Monday, May 23, 2011

Change & Progress


Back in November I attended a two day presentation of the materials from the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit.  The information I learned during that time was a huge inspiration, and yesterday evening while sorting red beans (frijoles) that had gone bad from the remaining good ones, I took the time to listen to some of the speakers again.

Change and progress were two themes that surfaced time and again.  As I reflect on them from my personal standpoint, it takes me back to the beginning of March, when I changed my living situation and set several goals for the coming months.  I’m glad to report that the apartment no longer is overflowing with boxes, and I’ve made some progress on a couple of the goals I set after the move.  This past weekend I cleared out most of the weeds from the area that will hopefully soon be a vegetable garden.  My little helper in that work was a neighbor girl who is hanging out more often at our house.  She is one member of a large extended family that lives around my apartment, and I’m slowly getting to know the entire family.

While those might sound like small steps, the message of one of the Willow Creek speakers, Daniel Pink, pointed to just this sort of action as the source of greatest motivation.  When we notice the small steps, the progress, that we make each day, it is more likely to motivate us than a huge paycheck or the threat of punishment if we fail.  Bill Hybels and Jack Welch also pointed to the importance of celebrating the small triumphs and milestones so that we stay focused on that distant goal and don’t get discouraged that we aren’t closer to achieving it.

So here’s a small celebration of little, daily progress and a commitment to energetically doing my part to be the change I want to see in the world (thank you Ghandi)!

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