The Music Is In You!
Aug 10, 2020
How do you want to be remembered? Do you want your life to make a difference? Or are you content with status quo?
Life has been so different since March, to say the least. Not much is certain and there are so many unknowns. I've had to learn so many new ways to live and do business. I'm sure you are in the same boat, too. There are days that I just don't want to venture out of my comfort zone one more time. Can't I just have a week or two of average? If I'm not careful, I can stay there for awhile.
But is that how I want to be remembered? As average? Do I want to be described as ordinary? Do I just want to "get through" this trying time, or do I want to thrive? Do I want to put my purpose of "bringing out the best in you...and then some" on the back burner until the lock-down is over?
OR do I want to continue to grow into my greatness?
The choice is mine.
Paganini, the great violinist, came out to his audience one day and made the discovery just before they ended their welcoming applause that something was wrong with his violin. He looked at it and saw that it was not his famous and valuable one.
He was paralyzed for a second and told his audience that he somehow picked up the wrong violin. He went back behind the curtain quickly, thinking that his precious violin was right where he left it. He discovered that someone had stolen his and left that second-hand one in it's place! He stood there for a moment, then came out before his audience and said:
"Ladies and gentlemen: I will show you that the music is not in the instrument, but in the soul." Paganini played as he had never played before, giving it more than he thought he could; and out of that second-hand, average instrument came the most amazing music. The audience was thrilled with enthusiasm and the applause almost lifted the ceiling off of the auditorium. He revealed to the audience that the music was not in the instrument but in the soul of the man that played it.
What music is in our souls that we are not revealing to the outside world? Where are we playing average in our lives? What if we stepped out onto the stage of life and gave it everything we had? What if we used our talents and gifts to our fullest capabilities and held nothing back? What if we overrode the voices of fear, doubt and procrastination? Not only would the applause be thunderous, but our enthusiasm for life, our music, would spill out onto others in the form of hope. Seeds of courage and expectation might just be planted in others that could shower them with right nutrients and light to let their soul sing, as well. Not only would we expand ourselves, but those we influence.
There is so much potential in each one of us. As Thomas Edison once said, “If we did all the things we were capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”
Can you hear it? Are you able to discern that music deep within that is clawing to get out and show itself to the world? Oh...it's there. The seeds of greatness are within you. Keep feeding and nourishing that greatness, yes, even during these weird and trying times, and it will grow, because that's what it's been created to do.
Feeding my soul,
Jan
Jan McDonald
The John Maxwell Team
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