Genius

If someone asked you if you were a genius, would you say "no?" I'm going to guess that you would. Who would you name as a genius? Albert Einstein? Did you know that his first wife (who was with him when he came up with the theory of relativity), was also a physicist? Did you know that she looked things up for him, typed his papers and checked his math? I'll bet you didn't. It's interesting to check out people who are considered top of the line in achievement and "smarts." It seems that all of them had some kind of fabulous support system in place. You might be a genius if you had all that in place. In fact, I'm sure you would be. So - how can you get a support system like that? More on this next post.

Begin with the End in Mind

Similar to the "working backward" concept, is Stephen Covey's habit of beginning with the end in mind. He suggests that we imagine ourselves at our own funeral and think about what we would want people to say about us. I tried that exercise with a group once and a couple of people had had recent losses of people close to them. It was an emotional time for the group, but it brought us back to the reality of all our lives - we don't know how long we have left on the earth, so what do we want to have done with our lives.

I seriously doubt that we will wish we had spent more time at work, or bought more cars and clothes, or collected more jewelry. I'm going to guess that we would want to have loved more people and loved them more deeply. I'm guessing we would want to have developed and used our unique talents and shared them with the world in some way. I'm also guessing that we would want to have contributed to making the world a better place so that our lives would matter.

I know, I know. This is awfully lofty stuff. But isn't it better to think about it now rather than on our death beds?