The following contains excerpts from the book, Today Matters (John Maxwell).
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. In Leadership, the subject of relationships is paramount, and one of the most profound relationships that can be had is the relationships with one’s self. Learning to lead one’s own life with excellence and integrity is the first step toward leading others on that journey.
The premise of the book is that however you want your life to turn out, each day must reflect those values, goals and priorities. Making each day a ‘masterpiece’ is how to reach life-goals. The book is divided into twelve sections, based upon Maxwell’s ‘daily dozen’ topics.
Prior to these sections, he discusses the understanding of what ‘success’ really means. “The root problem is that most people misunderstand success. If we have a faulty view of success, we take a faulty approach to our day. As a result, today falls to pieces.” We must be prepared for opportunity when it comes. “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” (John Wooden) Real sustainable change doesn’t happen in a moment. It’s a process. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Willian Allen White observed, “Multitudes of people have failed to live for today. They have spent their lives reaching for the future. What they have had within their grasp today they have missed entirely, because only the future has intrigued them…and the first thing they knew the future because the past.” Hoping for a good future without investing in today is like a farmer waiting for a crop without ever planting any seed.
As teachers at our music school in Midland, Texas we instill into our students the value of daily progress. Many people are looking for the big events to define their lives, while it is the daily, incremental progress that produces results that last.
The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. There are only a handful of important decisions people need to make in their entire lifetimes. If you make decisions in those key areas once and for all- and then manage those decisions daily- you can create the kind of tomorrow you desire. Successful people make right decisions early and manage those decisions daily. You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.” (Benjamin Disraeli)
I believe there are two ingredients necessary to make every day a masterpiece: decisions and discipline. They are like two sides of the same coin; you could call them “goal-setting” and “goal getting.”
Attitude
“The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success. But you can’t buy an attitude for a million dollars. Attitudes are not for sale.” (from ‘The Winner’s Edge’ by Dennis Waitley) We should always focus on the possibilities, not the problems. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” (Walt Emerson)
Your interaction with others sets the tone of your day. It’s like the music of your life. When your interaction with others is poor, it’s like having to listen to cacophonous music.
We believe one of the greatest benefits to studying at our music school in Midland, Texas is learning how to interact and make music with others in collaborative environments that foster empathy.
Appreciation isn’t a matter of taste or sophistication. It’s a matter of perspective. John Wooden said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” “When we learn to give thanks, we are learning to concentrate not on the bad things, but on the good things in our lives.” (Amy Vanderbilt)
Priorities
Ralph Waldo Emerson advised, “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”
Chinese author and philosopher Lin Yutang said, “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists of the elimination of nonessentials.”
Excellence comes from doing the right things right. You’ve got to let go of the rest. Author Robert J. McKain says, “The reason most goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.” To be successful, you can’t just run on the fast track; run on your track.
Poet Carl Sandburg said, “Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.”
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook” (William James)
We teach student at our music school in Midland, Texas how to prioritize their work by helping them see their unique strengths and helping them to develop those strengths through core conditioning, basics that have been used over the centuries.
British prime minister Willian Gladstone said, “He is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is wiser still who from among the things he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best.”
German novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
Health
“If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” (Mickey Mantle)
The key to healthy eating is moderation and managing what you eat every day.
“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.” (Mark Twain)
The key to success is consistency.
Family
A good family is an incredible advantage in life. Perry F. Webb says, “The home…is the lens through which we get our first look at marriage and all civic duties; it is the clinic where, by conversation and attitude, impressions are created with respect to sobriety and reverence; it is the school where lesson of truth or falsehood, honesty or deceit are learned; it is the mold which ultimately determines the structure of society.”
When Mother Teresa received the Nobel peace prize, she was asked, “What can we do to promote world peace?” Her answer: “Go home and love your family.”
Someone once said you should never let yourself feel that you ought to be at work when you’re with your family, and you should never feel that you ought to be with your family when you’re at work.
Traditions give your family a shared history and a strong sense of identity.
The relational foundation of any family is a couple’s marriage. It sets the tone for the household, and it is the model relationship that children learn from more than any other. That’s why former Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburgh asserted, “The most important thing a father can do for his children is love their mother.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we value the students we teach, but we also value the community relationships that surround them. Working in collaboration with their parents is just as important for the student’s development as our one-on-one lessons with them.
Thinking
Claude M. Bristol, author of ‘The Magic of Believing,’ said, “Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and all achievement.”
Who has the greatest value in any organization? The answer is: the person with the ideas. Industrialist Harvey Firestone said, “Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas.”
Helping our students have the right ideas for their ongoing improvement and growth is what our music school in Midland, Texas is all about. Without proper training, it’s like trying to cut down a tree with a dull axe. We view our instruction as ‘sharpening the axe.’
Following are eleven different thinking skills: 1) Big Picture Thinking, 2) Focused Thinking, 3) Creative Thinking, 4) Realistic Thinking, 5) Strategic Thinking, 6) Possibility Thinking, 7) Reflective Thinking, 8) Questioning Popular Thinking, 9) Shared Thinking, 10) Unselfish Thinking, 11) Bottom-line Thinking
We should capture ideas by writing them down before they get away from us.