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Hot and Tasty
Recently, I was the recipient of an opinion survey from an organization with which I do business. To protect the innocent, let’s say the questions went something like this… Were the biscuits hot and tasty? Was the room clean and comfortable? Would you stay here again or recommend the property? With any of these questions, it’s impossible to know what I was really thinking by my answer. Perhaps I found the biscuits to be pleasantly warm from the oven, but alas, not so delicious. How do I answer? Unfortunately, surveyors make the common mistake of combining questions with conjunctions rather than parsing them out (e.g. Were the biscuits hot? Were the biscuits tasty?). Why do these combo…
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Think Big. Aim Small.
Aiming small may seem counterintuitive in a world of Play-Off games, New York Times Best Seller lists, and Zagat’s reviews. Our society continually seeks to identify the best of the best. In fact the web is full of listicles gone viral — 10 Quick Ways to Simplify Your Life, 7 Most Annoying Habits of Air Travelers, 21 Funniest Cat Videos — which serve to underscore that what you do isn’t valuable unless it is acknowledged by a million likes. But there’s a cheat in that tenet; it’s impossible to connect meaningfully with millions. I can’t look into the eyes of a million people and see them deeply. I can’t have the divinity of my nature recognize the divinity of theirs. It’s not possible. I am…
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Encouragement
Courage – noun The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery This week I’ve been thinking about courage and what prompts people to act. The word courage comes from the Old French (cuer) and the Latin (cor) meaning heart. In fact, one of the obsolete definitions for courage is “the heart as the source of emotion”. It could be said that having courage, or being courageous, is acting with heart. The heart is where our passion and convictions come from. It’s the source of our deepest love. Continuing to extend the definition-being courageous is taking the risk to act…
