What does a growth mindset look like? It breaks the weird pretend rules we think we have to abide in order to be good at winning life. I missed yesterday’s entry because of no internet, dropping my son off at Valparaiso University for a month-long music camp, driving to Chicago, searching my purse for toll booth cash, having too much fun on a rooftop bar and wondering whether the name “Urban Kayak” is a good thing or a terrible idea.
You know how you get to your goal? Don’t quit. Even if you’re turning in your Day 29 blog on what, technically, is day 30. Do it anyway, man. Rewrite the rules mid-game. Don’t have that little punk down the street yelling in your ear, “You can’t do that!” That little punk will be screaming that from the sidelines for forever drinking beer, listening to “Glory Days” on repeat and blaming the past.
Too much? Was that too much? I’ve been told I’m too much many times. I used to hate it and I still feel it’s shame and judgment working to turn me small and harmless, but dear reader, I’m sitting beside a stone hearth fireplace in the dimly lit drawing room of the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel in downtown Chicago living my best life and there’s no way I’m not bad-mouthing that terribly mean soundtrack voice interested in one thing and one thing only: staying safe, keeping the armor on and finding connection through shared misery instead of shared curiosity.
Life’s too short to not lean into my Too Much-ness. Life’s too short to second-guess bravery, to go back into hiding, to not swing for the fences. You should see the ornate detail and care put into every inch of this beautiful room where I sit. No one on that project one hundred and twenty years ago was doing anything other than bringing their deepest passion, highest expertise, their heart and soul into something that endures as a testimony to beauty, craftsmanship and love. Love, my friend. It’s the deepest layer to the truest work. Love. Not to be shunned, ridiculed, or cheapened. Love to be elevated, sought, investigated and valued. In all its forms, in its wisdom of strength and weakness, future and past, grace and mercy. Do that. High Five.