “living.”

To this day, I am blessed with the opportunity to answer to both of my daily desires.  I’m grateful to take it all in, as big as it seems, to count my blessings and remember my dreams .  I can only hope that one day this connection of my dreams and aspirations will become even clearer.

Knowledge can be power

Once in a while, I spend an hour or two online specifically with the intention to learn and/or develop my own skills.  For example, last Friday I watched the last few videos in Honda’s “The Power of Dreams” documentary film series. (I particularly enjoyed the Mobility, Dreams v. Nightmares and Failure videos.) Via these I discovered not only what the future may hold, but what my future role could be (from a communications standpoint, of course).

This morning I watched the replay of a webinar by Jack Zenger, of the Zenger Folkman Company, about whether leaders should focus on strengths or weaknesses. Afer a bit of a rocky start, I think it presented some inspiring data that encourages me to take a few steps in the “strength” direction. (Think about it, what makes a leader average (v. strong) is the lack of a profound strength.)  The one point I’ll highlight here is that Mr. Folkman closed with an anonymous quote, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”  I laughed, what a quote, right?  But he went on to answer the question brewing in my mind: What’s the main thing in leadership?  Acquiring strengths that inspire & motivate those around you.

My five-word response? True that and check, please.

Inspiration from the Cat

Take your time, think a lot, think of everything you’ve got. For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

Cat Stevens sung those words in “Father and Son.”  He’s one of my favourite artists, and I posted this specific lyric for a few reasons. First, even though here I am nine weeks later, successfully living a quarter of a world away from “home,” getting here wasn’t easy. It took a lot of thinking and a lot of work. In the end, I always have wanted to live and work abroad, and this opportunity has allowed me to do so with the comfort of staying within the same company and – for the most part - within the same field. In this essence, I imagine Cat was right. If I waited too long, the opportunity to achieve my dream with this level of comfort could have gone with the wind.

Secondly, if you were to listen to the song in its entirety, you’d hear the father telling his son to live  for the day.  I think that’s also a very important message. People always are rushing, running, moving so quickly that you can’t see them and they can’t – really – see you.  I believe it’s important to stop and reflect on life, be it through a journal, revisiting emails stuck in the back of your inbox, or sitting with friends and a big glass of red. (I miss this last bit and really look forward to a few good, long nights with friends and family when I come home for the Holidays, or – if I’m lucky – they come out here, first.)

I’ll leave you with another lyric, and if it entices you to experience other Cat songs (like “Another Saturday Night” or one of my two favorites, “Can’t Keep it In” and “Peace Train”) click here for a YouTube playlist.

If you wanna leave, take good care. Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there, but just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware, beware. Oh baby, baby, it’s a wild world …