Quote of the Day

So this title is misleading. No, I am not going to promise to post a new quote everyday. Rather, I am going to continue with my practice of randomly throwing out stuff that interests me, on the off chance that it might interest you as well. But no one wants to read the "Random Quote That Caught My Eye, Which May Be The Last Quote I Ever Post, Or Perhaps Just One Among Many" posting. Yuck. Instead I am naming this post "Quote of the Day."

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, very part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.

--Swami Vivekananda Indian Spiritual leader - Founder of the Ramakrishna Order of Monks 1863-1902

How can you read that and not want to blog about it? Can this really be true? Is success really as simple as complete, absolute, unshaken focus on what you want? What about balance? What happened to "all things in moderation?"

I noticed that he specifies the creation of spiritual giants as a measure of success--or at least you can read it that way. Is he saying that success is always a spiritual matter? Or is he saying that being a "spiritual giant" is the only real success? Perhaps if we walk down this road for a while, we can say that the only success is spiritual, and that all temporal concerns are taken care out of necessity, for they are prerequisite to the pursuit of the end goal, the spiritual goal. Does that really work though?

Tangent Warning> Oh, and then there is always someone who wants to point out that everything is spiritual. Yes, I know. Yet, if you say that all things are spiritual, you imply that everything in your realm of concern is included in the [limited] domain of "all things". So you can also say that all things are spiritual and physical at that point and your original statement is a bit misleading. Hmm, this is a tangent, so I am going just leave it. < /Tangent Warning >

So what do I think of our monk friend? (No disrespect intended.) If you really give your life over to one idea, you can achieve success in that thing. That is you will accomplish what you set out to do. However, my idea of success doesn't fit into that scenario, because to me success is related to potential, and the level of achievement that is needed to succeed is relative to that potential. Take the classic workaholic stereotype:

Johnny MBA really really really wants to be a VP someday, so he gives his whole life to the company. He works long hours, sacrifices his vacations, and spends his money on the right clothes, the right car, and the right hobbies that will get him to VP. In 20 years he is called into the Board Meeting, the CEO's Office, the SVP's office (wherever) and he gets the offer. He gave his life over to something, and he succeeded at it. He is also alone in life because his wife left him, his children don't know him and his real friends were discarded because they wouldn't get him to the top. He is probably either in debt, out of shape, and just plain mean, or all of the above.

I believe that Johnny had potential other than what he achieved, and I think he will be accountable for that potential. I know that we live in a world of specialization (maybe this quote was ahead of its time) but what really matters is how much we did with what we were given in total.

So it is late, and I didn't intend to write a post tonight. I tried to end this rambling 3 times now, so I am just going to cut it off here.