Recently, someone asked, “Why settle for being ”mildly“ creative? Why not reach for the stars and be INSANELY creative?”
I laughed. I don’t want to be INSANELY anything.
But it’s the first part that made me think. Why not reach for the stars?
Apparently, you’re supposed to feel like a failure if you don’t. But why?
What does it even really mean? Should we all go outside, stand on our tippy toes, and stretch, stretch, stretch with all our might?
To me, the insane thing would be to reach for the stars and believe it’s going to get you somewhere. I think you’d be better off reaching for a telescope and aiming it in their direction.
But forget about the stars for moment, and think about the moon, a place where people have actually been.
How did they get there? Did they have to go insane to do it? Did they reach for it?
No. Instead, they strapped themselves, reached for their headphones, and talked to the people on the ground.
And the people on the ground reached for the controls to launch and guide the rocket.
The rocket was designed by a team of engineers and scientists who reached for the things they needed to find the right mix of a thousand, essential variables.
All of this began, however, long before anyone had ever heard of a rocket or an astronaut, when human beings first looked upward with wonder and awe, reached out for something to make marks with, and started drawing pictures of what they saw above them.
They reached for those same marking sticks to draw earth-bound things too.
Eventually, they realized they could make marks to represent sounds, words, and numbers, and reached for their sticks again.
Then they reached for tablets and parchments and passed them around, sharing what they’d felt, discovered, imagined, and believed.
If they’d spent their time reaching for the stars, nothing would have come of it.
But by reaching for the things within their grasp, they slowly, sanely made remarkable advancements in art, science, math, and engineering. Some of those advancements would make it possible for a man to walk on the moon and reach down to touch its surface.
That’s how most remarkable things are discovered and invented. Not by insanely reaching for the untouchable, but by sanely taking hold of the things right in front of us and discovering remarkable things to do with them like flying to the moon.
Keep your sanity and reach for a lump of clay or a keyboard or a paint brush or whatever you choose, learn how to use it, and keep using it until you discover or create something that surprises and delights you. Then share it with others.
That, to me, is the most remarkable thing you could ever do, even if you never leave the earth.
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I spend a lot of time with clients and colleagues explaining why focusing on the big vision can actually be an obstacle to defining and taking the next step. Now I have this post to state it clearly and succinctly. Wow, dude. Excellent.
.-= Steve´s last blog ..Will You Be a Champion for a Child? =-.
Ken, you make such an interesting point here. I’m always encouraging people to dream big and not limit themselves . . . but you are so right about how important it is to use what we have right now, right here.
I often get caught in the trap of big thinking without applying it to real, tangible steps. Dreams are great, but they remain just that if we never pull them down to reachable reality.
Another thought-provoking post from the oh-so-mild man.
.-= Amanda´s last blog ..power down: Thanksgiving Thursday =-.
thank you! I grow so weary of the constant pressure to STRIVE STRIVE STRIVE leaving no time to (a) enjoy the process and (b) to acknowledge the milestones along the way.
You are very wise.
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