Force

Some things must be forced.
However, all things will break
Compassion must reign

The positive focus

I strive to keep the positive focus. That’s where I keep my compass pointed towards. Yet, it’s too easy to get wrapped up in petty squabbles. The amount of energy sucked up by this amazes me. And it damages relationships, creating frictions and distrust. Others see your biases and believe you’re seeing their view as lesser. Judging others tends to only damage relationships.

Somehow, we need to engage each other’s differences in ways that build and grow relationship, not further fracture our already divided society. Keeping our discussions centered upon respect and dignity is key. Also, avoiding rhetorical failures, these key logical fallacies will be crucial. Stay on point and avoid defensive responses. Remember that the goal isn’t to “win”, rather fund a way forward.

My word of the day: multipotentialite

For most of my adult life, I’ve felt pulled to choose a specialty. And I’ve tried, dozens, maybe hundreds of times. As each time has resulted in failure, I realized, some time ago, that my varied and rich perspective is a valuable thing. Oddly, I never really considered my multi-faceted focus to be a good thing, just that good things had come from this. I admired the great work done by the specialists and really only saw myself supporting that work. Not that I had a creative and powerful perspective to add. However, after this TEDTalk, I see otherwise.

Ms. Warnick talks of multipotentialites, people with a variety of interests and passions. These people work those into skills. Something richer than simply generalists supporting the more valuable specialists. People whose brains work like mine. And, most importantly (to me at least) that this is good. That we have a great deal to offer the world. Considering the multi-faceted issues that our world faces, we have a particularly critical viewpoint to offer.

So, I offer you this video. One that has transformed my personal view of the world, my life and my definition of my “life’s work”.

 

Silence

Silence’s power
Ancient echoes carried forth
Wind blowing through trees

Always Emotion, The Stock Markets

Was just reading a lending market update which included a note about the puzzling behavior of the stock market last week. Faced with a number of positive economic indicators, the market sold off pretty heavily. Well, with my time at Fortune 500s, I’ve seen this before. I learned a long-time ago that Wall Street, the stock-markets and prices of such things is driven, on a day-to-day basis primarily by emotion. This also feeds into the quarter by quarter mentality of most stock valuation. Time and time again, in most markets, it’s those with long-term views and understanding that do well. This is true in real estate as well. If you can shift your view out 5, 10, 20 years in the future, you can escape the variability of these emotionally based fluctuations.

Emptiness: A Meditation

image

Echoing within
A gnawing pit of emptiness,
Resisted, feeling.