I was lucky enough to be raised by parents who were excellent musicians, who actively exposed my brother and sisters and me to the finest music ever written and performed.
Turning 12 became a milestone because I was finally “allowed” to carry my mother’s string bass from the car to the rehearsal hall where I sat and did homework to the Tacoma Symphony playing Mahler, Brahms, Bach, Stravinsky, and countless other musical geniuses.
My parents’, particularly my mother’s, diabolical plot to pass on a deep appreciation for classical music involved helping me unconsciously develop a vision of what music is, and how it inspires and lifts and enriches life. Little by little, Thursday night rehearsal by Thursday night rehearsal, what had started as picking up and squeaking sound from an old violin my dad and I found in a friend’s attic turned into a quest to master those four strings, fingerboard, and horsehair bow.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was being immersed in what would become not just my life, but a big part of who I am.
That happens.
Parents who are high achievers will expose their children to the atmosphere of greatness. Those children will grow up rubbing shoulders with the tallest timber. It will become part of the air they breathe. Their vision of life and success will be formed in a laboratory where high expectations and achievement are the fabric of everyday life.
Many times they will become something great because that’s what was imprinted on them. Sure, children go their own directions, but the principles of greatness often get passed on to the next generation. What they saw their loving mother and father do – how they used their time, how they worked and led, where they focused their energies and resources – creates a pattern that the children naturally gravitate to.
So the first step in setting goals is determining a vision.
It doesn’t have to conform with what others think you should do. In fact, the greatest achievers and contributors in life often run against the grain, even when those around them think they’re crazy. I’m sure Thomas Edison got plenty of grief as his friends and family looked at his 10,000 attempts at the lightbulb before finally finding the 10,001st way that DID work.
And so, don’t give the nay-sayers any power over you. Determine what you want, and let your thoughts run wild. Everything ever created or invented on this earth started as a thought in someone’s brain; a thought that turned into a vision, and then a quest, and then, eventually, a reality.
Step One: Create a Vision. Write it down.
