Today is my birthday, and it\u2019s been a great year. I am happy. I\u2019m not worried about anything too serious. I\u2019m healthy. My family is healthy. This year was full of new experiences, travel and personal growth.<\/p>\n
Last year I had three themes that I wanted to weave into my life: vision, generosity and friendship. While I don\u2019t feel that I\u2019ve grown dramatically in any of these, I sense that I\u2019ve sewn these values into my life in little ways that add up. I wanted to take a moment and speak to each here.<\/p>\n
Vision.<\/p>\n
Hard to define. Easy to know when it\u2019s missing. I think vision is the invisible line stretched between our dreams and our accomplishments. The biggest evidence of new vision is that I\u2019ve purposefully stepped away from full time work to independent consulting and contracting. It\u2019s been a huge increase in quality of life to work from home (or wherever), define my own hours and chase new projects. It\u2019s stretched me in new ways and helped me get a better sense of my current strengths and blind spots. I\u2019ve been thinking more about my kids’ paths too, and realizing that my own sense of vision is critically important to help them develop their own. I could go on about that in another post.<\/p>\n
Generosity.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about generosity of all resources, not just money. I have been on the receiving end of extreme generosity all my life, and I want to learn to be instinctively more generous in every situation. I think generosity and empathy are extremely complimentary. One of the roadblocks to my own actionable generosity is my thrifty DIY lifestyle and personality. I like to accomplish, build and experience as much as possible while spending the least amount of money as I can, often at the sacrifice of comfort, time and efficiency. But really, why is it important to be generous?<\/p>\n
Have you ever had someone who has almost nothing cook you a meal or offer you help or comfort? I have, and it\u2019s transformational. Some of the most generous people in the world are those who know what suffering really is. True generosity builds the bridges (sometimes literally) between our hearts and minds as people. Generosity is part of grace. It gives us the opportunity to invest in amazing stories that are not our own otherwise. It expands our perspective and ultimately comes back to us in one form or another. Am I more generous than I was a year ago? Maybe a little.<\/p>\n
There’s a fire coming that we all will go through<\/em>
\n You possess your possessions or they possess you<\/em>
\n And if the house burns down tonight<\/em>
\n I got everything I need when I got you by my side<\/em><\/p>\n