Tiny Little Changes

Three frogs sit on a log.  One decides to jump off.  How many are left?

Three.  It only decided.  Action comes next.

Look before you leap, but by golly, leap with the joy of decision.

At a Wellesley College commencement speech when she was New York City Commissioner of Human Rights, Eleanor Holmes Norton said:

“The question has been asked, “What is a woman?” A woman is a person who makes choices. A woman is a dreamer. A woman is a planner. A woman is a maker, and a molder. A woman is a person who makes choices. A woman builds bridges. A woman makes children and makes cars. A woman writes poetry and songs. A woman is a person who makes choices. You cannot even simply become a mother anymore. You must choose motherhood. Will you choose change? Can you become its vanguard?”

You can chose change, or you can let it happen, but you cannot avoid it.

What holds you back?  Is it fear of success or fear of failure?  Perhaps the truth is neither, that the real fear is that someone else will try to decide for you.  Hold on to your own accomplishment, for you have given everyone what they wanted – a base for their untethered opinion.

Life is a complex system.  A factory floor, not so much.  Yet the question we are still asking is how do we perform better on the factory floor?  As the scope has increased, the answers have changed.  With a product line is one thing, within a broad mix, another.  Still another when we include the offices, go beyond the walls, the property, the community, the town, until finally, we ask, how do we perform better in the complex system we call life?

To know one’s mind, now that is genius.  It’s the intelligence of opinion management.

At the intersection of two opinions, the chosen path forward depends on the curiosity to find the common ground or the rigidity that creates defence, denial and debate.  Will you take the path of destruction or greet the occasion with joy and dance down the road of discovery?

If the key to solving depression is being angry in the moment, not repressing it only to try to find it and drag it out years later, it makes effective and efficient sense to feel in the moment.  Of course, the reason we repress, redirect and rationalize anger away is because we think we cannot feel it in the moment.  When we sense it, and allow ourselves to feel it, it passes quickly.  Now, you have the sense to figure out what to do about it.

Swap logic for emotion. Don’t be more efficient and effective – be more passionate. Don’t be disciplined – be in tune.

I was going to bag off work early today, go to the library and get some movies.  As I left, the doorknob almost came off in my hand.   Guess no movies.  It does remind me of the day I was getting my iron ring, and another apartment door knob came off, locking me inside.  Not for long.  Quitting time was only another hour away.  I’ll put in an extra.

When you need help it comes to you.  When you have to ask for help, look for why.  There is nothing wrong with needing it and getting it, but there is everything wrong with forcing it to happen.  Don’t light yourself on fire by taking on more than you can handle, ignoring where life is trying to take you or pretending you have it all under control.