"Great Work"

So why have I chosen the title of my blog, “Becoming Magnum Opus?”

I’m sure many of you are wondering what “Magnum Opus” exactly means. Magnum Opus is Latin for “great work”.  It is the greatest, most popular, or most renowned single work of an artist, composer, or writer; it’s “a masterpiece”. 

Masterpieces of today would consist of the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) by Leonardo da Vinci, Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Fur Elise”, or William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. However, as wonderful and inspiring as they may be, I personally believe that the greatest and most important MASTERPIECE’S one will ever create is “YOU!

We all aspire being better husbands/wives, fathers/mothers, friends, business owners/partners, leaders, writers, and in anything we do. Don’t fool yourselves; this takes time, patience, and practice. Just think about it. How much time and effort do you think went into producing and creating each of the masterpieces listed above? Do you think they just sat down and created what they did in a matter of minutes, hours, or days? Of course not! They researched, planned, practiced and developed their talents to do what they did and to become who they were. They exerted all their energy into the NOW of what they were doing until they achieved and obtained their own magnum opus. We too, must set aside time in the day to develop our personal lives so that we may obtain talents and BECOME who we want to be and what we were born to be. 

My wife, Crystal, is recently learning this. Just about everything comes naturally for her. However, she set a goal to learn how to play the piano. She would hear me and others play effortlessly and thought she could do the same in a matter of weeks or months. The frustration soon kicked in when days turned into weeks and weeks months and she still wasn’t playing the songs others and I could play. Hang in their Princess; it took me 7 years of lessons to be able to play how I do now! 

Just as it will take some time for Crystal to learn how to play the piano, so too, will it take days, weeks, months, and maybe even years to develop and engrave qualities, traits, characteristics, HABITS, and PRINCIPLES into your life. We seem to want things so fast that many of us aren’t willing to go through the peaks and valley’s to get us where we want to be. 

A painting consists of many ordinary and individual brush strokes, much of which are unrelated yet work together to create a captivating and beautiful painting. Each principle we develop, every book we read, and every life we touch is an individual brush stoke on your personal canvas of “YOU”.  No one stroke may seem relevant at the time or is very noticeable however, just as all the colors and markings of a painting lead to a beautiful masterpiece, so too, will our consistency in doing seemingly small things in our lives lead to significant and personal results in the future.

The hardest person to change, yet the easiest, is YOU. It’s easy to find faults in others and to know where they need improvement; nonetheless we must realize we all have them. You must discover your faults, your weaknesses, and then strive to make those weaknesses become your strengths. In time, you will learn to master any obstacle that comes in your path.

The best way to learn how to BECOME is to learn from those who have already BECOME. There are many greats from the past and present whose lives show us how to find answers through applying principles they’ve lived by and learned in their life’s journey. One of the GREATS who has BECOME, is my father-in-law and mentor, Dan McCormick.