Focus

So to give you readers a better idea of where I'm coming from, I'll tell you some condensed stories from my life.

I grew up in Missouri and Iowa playing in the woods and running around in nature for a while until I started playing viola. My younger brother started violin around the same time and then our parents realized that we had some musical talent. It was the end of an era for me as I didn't have so much time to be catching tadpoles and crayfish in streams and watching looney tunes on TV.

About cartoons, I think my parents realized somehow that I had some type of addiction to them. After school I would come home and I don't know how many hours I would spend glued to the TV set but it must have been a long time. They ended up cutting me off from cartoons and then all I could do was watch TV with them after dinner time. It was pretty harsh at the time but then I just ended up spending more time playing outside. Why talk about cartoons? This cartoon addiction foreshadowed a later tendency to focus on anything I liked to do. This focus probably helped me when I switched from viola to violin and started learning music by ear.

I started learning violin much faster by ear because I had an example to follow. Instead of just reading notes on a page and having limited facetime with a teacher, I had song tapes to compare myself against. Unconsciously, my sound migrated from squeakiness closer to that which I heard in tapes. Up until that time I probably learned mostly by following the example of my parents. I actually wanted to help my mom wash dishes as a little kid because that was what I saw her do. Likewise, I asked my dad if I could mow the lawn in 1st grade with our gas-powered lawnmower. He let me do it. Though it took a couple years before I was able to pull the cord and start the mower myself, I started mowing the lawn in 1st grade.

Why are these memories important to me today? They tell me that I learn not only by example but also by being hands-on. So in order to pursue growth whether it be spiritual or professional, I should get into the thick of things rather than stand around waiting for something to happen. Up till now, I have learned best when I got involved.

And so I've been getting involved. I got involved with REP a couple months ago. They are a group tries to reach business owners in different locations around the world to help them understand how their faith can refocus their business vision and strategies. So while it takes a different tack than most missions groups it also focuses on a segment of people who can make a large impact on their local communities.

It should be interesting.