Three Minute Leadership: Cultivating Your Garden of Attitudes
To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning
Seth Godin writes about attitudes in a recent blog, “An Acre of Attitudes,” giving his own version of the acre from an image in Anne LaMott’s book, Bird by Bird.
“Everyone is given an acre of attitudes at birth. It’s yours to tend and garden and weed and live with. You can plant bitterness or good humor. Feel free to fertilize and tend the feelings and approaches that you want to spend time with. Unless you hurt someone, this acre is all yours.
“Probably worth putting up a decent fence, so that only the attitudes that you choose will have a chance to put down seeds, but it’s certainly a bad idea to put up a wall, because a walled garden is no good to anyone passing by. You get to decide what comes through your fence gate, right?
“Watching out for invasive species—spending sufficient time on weeding and pruning and staking seem to be incredibly powerful tools for accomplishing the life you want. I refuse to accept that an attitude is an accident of birth or an unchangeable constant. That would be truly horrible to contemplate.”
The simple metaphor gives pause for reflection about how we choose to live our life. The bounty of the many attitudes within us gives richness to the many facets of our life – in the impact they have on us and the lessons they give from having experienced them. How they contrast or complement each other can serve to intensify a mood or experience. It is in the choice of each of these that our life is shaped. It is for us to choose wisely, and choose well. An ancient proverb says: “To everyone is given the key to heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.” May you always find and unlock your heaven with attitudes that bring joy, peace and success to your life and the lives of those whom you touch.
Have a beautiful day and a magnificent week!!!
Mike