Month: December 2024

 

Our zeitgeist will not have it any other way. Complete.

 

That is far from the reality and we remain tricked by the ‘ tyranny of completion ‘.

 

The reality though is vastly different. Human beings are rough drafts that continually mistake themselves for the final story, then gasp as the plot changes on the page of living. @Maria Popova!

 

Far from complete.

 

It is our ego, a benchmark that we have of ourselves, the stories that we tell ourselves and the world at large, a passive succumbing to facades of coherence and continuity, that leaves us moored to what is a static idealized self.

 

Without much effort we are willing captives of comfort in our thoughts or feelings ; victims of certainty- a supreme narrowing of the mind. But, “When nothing is sure, everything is possible “– Margaret Drabble

The assertion here, however, is that there really is no creativity without uncertainty. Put another way: dubito ergo creo. This is Latin for, I doubt therefore I create.

 

More here on Creativity & The Certainty of Uncertainty !

 

 

 

As a tribe, we are obsessed with the concept of more. More stuff, more food, more of this, more of that..even as we write, the default is how do we add more words to create impact and impression.

 

‘ Thank you so much’ is easily replaceable with ‘Thank you’. ‘ It is very good ‘ can find comfortable solace in ‘ It is good ‘. ‘ It is extremely hot ‘ can sound as cool when you say ‘ It is hot ‘.

 

By design and habit, we over index to more in the belief that it will drive home the point and enable engagement. In a culture obsessed with adding, less but better seems out of sync.

We, as people, ​systematically overlook subtractive changes, instead following ​our​ instincts to add. There is nothing inherently wrong with adding. In the culture of the day, people like us, do things like this. But if it becomes a default path to improvement, that may be failing to consider a whole class of other opportunities​. So, more is NOT equal to better, more often than not.

 

Don’t mind the contradiction- in a world where we are oversold the value of more and undersold the value of less, its time to stop missing the wood for the trees and soak in the abundance of less.

 

A syndrome fanned by our reluctance to look up from our ledger of lack as we seek perennial validation in this Republic of Not Enough.

 

 

 

“ Emotional choice theory posits that individual-level decision-making is shaped in significant ways by the interplay between people’s norms, emotions, and identities. While norms and identities are important long-term factors in the decision process, emotions function as short-term, essential motivators for change “.

 

The common perception is that we think that our decisions are guided purely by logic and rationality, but our emotions always play a role in our good decision making process. So, cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them.

 

You can access this link if you are keen to understand more about The Power of Emotions

 

This link offers a short clip on how to inject emotions into your marketing

 

A lot of us suffer from what we call the ‘ Hero Trap ‘- an over reliance on our ability to handle something that becomes infuriatingly urgent which could have easily been avoided had it not been the temptation of the short term hack. It is always the toss up between urgent or important.

 

One of the sought after items when you went to see a circus was the Juggler’s act. And you were always left wondering how she is managing the act of throwing and catching consistently without fail amidst all the audience excitement and bewilderment. It is about attitude preceding outcomes. An attitude of training is far more important than the desire to have six-pack abs. Likewise, the act of throwing is more vital than the act of catching. And that is the secret to the Juggler catching ball without fail, time after time.

 

Life has parallels from juggling. Disaster Management Teams are seized of this. It is said that emergency response is overrated compared to emergency avoidance. If one were to introspect, we will realise that we spend most of our life catching aka reacting. Attending meetings that have been called by someone else. In fire fighting. Distracted by people who are making the loudest noise.

The lesson we can learn from jugglers is not catching. But throwing. Initiating. Contributing. Caring. Showing up. Shipping out. And soon we will spend far less time worrying about catching in the first place.

 

A project gone sideways, the end of a rocky relationship, the loss of a crucial game etc all leads us to think about what happened at the last moment, which is where we miss the wood for the trees. Actually, what is overlooked is what happened in the beginning or the middle, where the patterns could have been picked up, where one could have distilled the signal from the noise, when you had a stronger chance to make things better.

 

“Life is a juggling act with your own emotions. The trick is to always keep something in your hand and something in the air.”

Chloe Thurlow, Katie in Love

 

 

 

 

 

Probably the blog caption runs counter to the perceived wisdom that is floating around a k a that growth and learning are Conjoined twins. And we are besieged by a culture that offers pride of place to addition– adding things to life which effectively means the default remains-once onboarded, it becomes identity, which you are not expected to edit, expand or update. There is nothing inherently wrong with adding. But if it becomes a default path to improvement, that may be failing to consider a whole class of other opportunities​.

 

The best films are exceptional NOT because of what we see but because of what we don’t see. More reading for those who might see relevance in this can be found at https://www.sureshdinakaran.com/blog/2024/08/20/wanted-editor-in-chief-for-life-3/

 

It is said that half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.

 

“We are what we are because we have been what we have been.” “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” “To become what one is, one must not have the faintest idea what one is.” “Self-knowledge is not knowledge but a story one tells about oneself.” These curated quotes from the likes of Sigmund Freud, Lao-Tzu, Friedrich Nietzsche & Simone De Beauvoir, in that order, beautifully summarises the strong co relation between deficiency and identity.

The deficiency=identity syndrome!

” I can never learn Spanish, I don’t have an ear for languages “.. ” Risk taking and number crunching is not my forte, I can never be an entrepreneur “. Because such thinking highlighting deficiencies is highly robust and powerfully self-reinforcing, they begin to become our identity. 

 

And because the belief is so deep rooted, you will do everything in your power to come in your own way and not learn and fail at learning the new language or embark on the journey of being a business person. Such self-sabotage acts as a virtual loop going back to strengthen the original belief. Time to realise that ‘ the obstacle is the way ‘.

 

The caveat here is that unlearning is not a walk in the park. Having a guide or a coach as a partner in rhyme who will help you wear a new lens and hoover out what has rigidly domiciled in the recesses of your mind will be handy.

 

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

 

Clint Eastwood: “What you put into life is what you get out of it”.

 

Maya Angelou: “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have” .

 

The body achieves what the mind believes. It’s the will, not the skill. So, keep going! No matter how hard things may get, it’s important to keep going – a skill takes time to achieve and nurture, the most important thing is to be consistent and the results will come.

 

Because personal growth is a long-term effort, you’re bound to encounter obstacles along the way. Whether you’re pursuing a new dream, working hard toward ongoing goals or making a plan to transform your life in some way, you’re bound to encounter challenges along the way. But those challenges could be a gateway to growth and new opportunities. As Ryan Holiday mentioned with a book by the name ” The Obstacle is the Way “, the path to your next and best is somewhere in those obstacles.

 

The law of attraction and manifestation is a two way street.

 

Want to have committed people around you? You stick to your commitment!

Expect reliability from others first by being reliable.

Earn trust first and then expect others to become trustworthy.

Attitude precedes outcomes. The desire for six-pack abs is far weaker than an attitude for training.

Be ready to die empty! There is always a tomorrow but all our tomorrows are finite. We will run out of them. Give all that it takes to do the things that brightens your day. Today. And day after day. The returns will surprise you. And pleasantly at that.

 

Abundance is a dance with reciprocity – what we can give, what we can share, and what we receive in the process- Terry Tempest Williams