This year’s US ski team has a new slogan: All Out! It points directly to the kind of determination and energy one has to bring into your effort, whatever that might be, in order to win. Or at least to perfect the game. The competition is so fierce, the field is so completely even, that the differences at the finish line are measured in hundreds of a second. There is a limit to how much one can train during the off season, for most it is close to eight hours a day, and most of them have maxed out on the limit. There is no doubt in my mind that because of it, this short slogan, they are doing better than they would without it. I believe that this powerful slogan actually has the power to bring in the best and improve their performance by that one hundredth of a second.

Watching these guys go for it makes me think about the effort that I am putting in every day in my art and architecture. Not even close. No wonder I start complaining that my lack of success is because of all kinds of events that are out of my control, like our present state of economy, because of lack of general appreciation for the arts, and what not, but the bottom line has to be that it is because of my lack of total committment that the All Out! requires in order to move things forward.

So, question is, what am I going to do about it?