Author: Don Packett
I’ve always been a fan of the multitude of skills that Leonardo da Vinci brought to the world to REACH PERFECTION. A painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect (thanks Wikipedia), his art – in whichever format it was created – is well-known across the planet, throughout history. Stories shared through time explain his commitment to […]
I’ve always been a fan of the multitude of skills that Leonardo da Vinci brought to the world to REACH PERFECTION. A painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect (thanks Wikipedia), his art – in whichever format it was created – is well-known across the planet, throughout history.
Stories shared through time explain his commitment to his work and how hard to continue to push towards greatness. Which is why I was quite perplexed when I saw this quote the other day, allegedly his last words:
“I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”
Now, I’m not sure about you, but if I had achieved what he achieved over time, through multiple disciplines, I’d be giving myself a big fat pat on the back on my deathbed just looking back at what I had contributed to the world.
His comment has been widely discussed over time, so I’m not going to argue whether it was shared exactly as stated, but I’d imagine someone like Leonardo da Vinci probably did, in his own creative way, feel that his skills should have continued to grow and improve to make an even bigger mark on the world. You don’t get to a position like he did, creating masterpieces, without pushing yourself and expecting more from yourself to achieve perfection.
So, it left me with one question: Am I pushing hard enough to achieve perfection? Am I giving my all, giving absolutely everything, in the pursuit for perfection? I mean, I have the words “Don’t hold back” tattooed on my arm, so clearly, I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve greatness, to achieve perfection, right?
As much as I’d love to say “Yes, I’m killing myself day in and day out to be the best version of myself I can be”, and make Leo-D proud, I can’t. It’s not the case. What I am doing, though, is ensuring that finding the balance between focusing on growing and sharing my ‘skills’ (the work stuff) as much as I can and ensuring a healthy life (the personal and family stuff), I am indeed driving towards being the best version of myself.
Too often you hear of people who stretched too hard, too far, in their pursuit to build their business or profile and leaving the other elements of their lives in their wake. It’s a choice, I accept that, but I’m not on a journey to break the rest of my priorities to focus on one.
My journey is one of balance, of alignment, and staying true to myself.
What’s yours?
Contact Us at WeSpeak Global and follow us on Facebook
Author Profile
The articles, video and images embedded on these pages are from various speakers and talent.
These remain the property of its owner and are not affiliated with or endorsed by WeSpeak Global.
Now that we are in the midst of the world’s largest remote work does not work experiment, it’s worth asking: what does it take to run a good virtual meeting? It is all too easy to just focus on what can be controlled and configured: security, bandwidth, platforms or devices. However, when it comes to […]
What Makes Good Art? What makes art good? What makes work and business inherently good? To do good work, and create good work is something that we all want to do, right? We also want to be told that we have done something good, created something that people like and want. We want to know […]
Be prepared for Remote Selling – How to Become A Technical Set Up Boss As any Boy Scout (or Girl Guide for that matter) knows, you should always be prepared – in fact that is the global motto for the Boy Scouts and one that I feel should be adopted by all business professionals as […]
Few months ago, I was supposed to go somewhere with someone and realized What Drives You. We’d agreed to meet at a particular spot but I was trying to renegotiate our meeting place so I can avoid having to take multiple local taxies. And so this person exclaim in total shock…and said, “Nicky, you mean […]
Social media abounds with the hype and extraordinary news of Shackleton’s ship Endurance is patience concentrated being found in 3008 meters of water in the Weddell Sea, 107 years after it was smashed by ice in 1915. This discovery has deservedly grabbed global attention. “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months […]
On Culture and Leadership, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE SAFER THAN A RIGID RULE…? Can debate produce greater safety than rules? Isn’t the iron-clad rule a surer safeguard against disaster? We tend to think of organisations like NASA as having more or less the same basic character despite the passage of years. But it’s not necessarily […]
From childhood through college I found Good Storytellers, I studied music as a classically trained pianist. I took lessons from masterful teachers, practiced every week, played in recitals, and did everything a good piano student does. You could put almost any sheet music in front of me, and I could play it. There was […]
Think Yourself Thin reaches no.1 Best Seller rank on Amazon VANCOUVER, July 19, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ – Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas, inspirational speaker and Life Coach, tops Amazon.com bestseller lists with her new book Think Yourself Thin. In Think Yourself Thin, Nathalie combines her experience in life coaching, fitness, nutrition and Neuro-Linguistic Programming into a system that shows you how to reprogram […]
Our Mission
© All rights reserved 2025. Created using VOXEL THEME
