I have always felt it a bit heavy and pretentious to create a personal mission statement. I am happy to embrace the less anxious, and perhaps homelier version of this notion: commendable purpose. One could argue it is only a nuanced difference, but that small dash of nuance seems to fit the theme.
Greatness in my life is likely to seem pretty milk toast to the average observer. Of little more value to the world than the relative beauty of an average flower garden. Ahhh…but I am not without vision. While my own results may have demonstrated a life of diminished efficacy, I have at least known when to pay attention in my intermittent exposures to greatness.
I have never learned, nor do I wish to, a repeatable path to greatness that ignores the rule of rigorous discipline. The languid path is well trodden by happy fools, anchored by their own passive obedience to those in the distance. I have done the math and know that the things I have done in my life to hone expert proficiency do not translate to greatness in a broad sense…and I am running out of time. It is simply more practical to apply my knowledge of greatness over those to whom I hold predominant influence. I should make a preliminary determination of capacity, but the desperation of my own shelf life is certain to impact my objectivity. No perfect plan from which to navigate, the time is now.
I must be a good parent and family man. It is not difficult, but it requires relentless effort. Placing importance on certain behavior and knowledge, even when it runs contrary to my brood’s genetic disposition. Forming what is malleable, trying to form what is not. Let me tell you, it feels like more than just commendable purpose. It is consuming toil, and it does feel like a mission. Those poor children…