Work’s picked up quite a bit…praise the Lord!…so I haven’t been perusing the blogosphere much lately. Figured I’d better get something out there and I thought the Friday 5 was a decent place to start…and then I tried to think of something to write…and failed.
Lately, I’ve been reading books about some pretty extraordinary people. Even did a bit of a study on John Calvin. Most of the people I’ve been reading about were scholars (‘were’ as in ‘long been dead’.) Some are businessmen and entrepreneurs, like Dale Carnegie.
Reading about these extraordinary people is a little daunting for me. I find myself quite unremarkable in almost every way. I can make some very pretty children, but that’s about it. It’s not that the stories make me feel inadequate, I just have a hard time putting myself in their shoes, so to speak.
I’ve wondered about the way I react to their stories. I enjoy them. I appreciate the struggles they went through, although I’m sure I don’t really get it most of the time. But I can’t say I get very inspired. The Dale Carnegie courses seem to revolve around using other peoples stories to inspire yet more people. And his courses are very popular. But do the majority of people react that way? Are you inspired by hearing and reading the stories of great people? People who overcame huge obstacles to get somewhere? What do you do with that knowledge?
Maybe you’re like me and just tuck it away as a story to tell to someone else as a means to inspire them, even though we may not have taken much inspiration ourselves.
Maybe you can take the ideas from those stories and can easily apply them to different circumstances in your life. That takes some imagination I suppose.
So how about it? Do the stories of great people inspire you? And if so, anyone in particular?
I just finished The Element by Sir Ken Robinson, PhD. The book is about finding your passion in life. He relates many stories of famous people and how they came to find what they love to do. Stories about Sir Richard Branson, George Harrison and many others.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the stories of people, but I also enjoy hearing people who have something interesting and informative to say (not politicians, they talk for the sake of talking). If you want to experience some great stories, check out TED.com.
I'm very much a TED watcher! Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I enjoy reading biographies, both inspirational and harrowing, I never really seem to relate them to myself at all.
ReplyDeleteI also do not related well to that type of story. But I do wonder what is between the lines of type that we do not get to read. I imagine that is where my similarities to them lay.
ReplyDeleteHmm... good question. Inspire? Not sure. It's always interesting to me. I actually really like biographies (reading, not watching). I think it makes people seem more human, and not these larger than life figures.
ReplyDelete