One of my life’s passions is music. I love music; I love listening to music and also love being part of a performance, putting together a sequence of musical events that will be a blessing. I remember many years ago, watching the orchestra get ready. I always enjoy the symphony orchestra. I love to hear the sound of the instruments building up, the cadences, the crescendos and all of that. But even more, I love being a part of the build-up behind the scenes.
I remember being in the choral part, and watching the orchestra and as it began to play with the theme and different variations on the theme, it slowly began to build up the crescendo and the momentum of the whole piece. I watched different instruments as the conductor brought in the violins and the violas and the cellos and the double bass; then the wind instruments came in – the bassoons and the clarinets. Then you could see the people on the percussion; the tympani especially. You could see him moving back and forth to the rhythm, gyrating, playing one beat at a time. Then as the crescendo began to get more overpowering, more and more beats came in.
But next to him was the musician who had the cymbals. He would hold these huge cymbals in his hands and as the time for him to play came, you could see him move, get the pulse, feel the energy of the music. Then as the conductor moved towards that crescendo where he would play and waited for the downbeat, his hands would move apart. Then along with the baton, down would come those crashing cymbals; 1-2-3; however many were needed. That was the crescendo that they were building up to. Then immediately after that would be the lull. Then a lone oboe would pick up or a single violin; and then the music would go down to an absolute piano.
I love to watch this particular musician. He had one moment; all the other musicians would play, they would build up their own crescendos, but he had this one bar, that one measure where he would play that cymbal 3 or 4 times. I would always think to myself: Gosh, if he missed that one measure! He had nothing else to do in that whole movement. Yet, he waited for it; he never missed it. He was always there getting to it.
Life, sometimes, is like that. We somehow feel a crescendo in our own life; the incessant staccato of our heartbeats or beats that are within us that are drumming us and moving us to a crescendo in our lives. We can either take that moment or we can lose that moment.
I remember many years ago, when the airline industry in India was just beginning to blossom and bloom. I had a friend who was talking about quitting one of the airlines and moving to one of the newer airlines that were coming in. He was not sure, wondering whether he should wait for VRS and play it safe. Today 15 years later, he is still in the same job. He didn’t make the move, played it safe and is today, a pretty disgruntled demotivated assistant manager, serving his time and waiting for retirement. Every time I think about him, I think ‘Gosh! He missed the moment to move, to ride the crest of a wave; but never did. And he missed out.
Mark Vamos and David Lidsky edited an article ‘Fast Company’s Greatest Hits – Ten years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business’. The article starts with the intro: “In the early 1990s, Alan Webber was at the top of his game – well-compensated, admired, editorial director and managing editor of the Harvard Business Review – and miserable. He’d become entrapped by the curse of competence, successful in a job that he no longer enjoyed. The longer he stayed, the more successful he became. The more successful he became, the greater the cost of giving up his job. The greater the cost of giving up his job, the more his own success became a prison.”
Many years ago, I used to go to a friend’s office and on his bulletin board, he had a one-liner that said, “Risk is a 4 letter word with an undeserved reputation.” Sometimes in life,it is necessary to take risks.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider said this about risk. “I guess, what I’m trying to say is,I don’t think you can measure life in terms of years. Longevity doesn’t have anything to do with happiness. Happiness comes from facing challenges and going out on a limb and taking risks. If you’re not willing to take a risk about something you really care about, you might as well be dead.”
Our own first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said this, “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.”
Webber would go on to say as he was contemplating leaving HBR. He said, “I had to give it a try. If I didn’t go then, I’d never go and I’d wonder for the rest of my life. There was a part of me that said, ‘Your whole life has been a preparation for this moment.’” Almost like the cymbals, isn’t it? His job on the orchestra was to wait for that one measure where he would play those 3 or 4 beats that would bring the music to a resounding climax. But if he missed it, the music went on without him.
Life just goes on. It doesn’t wait for us. It gives us our moments of opportunity. We take it or we miss it. Maybe today, it could be something that’s happening in your life; it could be just doing something different from what you’re used to doing every day. It could be a new idea, some kind of a cost-cutter for the company or an ‘against-the-grain’ idea that’s burning within you and you’ve never really spoken out about it. Maybe the opportunity is being created. Maybe the incessant drumming in your heart is that the moment has come.
Or maybe it’s time to voice concerns about a friend or an issue in your organization.
Or it could be something personal; about changing your profile, studying something, getting an MBA, getting more qualified in your particular area that you think you need to do. You need to take a decision to be decisive about what to do, seize the opportunity. It could be that you’re like Webber, doing very well but there’s no motivation. It could be that now is the time to look for a fresh challenge, to leave the safety net.
Somebody once said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
In Greek, there are 2 words for ‘time’: chromos and kairos. Chromos is where we get the word chronometer which gives us our day-to-day time, our wrist watches. But kairos has to do with divine time – the time that God gives to us, an opportunity or a window that opens into something new. And maybe today is that day that you will walk into something new; that you will heed the drumbeats; that you know that your moment is coming and you are holding the cymbals high, ready for it. My prayer is that you will indeed seize the moment, because if you miss these moments in your life, then life goes back to being just dull, routine and mundane. You may never get back that opportunity again. It’s gone forever. Maybe today is the day that you will seize that kairos time; ‘carpe diem’ as it says in Latin – ‘seize the day’.
