How often have you built something up in your mind to be something only to get there and realize it’s not what you thought at all?
I recently had that experience with the Re:Create 2011 conference held on the Celebrity Century cruise ship. My wife, Cyndi, and I were able to attend, coupling it with a vacation and family wedding in Florida. I had never met any of the speakers, only followed them through Twitter. The conference was billed as The Creative Life, the creative at work, life, love and worship. In my mind, I had all of these expectations about what the speakers would share, especially after reading a lot of their blogs and books. Only one of the speakers, Michael Hyatt, talked about what I thought he would talk about. The other three speakers, Randy Elrod, Ken Davis and Pete Wilson, talked about things that I had not expected.
Needless to say, my expectations were not met. I was in a way disappointed that I did not hear what I was hoping to hear.
BUT…
What I heard was incredible! I only wish I had had my ears open a bit more.
- Creativity takes discipline in order to be fully presented.
- Creativity will not always be received with fanfare and a parade.
- Creativity is often misunderstood both by the creator and the receiver.
- Live survived is not life lived. Living is more than surviving.
- The story is always important.
- The story behind the story is sometimes even more important.
- Not everything has to have deep, theological implications. Sometimes, it’s just fun.
- Anything worth doing is worth doing bad, once. Then, better the next time.
- What you do does not define who you are.
- Listen to love, not to “one-up”.
- Listen to the story, hear the person, share in the life lived.
SO…
My expectations of what the cruise would be were unmet. But the meditations that were shared were insightful and provocative.
How often have you built something up in your mind to be something only to get there and realize it’s not what you thought at all? Share your story.
