[blox_row][blox_column width=”1/1″][blox_heading title=”A few moments ago I was laughing at myself. Something others and I do often.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”] This time, taking some scheduled hours on a rain-swept Wednesday here in Colorado to do some important and overdue filing, I found some notes I’d made while on vacation earlier this summer.
Those who have mathematically astute genes know immediately the power of the number 1. I, for one, did not get the “math gene” but I’ve always been fascinated with the power of 1.
For instance: no one is asking us to be Mother Teresa (one brave nun who attended to the dying 1 ravished body at a time); or Martin Luther King Jr. (one brave, deep-hearted reformer who was assassinated with 1 bullet); or 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin, from Vail, CO, who made Alpine skiing history at the 2014 winter Olympics in Russia as the youngest-ever winner of an Olympic slalom gold medal (which gave a new definition to “1 split second”).
By now, I trust you have other life-examples of the number 1 buzzing through your own mind. You and I also know that the number 1 has an active cousin known as…first.
Remember your first kiss? If not married to that person, probably better to not remember for too long.
Remember the first view you ever had of an ocean and its vastness? That first taste of ocean water when you thought, “Whoa, it really is salty!”
If a parent, remember that first cry of your first child? And when that kiddo was older remember the first time they took off on bicycle and knew they could do it all by themselves?
Remember when and where you earned your first dollar?
We all have sensitive to glorious “firsts” in our lives
I’m old enough to remember a fall evening in 1957, when I laid in the grass of our ranch house and waited to see Sputnik move across the star-filled sky. My father was convinced that the Russians would be invading Oregon some time before 1958. Here’s NASA’s statement about that historic first event: [/blox_text][/blox_column][/blox_row][blox_row columns=”1/4+3/4″][blox_column width=”1/4″][blox_image style=”blox_elem_image_frame_colored” image=”https://leadershipdesigngroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/sputnik.jpg” caption=”Sputnik” target=”0″ /][/blox_column][blox_column width=”3/4″][blox_text animation=”none”]
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.
[/blox_text][/blox_column][/blox_row][blox_row][blox_column width=”1/1″][blox_text animation=”none”] I was the first person in my family, even my country school, to see it. 15 years old at the time, I can still remember getting chills up my younger back as I huddled there with my dog. The one movie I like best about that moment is still October Sky. OK…enough banter about “the number 1” and “firsts.”
You, the one and only you get the drift. And speaking about the one and only you. What do you really believe to be true about who you are and why you are alive at this moment in the history of the world, right where you are?
Maybe I don’t know you. Maybe I do.
The 1 thought I know is true about you, you are here to make a difference in our world.
Don’t stop reading now. I’m talking about you. The 1 and only, magnificently created, wired, experienced you.
The numbers of people who may know you and me do not matter. Few of us can stir up a crowd. Nor were most of us created to do so. However…
…all of us can make a difference somewhere, with consistency, daily, monthly, within our lifetimes. Beginning with this 1 day. Now. And again tomorrow.
Most of my own life (and most likely yours as a developing mentor…) has been mentoring 1 person at a time. The mentoring we encourage here within all we do and will be offering through LDG, is first concerned with the one and only you as a developing mentor.
You and I both know that the number 1 is not a large number. But when the mentoring you and I do influences one other, who influences, say, 30 more humans on the grow, and those good souls influence 30 more, and live into the fact that they can influence 30 more…well, in five generations of influence YOU have influenced 810,000 people…if all my 1’s have multiplied correctly.
That’s no small number; beginning with the Number 1.
That is not impossible. Mentoring, good mentoring, the best of mentoring is always concerned with 1 whole person at a time. Whether in casual conversation, or intentional, deep-change, whole-life, transformational mentoring, I am wondering, consistently,
“What does this person before me really believe to be true about why they are alive right now to make a difference in our world, right where they are?
That 1 question, thought or spoken, fuels the beginning of every mentoring friendship I’ve ever had. The multiple answers that come from that question take you, the mentor, and your mentoree, on a journey of exploring and discovering life as it was meant to be lived for that 1 person.
For you, the one mentor who dares to be more alive than you ever dreamed possible, when maybe, once upon a time you were a kid looking up at the stars, you need to keep asking this 1 question about yourself, as well. It is a question that has excellent, life-giving variations for both of us.
Therefore, today
What is the 1 creative, important difference I will wake up and commit to make
- in my marriage?
- in my friendships?
- to better tackle some of my fears that keep showing up?
- concerning the nurturing of my own soul?
- within the specifics of my vocation/calling/work?
- to play, have some fun, relax and enjoy the day?
- in strengthening my commitment to better health?
- in getting out of debt, and staying out?
- in daring to create something, anything that may express the joy that is building inside of me?
1 day at a time, you do what’s suggested above, and you are well on your way to becoming 1 significant mentor and influencer of others. 1 valuable person at a time. Beginning with the 1 and only you. [/blox_text][/blox_column][/blox_row]