My hero of antiquity is Leonardo da Vinci.  He did not become defined by his upbringing, or day job. History defines da Vinci as a Renaissance Man. All that he accomplished can be found in this post.

In modern times, with the 40+ hour work week, it’s hard to imagine accomplishing as much as da Vinci. Yet, I know we can.  When I came to a point in my life, where I needed to find a different direction I did the following exercise.

1. Wrote down everything I was interested in (past, present or future). This did NOT include my college major.
2. What on the list could I make money with and how?
3. What tools do I have now to achieve those goals?  Steps 2 and 3 may take some research in the local library.
4. What was I willing to pursue?  Anything I wasn’t willing to put effort in, became a hobby.
5. What skills or experience do I lack to prevent me from success in those goals?  Pursue jobs that will give you the skills and experience to pursue step 4.
6. Prioritize and start pursuing!

I went through ideas like breeding German Shepherds (which I think is a good retirement idea), wine making, speaking and becoming an author.  I’m pursuing a lot of these ideas now. But I still have the research of when I did it nearly 10 years ago.  I’m going through those questions again, to see if I may have new interest I desire to pursue.

The decision to work for learning instead of money has paid off tremendously in my life. A person with a good work ethic, dreams/goals and insatiable desire to learn is an unstoppable force; she is a person who will not fall into the pit of mediocrity.

What direction do you want to take your life in?

Last Friday’s post discussed the difference between Individual Contributor and Leader. I wanted to re-iterate that there is nothing wrong with being an individual contributor by writing a post about an individual who has greatly influenced how I live my life: Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo Da Vinci was the most productive human being who ever lived. Leonardo Da Vinci was a man whom history could not label as an Artist, nor Engineer, Architect nor Scientist, Anatomist nor Inventor. In fact he was all of these things and more. History in its attempts to categorize people and events so we can quickly reference them in books and study them in context of our lives falls short with Da Vinci. History’s only recourse is to allow his life to create its own category, one that has yet to be re-used by another in antiquity. Da Vinci embodies the Renaissance Man because he did not allow the definition himself to be boxed into how he earned a living.

He contributed to the fields of anatomy, geometry, hydraulics, flight, architecture, botany, geology and physics. His notebooks contain the concept for automation.

Like da Vinci, we all should be committed to a life of learning and growing.  I strive to not just be an engineer or a teacher, project manager or church leader.   I want to continue to grow and become a successful author, community leader and entrepreneur.

I recommend Michael Gelb’s book, “How to think like Leonardo da Vinci” to learn more about how this genius lived and thought. Make a commitment to be a leader who lives a productive life.