#trust30, day 20
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know I. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I once received a fortune cookie that read: “Speak less of your plans, you’ll get more done.” What’s one project that you’ve been sitting on and thinking about but haven’t made progress on? What’s stopping you? What would happen if you actually went for it and did it?
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Alright, this one just confuses me. I should speak less, but tell you what I want to do?
Then let's go back to that R-Dub Em's quote we're given, which seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with the prompt. It's more about what I addressed in my last post, about not worrying about what others think of me - to not make decisions because I'm trying to avoid being embarrassed.
One of the areas I used to be most self-conscious about was acting like a kid. Maybe it's because I was around people older than me all the time, and I didn't want to appear any younger than I already was. Whatever the cause, I know I've had that concern for a very long time. So that was something that was on my mind when I became a dad. I knew that people with children drew attention, because that's what kids do, and playing with kids necessarily requires a certain amount of acting like a kid - getting down on the ground, being silly, all that stuff. I know I tend to take myself too seriously, and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it.
Then one day, I'm a dad. And I'm out with e, just the two of us, and he's only a couple of months old. And he starts crying. It could have been hunger, or needing a new diaper, or really anything. But I didn't feel embarrassed. I didn't feel self-conscious. This was my little guy, and he needed something from his dad, and it suddenly didn't matter if I was at the 50 yard line at the Super Bowl, I was going to do what he needed.
I'm still terribly self-conscious, most of the time, except when I'm doing dad stuff. Then there's only one pair of eyes that matters, and I haven't started embarrassing him yet.
I once received a fortune cookie that read: “Speak less of your plans, you’ll get more done.” What’s one project that you’ve been sitting on and thinking about but haven’t made progress on? What’s stopping you? What would happen if you actually went for it and did it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, this one just confuses me. I should speak less, but tell you what I want to do?
Then let's go back to that R-Dub Em's quote we're given, which seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with the prompt. It's more about what I addressed in my last post, about not worrying about what others think of me - to not make decisions because I'm trying to avoid being embarrassed.
One of the areas I used to be most self-conscious about was acting like a kid. Maybe it's because I was around people older than me all the time, and I didn't want to appear any younger than I already was. Whatever the cause, I know I've had that concern for a very long time. So that was something that was on my mind when I became a dad. I knew that people with children drew attention, because that's what kids do, and playing with kids necessarily requires a certain amount of acting like a kid - getting down on the ground, being silly, all that stuff. I know I tend to take myself too seriously, and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it.
Then one day, I'm a dad. And I'm out with e, just the two of us, and he's only a couple of months old. And he starts crying. It could have been hunger, or needing a new diaper, or really anything. But I didn't feel embarrassed. I didn't feel self-conscious. This was my little guy, and he needed something from his dad, and it suddenly didn't matter if I was at the 50 yard line at the Super Bowl, I was going to do what he needed.
I'm still terribly self-conscious, most of the time, except when I'm doing dad stuff. Then there's only one pair of eyes that matters, and I haven't started embarrassing him yet.