salvador

I love this quote from Salvador Dali:

“Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy - the joy of being Salvador Dalí - and I ask myself in rapture, ‘What wonderful things this Salvador Dalí is going to accomplish today?”

A pompous artist high on his own success? Maybe. But there’s something in the quote I just think is wonderful. There is something I think few of us have, and maybe something we could learn.

I wonder what would happen if you and I tried an experiment. What if we let go of feeling inadequate? What if we let go of caring at all what people think about us, and were frankly and unabashedly ourselves in all situations? What if we stopped obsessing about all the things that we don’t do right, and started to realize, just a little, that there are things about us that ought to elicit serious admiration, even from ourselves? What if we looked in the mirror in the morning and regarded the person we see there with awe for all the things she can do? For all the things she has done and will do? What if we stepped outside ourselves for a moment each day and allowed ourselves to understand who we are?

Let’s try it. Tomorrow morning when you see yourself in the mirror, I want you to think of Salvador Dali. Let go of all those things and experience the joy of being yourself. Lift your chin a little. And ask yourself in rapture, “What wonderful things am I going to accomplish today?”

Let me know how it goes. I’ll be looking in my mirror too.