Small Steps Forward
[ theme music rises ]
(Lose the Net by Rasmus Faber Courtesy of Epidemic Music)
It amazes me how good questions lead so naturally to good answers, and how beautiful questions lead to even better answers! When we open ourselves to the things we don’t know, we’ve opened the doors to discovery and wonder and greater understanding.
I’m Scott Lennox and you’re listening to The Beautiful Question, a consideration of things that matter every day.
[ brief pause ]
Five hundred years ago, the artist Michelangelo had a personal motto that kept him growing. Ancora Imparo translates from Latin to mean “I am still learning.” Step by small step, he grew into the artist and the person he became.
Join me this week as we consider new ways to grow and effective steps we can take to get there.
[ brief pause ]
[ theme music fades ]
Though I’ve been actively drawing and painting for more than twenty years, and though I now live in my own studio and am paid quite well for my work, I know there are wide gaps in my art education, most of which has been self-directed. To remedy that, I’ve begun filling in those gaps by going back to the basics.
Following time-honored practices, I’m taking myself through an extended series of lessons and exercises that are much like those I’d be required to perform were I to attend one of the finer art academies in Florence or Rome or New York.
Step by step, line by drawn line, and brushstroke by brushstroke as I go through them, I can feel and see the progress I’m making. As I continue completing each exercise, each drawing, and each painting, I’m confident my knowledge and skills will grow in the ways other artists have grown before me. I’ll do everything I can to follow my personal vision until I reach it and exceed it.
I remind myself that even Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci and Georgia O’Keefe started as beginners.
[ brief pause ]
In one of my earliest podcasts, I pointed out that none of us arrived all at once to where we are in our lives. We got here step by step. One decision, one event, one experience at a time, we grew into who and what we are, sometimes failing over and over (if it was failing) before we began to figure things out. If we’re intentional about it, we never stop learning and growing. Why should we?
Think about the number of things have you done today without stopping to analyze each action. More than likely, you didn’t analyze them or think about them at all. Whatever they were, however complex, you just did them, carrying them out in ways that felt natural and organic. That was possible because you began learning things the day you were born and the things you learned grew into what you now know and can do.
Step by step, you learned to walk. And now, without thinking about it, you go where you want to go. Step by step, you learned how to read and do arithmetic and wash the dishes and drive a car and operate the device you’re using to listen to this. Now, you hardly give a single thought to any of those things. You do them effortlessly.
That being so, what would you like to learn next and in what ways would you like to grow yourself and grow your life? In what ways would you like to live more expansively?
Photo by: djmon1que
[ brief pause ]
People tell me all the time that they’re not artistic and can’t draw a straight line. Somewhere along the way, they convinced themselves that it’s true. But how do they possibly know whether it’s true or not if they don’t allow themselves to go through the early efforts (including failures and restarts) and keep going.
And for the record, when it comes to drawing straight lines, that’s what rulers and straight-edges are for.
So, whether it’s about learning to draw or flying airplanes or baking the perfect popover, I invite you not to edit or hold back as I ask what new things you want to learn or accomplish. However remote or far-fetched they may seem to you now, can you really afford to keep telling yourself that you can’t or that those things are beyond your reach? Will you even come close to doing them if you don’t give yourself the freedom to grow into them?
We both know the answers to those questions.
[ brief pause ]
This week’s Beautiful Questions are about giving yourself permission to get out of your own way and grow in the ways you find most meaningful. I look forward to hearing your responses.
Question One: What are your heart and mind calling you to do or learn or accomplish next?
Question Two: What thoughts—what have you been telling yourself—that blocks you from doing what you want?
Question Three: What new thoughts and what simple and repeatable steps will get you moving in that direction?
[ brief pause ]
Write and tell me where your considerations take you and welcome to your fuller life!
As I say each time,
My Light with Your Light!
[ theme music & sign-off ]
[ brief pause ]
I’m happy we can engage this way as we consider things that matter and what to do about them. If nothing else, I hope you feel inspired to look more deeply at ways of caring for yourself.
You can be further inspired by visiting my friends at Kosmos Journal. That’s K O S M O S Journal. Their mission is to inform, inspire, and engage global transformation in harmony with all life. You can easily find them online at Kosmos Journal dot O R G.
And at thebeautifulquestion.com, you can read the illustrated transcript of each podcast as you listen. We’ve also included an archive of all previous podcasts, including guided relaxation audios that can help you practice letting go on a daily basis.
If you find these podcasts useful, I encourage you to share them and tell others about them. That’s a great way of helping me get a voice of calm and collaboration and balance and encouragement out into the world. It’s a great way of spreading peace.
[ brief pause ]
I’m Scott Lennox, and this has been The Beautiful Question.
[ brief pause ]
The Beautiful Question is a One Light production, written, produced, and engineered by Scott Lennox at HeartRock Studios in Fort Worth, Texas, as a way of paying forward to life, being fully present, becoming better engaged with things that truly matter in a complex world, and committing to a healthier future for all of us.