Lessons from Max #5 | DON'T FOCUS ON WHAT YOU'RE NOT

You may have figured out by now, if you've read previous Lessons..., that Max was very special to my family. He was very special to me. Max shared some great times and some dark. He was always there with his playful smile, his calm spirit, and his chin ready to rest on a knee; those expressive eyes calmly surveying.

But just in case you by now think I may be a little nuts, I will say it for the record: I realize Max was Canis Lupus Familiaris. I am fully aware Max was a dog.

He never tried to be anything else. I really don't know how self-aware Max was, but I'm pretty sure of this - he never wanted to be something else. Max didn't want to be a horse. Max didn't long to be a barn owl. Max was cool with being an over-sized blonde-red Golden Retriever. (If he wasn't, he never said anything about it to me.) In other words, Max didn't spend time or energy - or rob others of time and energy - trying to be something other than Max.

There is beauty in that. I wonder how much energy I have spent over the years pondering what I am not, rather than focusing on what I am; and working to be the best what I am that I can be.

And that is Lesson #5 from Max, DON'T FOCUS ON WHAT YOU ARE NOT. I think good writing, and motivational, technique should turn this into the positive: Focus on what you are. But I don't like that as much. Focus on what you are sounds self-serving and self-centered to me. And that is so far from Max's spirit.

When we DON'T FOCUS ON WHAT WE ARE NOT we are truly free to BE WHAT WE ARE! And that is liberating. That is is when we both find the most fulfillment and offer the most to others.

Thanks for the lesson Max.

For now,
D