The start of the calendar is an invisible starting line. To motivate ourselves to fix what’s broken, to change what can be changed, to do what must be done.
But we cannot see a real starting line. We create it out convenience to start the next leg of the race. We can use the calendar to flip the script, but finding another reason to begin again each day is just as effective.
Use it if it’s helpful, but more importantly, use it again when it stops working the first time.
There are intentional mistakes. And, of course, on the other end, unintentional. The curious thing is how often we claim unintentional consequences.
Car accidents happen all the time, unfortunately fatal ones. But the difference is that we don’t believe they’ll happen to us.
We believe we are the exception to the rule, that somehow we will escape death. Intentional is starting with the facts.
The truth is difficult to find.
What’s surprising, however, is how few of us want to seek it.
When you read Western classic literature, poetry, or stoicism, you can learn something about humanity—that we are connected to what humans experience.
The thing about lessons is they will continue to appear until we learn them.
Without a mirror, it was very difficult to see what you looked like. You likely could only see a reflection of yourself in water or off an object.
Unless you know what life was like before cell phones, you be surprised how inconvient getting aroudn was.
Its hard to transport ourselves back in time with the modern day technology. We forget how slow the internet was when it first started, what printing 30 pages of Map Quest was like, and just “Google” it wasn’t in daily conversation.
The problem when designing policies, we struggle in measuring effort of those around us. We tend to assume the worst out of people. We perceive our efforts as twice as productive as someone else.
The fact is, life is inherently unfair. Born to particular parents, with a specific condition, or living in extreme circumstances, the list is endless.
What’s more effective is seeing how hard it is just to get through it, much less trying to thrive in it.
Imagination is perhaps human beings best asset. Without it, we never could invent knowledge, the printing press, or the wheel.
Its also the source of so much unhappiness. We imagine the worst case scenario, tell ourselves the worst kind of story…
If we can imagine ourselves at our worst, then it is also to imagine at our best.
A ship captain doesn’t cross the Atlantic hoping they will not encounter bad weather. You expect it and prepare.
So why do organizations believe they won’t have conflict? I would argue that when they receive bad news, most bosses appear shocked that something could happen. They forget that is why they’re their in the first place—to solve problems.
Self-checkout might work 99% of the time, but businesses still need someone to solve problems. CEOs don’t take the same approach.
That’s why innovative organizations hire an ombudsmen. Someone with extensive domain knowledge who is present to solve problems as they arise. Sometimes through mediation. Newspapers (before they started cutting budgets) used to have an ombudsman to resolve journalism ethics issues and to promote accuracy and fairness.
Your organization may not support hiring an ombudsmen, but we need more than a suggestion box collecting dust. Perhaps you can choose yourself. If not, who is?
Latin for “sweeter after difficulties.”
Being a doctor means going through medical school, and being an author means wrestling with rejections and editing.
The path is hard, no matter which we choose. And sometimes, we have the privilege of choosing our own path.
The moves we make are so much more difficult when physical safety is on the line. This is what rock climbing can teach us.
It turns out the perception, for example, when one loses a job, you can equate this to you’re going to die. But, of course, that’s not true.
We need to be clear about what is on the line in the face of adversity.
Josh Allred's Blog 