Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

One of my junior high foreign language instructors, Mrs. Marks, told us that she took philosophy while studying in France. Her final exam (perhaps thesis-it’s been several decades) was to answer the question, “Why?”, and it was to be presented orally, in French, not her native tongue. She shared that after much deliberation on how to respond, she simply said, “Pourquoi ne pas?” (Why not?) – she recalls that she received a passing grade even though she was supposed to provide 45 minutes of discussion on the topic.

What inspires deep thinking for you?

Have you ever pulled your head out of the whirlwind long enough to contemplate the bigger questions of:

•Why am I here? {Purpose}
•What’s my one thing? {Core Competency}
•What positive qualities have I been blessed with and am I emphasizing those strengths and using them to improve my life and the lives of those around me? {Focus}
•Will the contributions I’ve made and the sacrifices I’ve suffered through be remembered accurately and fully understood why specific decisions were made? {Legacy}
•What brings me joy? {Happiness}
•Does my family really know how much I love them? {Demonstrated Affection}

Perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself today:

What actions and behaviors am I going to start changing for the better as a result of reading this post today?

Leaders are learners, not just while in school. School didn’t pose all of life’s questions and put the answers in the back of the book, at least not the schools I went to. School should have prepared you for life’s questions by teaching you how to become a problem solver;
-State the question completely, yet succinctly
-Gather data and information
-Form an assessment with the tools made available to you
-Take action
-If it doesn’t provide the desired result, repeat the process.

Remember, Edison tried a multitude of attempts to perfect the light bulb (some sources claim 1,000 and others claim as many as 10,000 attempts). When asked how he dealt with that amount of failure, he simply acknowledged that he discovered that many ways not to do it [or that it was a 10,000 (or place your favorite number here) step process].

Have a blessed weekend.