What did you hear at the top of the stairs?

Mike Vance spent years in charge of idea and people development for Walt Disney Productions. A phenomenal mind in the area of creativity, and 'thinking outside of the box', I was fortunate to hear him speak on a few different occasions.

During his presentations he often mentions how what we hear 'at the top of the stairs' shapes the way we become, and how we shape our lives. Being 'at the top of the stairs' referred to a time when most homes had some sort of staircase going the the second floor. At the top, there was an area that had a rail and spindles. Children were able to sit quietly in that area and listen in to conversations of the adults down in the family room.

It was often 'at the top of the stairs' where we heard what the adults thought of us, our strengths, and our weaknesses.

Today this is figurative, and it may simply refer to wherever we were at the time we heard those who were influential in our lives speak of us in positive, and sometimes unflattering, ways.

It's usually after hearing what others think of us, or what they think we are supposed to become, that we choose our path in life - usually at the expense of truly doing what we would like to do, and often not doing what we would be much better at.

When we live our lives through the eyes of someone else, we often create not one, but two failures. We will never live up to what someone else wants us to be, and we will never be happy living the life someone else has 'chosen' for us.

So, what are you doing? Are you living your life through the eyes of someone else, based on what someone else thinks of you? Or, are you living the life you have chosen?

Choose wisely. That one single choice may be the biggest decision you ever make.