I hope I won’t lose some of you right off the bat when I say
this but…….I love cats. No I’m not one
of those crazy cat ladies who can’t say no to just one more kitty. I just have one. His name is Mocha and he is a beautiful, long
hair Himalayan whose colors are reflected in his name. Mocha pretty much runs the show at our house,
sleeping wherever he wants whether it is on our bed or the dog’s, the couch or
the coffee table. He loves to go
outside and roll in the dust although he spends most of his time indoors
enjoying the good life we provide for him.
For most of my life, I’ve had a cat so I’ve had a lot of
time to observe how they live and do what they do…..or not as the case may be.
Cats know how to take life as it comes, when and how to
relax and when to be alert. They are great
at prioritizing both their time and their energy. They know both what and whom they like and
what and whom they do not. The former
they reward with purring, leg rubbing and head butting. The latter they avoid like the plague. Cats have good boundaries.
There is one other thing however that cats do that can teach
us a lesson about how to approach not only life but success.
One of the most successful things cats do is to jump up on
things. Yes, I know, they aren’t 100%
successful as many YouTube videos show, but their rate of success at both jumping
and landing where they want to is far greater than any human I’ve ever seen.
So how do they do it?
I watch my cat jump up a lot, mostly on to places he’s not
supposed to be but we’ll leave that issue for another blog….. What I know from my observations is that when
he jumps he doesn’t aim for the height he needs. He aims higher!
For example, if the kitchen counter is three feet off the
ground, Mocha jumps to a height of about 38 inches. Then he descends on to the spot he has
earmarked as the landing zone, landing softly and without any jolt to his body.
What a lesson for success!
As humans we tend to approach the attainment of our goals as
a climb up a ladder or a mountain, or maybe as a long journey. We fix a goal into our future and fight or
struggle our way to it. We rarely think
about taking a leap and almost never about aiming higher so we can land softly
right on our target.
What would it take to turn this metaphor around and apply it
in our lives? How would it look? How easy or difficult would it be?
I don’t have the answers to these questions but I think that
just in asking them of ourselves we could begin to make changes in how we
approach our goals, wants and desires in all areas of our lives.
Aiming higher doesn’t mean going over the top! And yes, I’ve seen Mocha do that too…..aim
too high and miss completely only to fall over the other side. As I said, cats aren’t complete masters of
the system either.
Aiming higher means that after we have put what we feel is
the required amount of effort into something, adding just a little bit more.
Aiming higher means that when we have set a standard for
ourselves, notching it up just a fraction more.
Aiming higher means that when we hold up our heads to be
seen, we stretch just that little bit further and “grow” that extra half inch.
Aiming higher means that when we think we have held on
enough, we hold on just that little bit longer.
Aiming higher means that when we have given or forgiven, we
do both just a smidgen more.
And then………we can land softly.
Nicely said!
ReplyDeleteThanks Betsy!
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