The James Clear email contained a quote from poet, philosopher, and Nobel Prize winner Paul Valéry which said, “All great undertakings do not consist of doing again what others have done before, but in recapturing the spirit that went into what they did—and would have done differently in a different age.”
AI listed a few similar quotes. Isaac Newton: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Joseph Campbell: "For we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us." And one I particularly like by Winona LaDuke: "Let us be the ancestors our descendants will thank."
I am pursuing this line of thought as this is an area I really like but have had trouble with.  The trouble took the form of reinventing the wheel.  I so know not to do that but I so often got caught up in an activity and found myself doing what had already been done.  Ok it was just spreadsheets to record activities but so often I would spend hours doing something only to discover it had been done before and using it could have saved me hours of effort.
That aside though I have held to the idea that to find out the way it is best to consult those that have gone before.  Once upon a time that would have referred to physical paths to physical places, whereas these days it has a lot to do with pathways of the mind.
So often something someone I admire says inspires me to further thought or action.  It has never for me been a global impact thing but it has been a local impact thing.  I do not know what the future holds, but I do know that my future is full of possibilities.
I want to break new ground and as the quote says, not doing again what others have done before, but in recapturing the spirit that went into what they did.  A spirit of adventure takes what is known and breaks new ground.  Hopefully I can be an ancestor descendants can thank.

Dictionary day once again.  The word my finger fell on today was “full.”  There was like a huge entry for that that included things like full blooded, fullback, full stomach.  Other sources notes fulfill, chock- full, over full, and full measured.   
But I liked what it started with “holding all its limits will allow.”   Why I like that is it took me in a different direction.  When it comes to good stuff, I reckon full is good but I know a little container can be full and so can a big container.
For me I want to be “full” of love for others, or even full of the ability to assist.  I do not see any point in being full of something that is non transferrable.  For me it is all about being a river rather than a lake.  I am happy to contain a lake, but I do not want to end in a lake.
By that I mean full is for sharing.  It is living in the hope that I will be full again.  Usage is replenished.  In some ways it is scarier.  Yet I have found that giving out is never a zero sum game.  Always – without exception, giving leads to getting and I always have all I need both for me and for those I need it for.
To me full is very much a relative term.  I am reminded of the little boy who was told he would be given lollies.  So he put out both hands and cupped them.  He was ready to receive the max.  In the same way I want to be an eski rather than a shot glass.  Both can be 100% full but one contains way more than the other.
When I walked to work in the city I used to love building sites.  I could tell how tall a building would be by the depth of the foundations.  Small foundations, small building.  Large foundation, large building.  Both were “full” as in “fit for purpose” but the full of the large building meant a larger capacity.
In the same way my “full” depends on my capacity.  If I want a large capacity my foundations need to be deep and wide.  Definitely more work but greater reward.
Dams increase capacity.  Certainly silt can build up and needs to be gotten rid of and there are things I get rid of to maintain capacity.  But the whole point for me is the more I get the more I can give.  In my mind the larger the capacity the better, and that makes the preliminary work so worthwhile.

I was looking this morning at quotes about assisting.  I guess it is a bit of a theme of mine that I see assisting others as something important for me.
I guess it was a couple of Mother Teresa quotes that stood out to me big time. “if you can’t feed 100 people then feed just one.” “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.  But the ocean would be less because of that one missing drop.”
There is no doubt in my mind that the needs of humanity are many.  I just need to go out of my house to the shop to see them.  One time at the shop I came across a lady that could hardly stand.  She was holding a shopping trolley to maintain her balance.  I offered to help but she had her own coping mechanisms.  The same thing happened at our market.  A lady was having trouble maintaining her balance and I and another helped her to a car that had come to get her.
I know there are even unseen needs.  I will never forget my doctor saying “you have no idea what those you see in the shopping centre are going through.”  In my mind people everywhere may be going through physical or mental difficulties.  Often the aim may be to disguise it while there is a desperate longing to share it and even better to solve it.
As George Eliot said, “what do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other.”  I very much hold to that.  I feel I need to love God first and that helps me to love others.  As Albert Schweitzer said, “I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.”
I may not be able to do a lot, but I can do something.