Life Is a Rough Draft

"For if anyone thinks he is something [special] when in fact he is nothing [special except in his own eyes], he deceives himself. But each one must carefully scrutinize his own work [examining his actions, attitudes, and behavior], and then he can have the personal satisfaction and inner joy of doing something commendable without comparing himself to another. For every person will have to bear [with patience] his own burden [of faults and shortcomings for which he is responsible]." - Galatians 6:3-5 AMP 

"You don't have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great." - Les Brown

PERFECT: 
MATURE (having a fully grown or developed body: grown to full size; having completed natural growth and development; having attained a final or desired state; of or relating to a condition of full development)

Diamonds start out as lumps of coal.  Oak trees begin as acorns.

Chinese bamboo trees are buried underground for up to five years before they reach for the sky.

With such examples in nature you think assume humans realize maturity is a process that takes time to produce results.  Not so. 

We think we have to be flawless, not a hair out of place (assuming you still have some, that is) from the very beginning. We believe we have to start with perfection and improve on it every single day. 

We have it backwards. Perfection does not begin with your first day on planet Earth, and you don't have to be perfect from the very start of your life to do anything significant with your life.  

Here's the truth: nobody begins life as a finished product. Not me, not you. NOBODY. Everybody starts life as a blank slate and works from there.

You may see someone who displays brilliance, artistry and skilled performance in their chosen field of endeavor. You say to yourself, They make it look so EASY...they are absolutely AWESOME!

And you'd be right. They are awesome. But you'd also be wrong, because you emphasized the wrong word in your appreciation of their gift, their talent.

You say the word, "easy," when you should be focused on the word "make."  Why do I say this? Because they didn't start out that way, that's why.

Mastering that gift, that talent, that unique ability is a lifelong process. It requires work.  Countless hours of work. Yes, I said it...WORK...   W-O-R-K.

The kind of work that demands rolling up your sleeves, investing blood, sweat, and tears to excel. The kind of effort that very few people want to engage in because it's "hard." 

Or maybe it's because most people are soft.  (just a thought)

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and it looks like work." - Thomas Edison

And by the way, work is just as much mental, emotional, and yes, even spiritual, as it is physical.  When you are doing something worthwhile you engage your entire being, not just your flesh and blood.  All your faculties are involved in the process. From the inside out, not the other way around.

Every day of your life is an opportunity to learn more, do more, to become more, to better yourself as you reach for higher standards of excellence. Not flawlessness...EXCELLENCE.

You do not have to be a finished product before achieving success. Everybody wants to be polished but nobody wants to go through the polishing. That takes time, and it's not comfortable. Growth and change can be tough but the struggle is worth the pain.

Perfection does not imply that you will be flawless, that you won't have spots, wrinkles, or blemishes. Perfection speaks instead of development, a process that removes spots, wrinkles, and blemishes over a period of time. It does not happen overnight.

This is why you shouldn't be so quick to put yourself down when you struggle the first few times you attempt something new. All is not lost. As a friend of mine told me some years ago, "Every master was once a disaster." I agree.

Each day is a new sheet of paper, a blank canvas. Even if your story didn't read very well yesterday you can use today to write a new chapter, or even correct the previous one.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off. Give life another try. Even if you stumble a bit don't worry, you can make corrections. After all, that's why they put erasers on pencils.

As long as you're still breathing you've got a chance to get your act together. Since life is a rough draft, the final chapter to your story hasn't been written yet, and there's still hope for a happy ending.

"They say To whom would He teach knowledge? And to whom would He explain the message? For He says, Precept upon Precept, Rule upon Rule, Here a little, there a little." - Isaiah 28: 9,10  AMP

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly until you get it right." - Mr. Leroy Washington, mentor of Les Brown

That's all for now, gotta run.  Until next time, remember...

Keep it simple...  See ya!