I believe maintaining a philosophy of self-awareness and self-improvement not only significantly contributes to one’s quality of life but also greatly enhances work-product. Having one or more sources of advisors, mentors, and inspiration is a key ingredient.

One of the many benefits I’ve received through marriage to my lovely wife is the opportunity to form an intimate relationship with fabulous people I would most likely not have met otherwise. One such person is Oma – my wife’s grandmother who also is a valued source of inspiration.

Every time I talk with her (thank goodness for Skype and email as she lives in the Netherlands) I am truly amazed and inspired. She is a 96 year old woman who is more active and vibrant that I am at times. In spite of the recent challenges she has had recently, she has remained focused, determined, and passionate about achieving her goals and has been successful. Her powerful examples are truly inspiring and have given me hope: not in the sense that life can be rewarding and invigorating no matter what age, but what is possible to achieve in spite of certain limitations.

Oma is obviously limited by her age but her process works well. She defines the desire, contemplates the process, determines the ability based on current factors and executes successfully, with fallback plans and flexibility. She lives outside the city limits of Amsterdam but regularly goes into the city to attend exhibitions and generally partake of the city life. Today we chatted about her visit to a Turkish exhibit at an old cathedral on the Dam and then she was describing her plans to visit a Sotheby’s Modern Art Charity Auction. Recently (in terms of a few months) she was asked to be in a Dutch TV movie called “Oma and Her Scooter.” (BTW, she doesn’t need one nor any other walking device!)

Oma, you inspire me.

After I’m just about to rip out the front of my 1999 Lexus LX470 to determine where the bad wiring connection is that drives one headlight, I find a wiring diagram for my truck that tells me there is one 10A fuse for each headlight! That was the last thing I imagined so I never considered it. I spent a significant amount of time looking for the short, not realizing the fuse was blown. What I learned today was when something simple goes wrong, it may not be a complicated problem to solve; one just has to learn to consider the un-obvious. (more…)