"If you don’t net those butterflies immediately, I promise they will fly away."

A thought by Bob Goff in his book, Undistracted (p. 18). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

That is so true, so true.

Bob continues that thought, "Take notes while you read this or any other book. Write down how you are going to apply the parts that make sense to you. If you don’t net those butterflies immediately, I promise they will fly away. Do this, then study and refine those notes, and you will find connections between the ideas you have scribbled down in the middle of the conversation and ones you had in other conversations. You will capture meaningful, partially developed, and applicable ideas you can incorporate into your life. As you use what you have written down, they will create a feedback loop as they evolve into fuller, more complete ideas. If you don’t take the time to capture and process your interior world, you will miss the opportunity to discover something bigger and more beautiful in your heart."

He says, "Many of the people who have brought a great deal of understanding and beauty to the world were notetakers. Marcus Aurelius, Beethoven, Lewis and Clark, Mark Twain . . . You name a person who was a standout in history, art, literature, or culture, and I bet you’ve just identified a notetaker. Benjamin Franklin wasn’t a particularly virtuous guy, but he tracked a list of thirteen virtues, including notes on how he lived them out every day. You may not want to keep score of your character, but I am certain you will benefit from keeping track of it."

He goes on, "George Lucas, the famous moviemaker, wrote the script for Star Wars while also scoring American Graffiti. In those days of the industry, the way to locate a scene was to reference the roll of film it was on and the dialogue number within that roll of film. Someone asked George Lucas about a scene in American Graffiti that was on roll two, dialogue two. George wrote down in his notes 'R2D2.' I kid you not. He was spinning the puzzle piece in his mind for a lovable droid, took what would have been a completely unrelated written note, and . . . the rest is history. His note-taking became a way of harnessing and curating his creativity. It can do the same for you too."

Bob then said, "Paul wrote a letter to his friends at a place called Corinth. He said that to him, their lives were just like letters from God to the world. He said they weren’t a bunch of words carved into stone, but they were written on his and other people’s hearts.(2 Corinthians 3:2-3) If you’ll do the work, taking note of ideas and truths and thoughts that matter to you, you will put yourself in places to impact people in deep and inexplicable ways you couldn’t have imagined. If you think of your life as a book that’s being written, start taking better notes. It will become a masterpiece one sentence at a time."

Again that is so true, so true! Yes, yes! #continuethought