Maybe this morning as you listen to me, you’re saying, “That’s where I am. I’m hearing drumbeats; I’m hearing a crescendo coming. I think it’s time.” I pray that you will take it.
Carpe diem. Seize the day.
God Bless Us All.
I remember being in the choral part, and watching the orchestra and as it began to play with the theme and different variations on the theme, it slowly began to build up the crescendo and the momentum of the whole piece. I watched different instruments as the conductor brought in the violins and the violas and the cellos and the double bass; then the wind instruments came in – the bassoons and the clarinets. Then you could see the people on the percussion; the tympani especially. You could see him moving back and forth to the rhythm, gyrating, playing one beat at a time. Then as the crescendo began to get more overpowering, more and more beats came in.
But next to him was the musician who had the cymbals. He would hold these huge cymbals in his hands and as the time for him to play came, you could see him move, get the pulse, feel the energy of the music. Then as the conductor moved towards that crescendo where he would play and waited for the downbeat, his hands would move apart. Then along with the baton, down would come those crashing cymbals; 1-2-3; however many were needed. That was the crescendo that they were building up to. Then immediately after that would be the lull. Then a lone oboe would pick up or a single violin; and then the music would go down to an absolute piano.
I love to watch this particular musician. He had one moment; all the other musicians would play, they would build up their own crescendos, but he had this one bar, that one measure where he would play that cymbal 3 or 4 times. I would always think to myself: Gosh, if he missed that one measure! He had nothing else to do in that whole movement. Yet, he waited for it; he never missed it. He was always there getting to it.
Life, sometimes, is like that. We somehow feel a crescendo in our own life; the incessant staccato of our heartbeats or beats that are within us that are drumming us and moving us to a crescendo in our lives. We can either take that moment or we can lose that moment.
I remember many years ago, when the airline industry in India was just beginning to blossom and bloom. I had a friend who was talking about quitting one of the airlines and moving to one of the newer airlines that were coming in. He was not sure, wondering whether he should wait for VRS and play it safe. Today 15 years later, he is still in the same job. He didn’t make the move, played it safe and is today, a pretty disgruntled demotivated assistant manager, serving his time and waiting for retirement. Every time I think about him, I think ‘Gosh! He missed the moment to move, to ride the crest of a wave; but never did. And he missed out.
Mark Vamos and David Lidsky edited an article ‘Fast Company’s Greatest Hits – Ten years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business’. The article starts with the intro: “In the early 1990s, Alan Webber was at the top of his game – well-compensated, admired, editorial director and managing editor of the Harvard Business Review – and miserable. He’d become entrapped by the curse of competence, successful in a job that he no longer enjoyed. The longer he stayed, the more successful he became. The more successful he became, the greater the cost of giving up his job. The greater the cost of giving up his job, the more his own success became a prison.”
Many years ago, I used to go to a friend’s office and on his bulletin board, he had a one-liner that said, “Risk is a 4 letter word with an undeserved reputation.” Sometimes in life,it is necessary to take risks.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider said this about risk. “I guess, what I’m trying to say is,I don’t think you can measure life in terms of years. Longevity doesn’t have anything to do with happiness. Happiness comes from facing challenges and going out on a limb and taking risks. If you’re not willing to take a risk about something you really care about, you might as well be dead.”
Our own first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said this, “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.”
Webber would go on to say as he was contemplating leaving HBR. He said, “I had to give it a try. If I didn’t go then, I’d never go and I’d wonder for the rest of my life. There was a part of me that said, ‘Your whole life has been a preparation for this moment.’” Almost like the cymbals, isn’t it? His job on the orchestra was to wait for that one measure where he would play those 3 or 4 beats that would bring the music to a resounding climax. But if he missed it, the music went on without him.
Life just goes on. It doesn’t wait for us. It gives us our moments of opportunity. We take it or we miss it. Maybe today, it could be something that’s happening in your life; it could be just doing something different from what you’re used to doing every day. It could be a new idea, some kind of a cost-cutter for the company or an ‘against-the-grain’ idea that’s burning within you and you’ve never really spoken out about it. Maybe the opportunity is being created. Maybe the incessant drumming in your heart is that the moment has come.
Or maybe it’s time to voice concerns about a friend or an issue in your organization.
Or it could be something personal; about changing your profile, studying something, getting an MBA, getting more qualified in your particular area that you think you need to do. You need to take a decision to be decisive about what to do, seize the opportunity. It could be that you’re like Webber, doing very well but there’s no motivation. It could be that now is the time to look for a fresh challenge, to leave the safety net.
Somebody once said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
In Greek, there are 2 words for ‘time’: chromos and kairos. Chromos is where we get the word chronometer which gives us our day-to-day time, our wrist watches. But kairos has to do with divine time – the time that God gives to us, an opportunity or a window that opens into something new. And maybe today is that day that you will walk into something new; that you will heed the drumbeats; that you know that your moment is coming and you are holding the cymbals high, ready for it. My prayer is that you will indeed seize the moment, because if you miss these moments in your life, then life goes back to being just dull, routine and mundane. You may never get back that opportunity again. It’s gone forever. Maybe today is the day that you will seize that kairos time; ‘carpe diem’ as it says in Latin – ‘seize the day’.
Maybe this morning as you listen to me, you’re saying, “That’s where I am. I’m hearing drumbeats; I’m hearing a crescendo coming. I think it’s time.” I pray that you will take it.
Carpe diem. Seize the day.
God Bless Us All.
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