Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. If we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When did you feel most alive recently? Where were you? What did you smell? What sights and sounds did you experience? Capture that moment on paper and recall that feeling. Then, when it’s time to create something, read your own words to reclaim a sense of being to motivate you to complete a task at hand.

Seriously?

I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think about the type of person you’d NEVER want to be 5 years from now. Write out your own personal recipe to prevent this from happening and commit to following it. “Thought is the seed of action.”

How about we focus on the person we SHOULDN’T be today? And focus on fixing it now …

I’d like to laugh a little more, be a little less critical (of others and myself), and focus less on the cash and more on the work (getting the focus the wrong way around leads to neither happiness or great work).

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What if today, right now, no jokes at all, you were actually in charge, the boss, the Head Honcho. Write the “call to arms” note you’re sending to everyone (staff, customers, suppliers, Board) charting the path ahead for the next 12 months and the next 5 years. Now take this manifesto, print it out somewhere you can see, preferably in big letters you can read from your chair.

You’re just written your own job description. You know what you have to do. Go!

(bonus: send it to the CEO with the title “The things we absolutely have to get right – nothing else matters.”)

I remember in the first year of music biz school (that’s an oxymoron BTW) saying to the head of department that I didn’t think I’d walk out of ‘school’ and get a job in the biz. He looked at me quizzically, and said, “Work for someone else. Why would you want to do that?”

In the 15 years since I rarely have. So I’m already the boss, baby.

This just in from the Trust30 team over at the Domino Project:

We made a mistake!

Today’s pledge ‘Most Ordinary’ is by Patti Digh (http://twitter.com/pattidigh), not Susan Piver.

Sorry for any confusion.

Read my post Most ordinary. Perfect.

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

Susan Piver (Twitter @spiver) asks interesting questions. Good, bad: these things don’t really exist. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a “right” path we should follow. And comparison always leads to suffering.

For most of us, our idea of perfection needs to be rethought. Is perfection really freedom from mistakes? Do you know anyone without a flaw? Perhaps then perfection is an acceptance of our “failed” nature?

The simple fact is that we are all ordinary people. We are also capable of great things. The difference between the ordinariness of our being and the greatness of our action cannot be understated.

(That these things are one and the same is something I intellectually understand but am yet to unlearn … I look forward to the day when I can explain this without dualism. Sigh.)

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?

She would be hot, hot, hot. And she’d say something like, “You know, you need to lighten up and stop giving yourself such a hard time.” To which I’d play all self-depreciating. And then she’d say, “Don’t you get it, you’re one seriously awesome mother fucker.”

Then Ms Intuition (she’d be a Ms) would say, “I mean, look at you. Stop bitchin’ and just get out there and make it happen.”

She’d probably close, over Tuna sashimi I should add, by saying, “And stop being distracted by all those ideas you get. Focus on what you’re doing now and you’ll be A-OK.”

In case you’re wondering, that’s EXACTLY what would happen in this bizarre Trust30 fantasy land :-)

Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who is one person that you’ve been dying to connect with, but just haven’t had the courage to reach out to? First, reflect on why you want to get in touch with them. Then, reach out and set up a meeting.

Mark Cuban. It’s not that I don’t have the courage. It’s that I know I’m not prepared. There’s a difference.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” is a great line from Emerson. If there’s no enthusiasm in what you do, it won’t be remarkable and certainly won’t connect with people on an emotional basis. But, if you put that magic energy into all of your work, you can create something that touches people on a deeper level. How can you bring MORE enthusiasm into your work? What do you have to think or believe about your work to be totally excited about it? Answer it now.

If we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing at any given time (call it our “purpose”), then enthusiasm is an inevitable consequence of such action. Enthusiasm isn’t something we can fake. Not the true, genuine type that connects with people.

I cannot “bring more enthusiasm” to my work other than that which is already there. The question for all of us is whether we are fulfilling our life’s purpose, or not.

(I note that there are days when all of us would rather stay in bed. On these days we need to bring determination and focus to our work. We need to be mindful that in our interactions we act with kindness and compassion. But that’s not enthusiasm. Survival maybe, but not enthusiasm.)