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Shiny Nickels
“I am never gonna think my way into being a shiny new nickel. I have to go out and do something about it.” –Anonymous New ways of thinking and paradigm shifts are hardly ever birthed out of our new thinking alone. Self-reflection is powerful, but it is rarely enough. Real change is experiential, and it starts with discomfort. Like a few grains of sand in our shoe. Something doesn’t quite work the way it used to. It doesn’t feel right. Maybe we’ve changed. Maybe the situation has changed. Maybe we’ve gotten new information. Maybe…all of the above. Whatever the reason, what once was okay is no longer. Our period of discontent may last moments or…
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Other Duties As Assigned
Life happens. Unless you own your own business, the details of your resume are subject to change without notice or permission. This is particularly true large organizations. Decisions are made that affect individuals’ lives without input of those that are impacted. Sometimes it’s referred to as a realignment of work (rather sterile). Other times, it’s the more generous “opportunity for development”. Regardless of how it’s packaged, apple carts are upended. We can go from being an expert to a novice with a mouse click. Our initial reaction is fear. We wonder how we will learn it all. Will we look foolish? Can we perform to the level that’s expected by others? By ourselves? Some of us are plagued with self-sufficiency. Like perfectionism, self-sufficiency is a deficit…
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This Too Shall Pass
My friend hurt his back a couple of days ago. He had breezed through a tough workout at the gym and was doing some simple task at home when he “tweaked” his back. In the course of our conversation, I offered my sympathy and reminded him that the pain was “only temporary”. Everything is after all. Even good stuff. The temporary nature of everything is one of those proverbial good news/bad news things. Good news, it’s only temporary! Bad news…it’s only temporary. As a culture, we place considerable value on permanence. We prize owning over leasing…tenure over annually renewable contracts. We even prefer our best friends to be forever. We approach new or…
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Cannot or Can?
The three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you. – Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow There are times when you read something, and it’s like stepping on a rake. Knocks you square between the eyes. We can’t change the past. No matter how much we’d like to distance ourselves from our epic fails, they remain ours. Sure, viewing them as a gift or lesson converts yesterday’s liabilities into today’s assets, but nothing can change the circumstances. Another way the past is fixed is that there is no way to go back to it. No matter how special or magical or perfect a time seems in the rearview, the only…
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Once Upon A Time
Everybody loves a narrative. We talk in terms of our life stories. Really, it’s a bunch of little stories all woven together. Some are long; they can span decades. Others last only moments. But every human interaction contains a narrative. It is what we seek and what mean when we say we’ve made a connection. We are so attuned to narratives that we search for them everywhere–saying “that cloud looks like an old woman with an umbrella” or “when she talks to me like that, I feel like a little child.” Everything is relative to the stories we tell ourselves and others. This picture we paint is also the basis of affinity groups. It is their common narrative that brings groups of people…
