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.
It is the idea that you can offer great advice to help solve other people’s problems but struggle to accept the same advice for yourself.
Which makes sense when you think about it. When we are not emotionally attached to the outcome, we are much better at being objective in our thoughts. However, when you’re in it and feel the pain and discomfort to making a difficult decision, we look for another alternative to avoid and procrastinate.
For thousands of years, there was no such thing as a paid muscian. You made music cause you want to.
It turns out, the latin root of Amateur comes from the verb Amare, meaning “to love.”
Today, the word ametuer has a twist with the negative conitation of unable to do something that you love for money.
When we look what do we find at the center of it all: money or love? And I fear, we have an identity crisis on our hands.
Josh Allred's Blog 