This week I took a trip to look at an upcoming project. While sitting in their waiting area, I looked through a yearbook of sorts for the company. It was what you would expect – a book filled with pictures of events and happenings around their business. However, on the back page was a picture of several people holding a banner. The banner read “Perfect Attendance.”  I was stunned. Perfect attendance? How in living your life – are you never late, and show up every single day? I’m all for day-in, day-out work, but I plan to go hard enough that I might slip up every once in a while.

Maybe the word perfect rubs me the wrong way, but I don’t see perfect as something to be cherished as a person. With people, I think even attempting perfect is going to leave you unsatisfied. If going for a goal of perfect attendance, I may forget the real purpose as a human is to care, to love, and to serve. That can be a messy process, not a perfect process – and I may need to be late or miss a day of work to do it.

Heard. Watched. Read.

• “Approach creativity as a practice, not a profession.” – Tim Goodman, Sharpie Artist
• “Great businesses are built one productive person at a time.” Gary Keller, The One Thing
• “If you cannot be present even in normal circumstances, such as sitting alone in a room, then you certainly won’t be able to stay conscious when something “goes wrong”, or you are faced with difficult people or situations with loss or the threat of loss. You will be taken over by the reaction, which ultimately is always some form of fear, and pulled into deep unconsciousness. Those challenges are your test.” Eckhart Tolle, The Power of NOW