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Late this morning I stumbled back into the house after a long run and had to help the family clean because a Realtor was bringing people to see the place.

After a quick shower, I started sweeping the kitchen, dining, and living areas. Per usual, my 2 year old daughter insisted on helping.

What I found interesting, and it’s almost always the case, is that she insisted on dragging around the second full sized broom. In the corner, waiting to be used at the end, was the handy dandy combo dustpan/short broom set that makes getting all the trash off the floor easier.

I thought to myself that it seemed like a much more logical choice for Emery to pick up—it’s small & compact.

Like an Emery-sized broom.

But no, she could care less about the mini-broom. She wanted one just like Daddy’s.

I smiled as I watched her struggle to help sweep with the large broom, not sure if I was more concerned that she would lift it and knock down my flat screen or continue to spread the already swept piles across the floor.

She wasn’t content to settle with a small, Emery-sized broom. She wanted the real thing.

I found this profound for reasons I’ll probably never be able to articulate. Seriously, how often do we settle for a me-sized or me-appropriate version of something?

This is how half-marathons got started, and perhaps justifiably so, but I think there’s something to be said about having a standard that you push everyone towards. It seems better than just adapting the standards so that everyone feels good and accomplished and warm and special.

It would have been easy and more sensible for Emery to pick up the small broom and pretend to be like me.

But she wasn’t content with that.

She wanted something bigger.

I wonder if we lose that as we “mature.” We don’t have the child-like passion to do anything; rather, we just settle for something.

We settle. We sweep. We settle.

And someday we look back and we’ve been told we’re special and accomplished but we’ve done little good and feel little warmth.

Go and take on the things that are difficult and bigger than you; stop lowering your standards. If you don’t fail occasionally, you’re attempting things that are too easy.