Your Greatest Asset

... is you. We all know that in theory. We might even admit it to ourselves or others. But chances are, like me, you only think a small part of yourself is an asset, you know the academic degrees or job title or the ability to influence and make friends or the ability to make money.  Others might include artistic talents or prowess in sports in their list of assets. But these are all the things that make you or I the same as everyone else. Our real assets are the things that make us different. 

Unfortunately the things that make us different we are often ashamed of.  They may seem trivial, like the ability to memorize entire movie conversations or see treasures hidden beneath piles of junk at a garage sale. Or they may be embarrassing like the way we think our voice sounds to others or the way our thoughts may drift when we are supposed to be paying attention.

In reality each of us is a complex picture made up of a myriad of experiences, character traits, talents, perspectives, interests, etc. Most of us sell ourselves way short. Today I want to start challenging that. 

So how do we stop editing, censoring  and criticizing ourselves? Let's face it, we often say things about ourself to ourself that we wouldn't say to a friend. Maybe we need to start treating ourselves like we were actually were our friend. That means showIng curiosity, interest and acceptance in the things that make us who we are. 

 

I will go first. I love looking at little parts of bigger things. Whereas some people will take the panoramic view, I am usually focused on something like the texture of a gourd or a cloud of rusty staples sticking out of a phone pole... something that seems irrelevant compared to the overall setting. Don't ask me why. Of course when I bring the little thing to everybody else's attention I get a polite 'that's nice'. But searching for and finding one of these things is deeply meaningful to me. I have a 'collection' of them. I decided to start sharing my collection on a Tumblr called MosaicScapes. If you are interested you can click here and see my collection so far. 

I want to encourage you this week to show curiosity in something that is uniquely you... treating yourself like the treasure you are. 

Daniel

The best mosaics have a lot of pieces. 

The Hero's Story

A few days ago I found myself thinking about my all time favourite movie scene.  It is the scene from the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers when Aragorn and King Theoden ride out of the Helms Deep fortress with the last of their warriors. They ride out not to victory but to face certain defeat at the hands of an overwhelming army bred for the sole purpose of destroying them.  All hope seems lost.  And then, as the sun rises, Gandalf and Eomer arrive at the top of the hill overlooking the battle.  With them are with two thousand seasoned warriors from Rohan. They ride down the hill and the enemy is absolutely and completely crushed.  

I started off like feeling like King Theoden, barricaded in my fortress with the doors crashing in ... feeling that everything I valued was lost ... wondering if anyone would come to the rescue.  King Theoden who was not in his right mind for most of the movie and woke up as the enemy was on his doorstep.  King Theoden who was scrambling to survive.  But that is not who I am.  

Then I felt like Aragorn, who would not give up on the enemy's terms but rode out to meet the enemy on his own terms.  Aragorn who remembered that Gandalf had promised to be there and promised that they would hold out until Gandalf arrived back with the fighting men of Rohan.  That was more authentic - the role of a seasoned warrior. 

Then I felt like Eomer, charging over the hill leading his troops and rescuing the day.  Eomer, who gathered the remnants of scattered Rohan warriors and gave them direction and hope, even when he had been banished from the kingdom. Eomer who did not hesitate to come to the aid of the king who had abandoned him.  That was when my heart leaped.

You see, at the core of me, I do not want to be rescued like Theoden.  Part of me wants to be able to hold on, to stand in the gap like Aragorn, for as long as it takes. But what I really want is to be the one, like Eomer, who charges over the hill and leads the rescue.

I want to be the hero of my story. 

Re-Launching

It has been just over a year since I have blogged. As much as I have missed it I just could not bring myself to write anymore. The last blog I wrote in June 2015 was on resilience. Somehow, I must have known what was coming...

I have been in an unhealthy place over the past year, really for many years, without realizing it... focusing on pieces of my life rather than looking at the whole of it.

Which brings me to the subject of this week's blog - Re-Launching.

A few years ago I met a man at a conference who used to work for NASA, training astronauts.  As he told me his story, I began to put the pieces together. His astronauts were not the ones who died in the space shuttle Challenger explosion, but he knew the ones who did. How do you relaunch after that?

As I relaunch The Daniel Mosaic I am thinking about how to bring more of myself into what I write. It is so easy for me to go into another place when I write, leaving parts of me behind as I look to find exactly the right words, precise words, safe words... I have always tried to leave uncertainty and failure behind me as quickly as possible, like it never happened, leaving an impression that I was more in control of things than I actually was.  I don't want to go back to that. My thoughts, emotions, intuition, impressions, senses, mental pictures are part of who I am and they need to be reflected in how I portray myself and what I write.

For a period of time I am going to post as I have something to say, and I am not going to promote my posting on social media. If what I am writing connects with you, follow or send me a comment.

'The best mosaics have a lot of pieces!'

Daniel