Just Filling In Time and Space Here …

You cannot receive joy from life itself, unless you really decide it.  

Life just gives you time and space:  It’s up to you to fill it.

Chinese Proverb

Well, this is a pretty good starter kit:)

Now …

What are you filling your time and your space with?

What are you receiving back for what you do?

As a leader, how are you helping others to use their time and space effectively?

Trying to make good use of what I already have in the Heartland ….

John

Home Is Where The Heart Is …

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.”

Blaise Pascal (15th century mathematician and religious philosopher)

… and we think we’ve just discovered the role of emotions in decision-making🙂

Emotions can affect and even create our decisions, which we then justify with rationality.   Here’s one example of how this sounds:

“I shouldn’t eat those cookies.”

“I want to eat those cookies, because I’m lonely.”

“I have had a very tough week and I deserve a treat.”

“Eating a few cookies will make me feel better.”

“I’m only going to eat a few.”

“I only ate half the box.”

“They tasted really good.”

“They would have spoiled if I hadn’t eaten them.”

“Now I feel guilty.”

(and repeat) “I shouldn’t eat those cookies.” 

But don’t take my word for it …

Harvard Kennedy School Emotion and Decision Making Group

Emotion and Decisions

How Our Emotions Can Affect Our Decision-Making Ability 

As leaders, we are not immune to this.  We just have to be aware that our emotions often drive our decisions and evaluate our thinking accordingly.

Sometimes, our emotions are telling us something important that the facts just do not address.  Sometimes they are are just making us hungry for a whole bunch of cookies.

Looking for a box of cookies to “sample” in the Heartland ….

John

I Forgive You, Maybe …

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Alexander Pope  in An Essay on Criticism (1711) Part II, Line 325

Topped only by Shakespeare and Tennyson in frequence of  in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Pope was an interesting person in his own right.  Read more about the man by clicking on his name above.

This well-known quote must appear on millions of hand-sewn doilies and wall hangings.   I have often heard this  cited to support someone’s fervent request for forgiveness, using the implication that the person forgiving them for whatever they have done is acting in a divine or godly manner.

Being viewed as a god for a simple act is quite an enticement to be benevolent:)

 So why do we find forgiveness so hard to give sometimes?  Several possibilities come to mind:

 

1)  We view forgiveness as an expression of weakness on our part.  

Wouldn’t want to appear soft, would we?   When we forgive, we are risking ourselves by extending mercy to another.  Some might take advantage of our good will.

2)  Forgiveness requires us to actually forgive.

While we can forgive without forgetting, as the saying goes, some of us find letting go of our righteous indignation at being wronged hard to do.   It just feels so good to be publicly hurt.

3)   Maybe we see forgiveness as somehow unfair.

Lots of folks demanding accountability and revenge these days.   We may think that behavior demands reaction, crime results in punishment, and those who ask for forgiveness should learn the hard lesson of consequences.

Well, if these are some reasons not to forgive, how about some reasons to do exactly that?

1)  Forgiveness works both ways.  

The forgiver receives as much and possibly more than the one forgiven.

2)  Mercy often begets reciprocal mercy.  

Those who forgive may be just as in need of forgiveness.  Let us be alert to that.

3)   Forgiveness is a more humane path to follow than that of payback or punishment.

Dudes, it’s just the right thing to do.

As always, your choice on where you end up about forgiving and forgiveness.  What makes more sense  to you?  What have I conveniently ignored or forgotten?  

Trying to be a more forgiving person in order to be forgiven in the Heartland ….

John

Strength in Words …

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”

Edward Bulwer-Lytton  in Richelieu (1839), Act ii, Scene ii

This is such a popular saying that I wonder how the defense budget gets funded each year.  The pen here represents words, which convey ideas, which in turn inspire us to change.   The sword represents change by force of arms.

Guess which one is generally thought more effective in the long run?  Empires, Corporations, and Great Men come and go, while ideas and values tend to stay for a longer period.

How do you and how does your organization create change:  through force of ideas or through force of arms?

Two important things to remember here:

1)  We say we favor one thing, but our actions support another much of the time.  

If we really think the pen is mightier than the sword, we need to live that out in our decisions and our actions.

2)  The real strength of the pen depends on what you write with that pen.  

Words and ideas are powerful, but easily misused or misdirected …

Trying to think very carefully about what to write in the Heartland ….

John 

“In Heaven, There is no Beer … For Good Reason”

“In heaven all the interesting people are missing.”

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

For a stuffy old moralist and religious philosopher, Nietzsche had some wit about him.

What Nietzsche appears to be saying:

Bad people are more interesting than good people.

If current television and films are any indication, this is a resounding “Yes!”.   We are fascinated not so much by those who are good

At the very least, we want our characters conflicted.   The “too good to be true”  person is usually as one-dimensional or even as a sacrificial character, someone who will not make it to the end of the story.

Severus Snape is a good example.  We love to hate the guy, even though he turns out to be a hero in the end.   I’ll bet your favorite Snape scene is NOT when he is being good:).

It’s more fun to be bad than to be good.

Well, isn’t it:)?

Those who embrace their badness completely are envied sometimes, because they give in to their baser impulses so completely.   Most of us have some desire to do that, to give in, and just be bad.

We don’t, of course.  But sometimes we secretly resent doing the right thing.

Bad people go to hell (are punished).

Well, this may be true or not, depending on your theology.

Whether you believe in a physical, metaphorical, or emotional eternal place of damnation, the point is that we tend to want those who enjoy 1 and 2 above to be punished for it.

If being bad does not result in some unthinkable fate, like having to listen to “Itsy Bitsy Yellow Polka Dot Bikini“ forever, then why be good?   We want justice.

So what do YOU think?   Is this what Nietzsche was implying or am I all wet?

Trying to decide whether to be bad or good in the Heartland ….

John

Footnotes:  

About that “Itsy Bitsy … Bikini” reference – In the film “One, Two, Three”  set in the Cold War, the evil East German Communists torture a captured “spy” by playing this song without stopping for hours and hours.  Well, it was really funny then.

 

About the title – “In Heaven There Is No Beer” is a well-known unofficial song of most US colleges and a bouncy little tune it is:)   Read the historical facts on Wikipedia.

 

The image is by Fra Angelico of “The Last Judgement, Hell” circa 1431