Nonlinearity means that the act of playing the game has a way of changing the rules.*
James Gleick
That’s what changes us. Tension is the feeling we experience just before we grow.**
Seth Godin
If you wonder what you will become,
What others will become,
What the world will become,
You are an apprentice–
Of course you may insulate yourself
and settle for mastery.
*Quoted in Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In The Transitions;
**Seth Godin’s blog: “Please create more tension”.
I have said that man does not care for pleasure and happiness but rather for that which causes these effects.*
Viktor Frankl
We all ultimately yearn to feel that something became better because of our contribution. And that maybe, potentially, hopefully, we helped someone in need.*
gapingvoid
What if we are here to do good,
And in this we find both our meaning and pleasure,
Each of us having something unrepeatable to bring?
*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor And The Soul;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Ritz-Carlton Was Right. Karl Marx Was Wrong.
SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO
When you’re beholding someone, you’re seeing the richness of this particular human consciousness, the full symphony – how they perceive and create their life.*
David Brooks
Goodness isn’t something that going to be delivered in the mail. You have to dig it up inside your own soul. You find it within your own thoughts, and you make it with your own actions.**
Ryan Holiday
Everyone is worthy
of being beheld, including you–
Don’t forget to behold yourself.
You will find deep veins
of your particular and peculiar
goodness to share.
*David Brooks’ How To Know A Person;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.
When you write something down or create an image of it, that thing becomes real to the mind and body. You are giving it power and attention.*
Jean Houston
Jean Houston’s The Wizard Of Us.
But to be what I am, to live, to want to sound like no one else, to yield the blossoms dictated by my heart: this is what I want and surely this cannot be arrogance.*
Rainer Maria Rilke
*Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters On Life (w).
Getting it right the first time. How unlikely is this? … Evolution is powerful. It gives us a chance to revise, edit, and do what works while removing what doesn’t. … Got it wrong the first time? Then make it better.*
Seth Godin
Perhaps we think of ourselves
on the human evolution timeline,
A small life lived against a background
of big numbers–
Nothing changes much on a scale such as this,
But our lives are all about evolution–
When we mess up or fall short
or find it hard to learn or struggle
to control our emotions or grow an attitude,
Here’s another day to try
yet another way to better–
Forgiveness is an incredible human power.
*Seth Godin’s blog: Getting it right the first time.
The cause of irritation – or our notion that something is bad – that comes from us, from our labels and expectations.*
Ryan Holiday
Honesty is reached through the doorway of grief and loss. Where we cannot go in our mind, our memory or our body is where we cannot be straight with another, with the world, or with our self.**
David Whyte
I can jump to a conclusion very well
from my many years of training
in blaming something “out there”–
Though sometimes it is,
If I take a moment more
to check “inside here”
I may find a desire to have my own way,
To control the outcome,
For my assumptions to be realised–
Sometimes a moment allows
to see what is and desires to emerge–
And in this moment I am gifted
with growth.
*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**David Whyte’s Consolations.
People do much better when they don’t think they’re being artists…if you don’t call it art, you’re likely to get a better result.* Brian Eno
The thing you do–
And usually call work, or a job–
It may be worth asking–
How can I do this more artistically?
You may be surprised–
I won’t be.
*Quoted in Austin Kleon’s Don’t Call It Art.
Characters in stories are trying to accomplish what we are all trying to accomplish in our lives. They desire, as we do, to expand, preserve, and enhance the self as a powerful and autonomous agent in the world, and to relate, merge, and surrender the self to other selves within a loving and intimate community.* Dan McAdams
A little thin|silence–
A counterpoint to your uniqueness and delight–
A helpsake to your day–
Nothing more, nothing less.
*Dan McAdam’s The Stories We Live By.
If there were no problems, it wouldn’t be much fun.* Alan Lightman
The world is full of particular opportunities and experiences that can change our lives…Acceptance of reality is the only choice that can result in making meaning and finding our way to being fully alive.** Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Is this a real problem?
Is it my/our problem?
Do I/we accept the problem?
What is it teaching me/us?
Am I/we the problem/part of the problem?
What kind of opportunity is this?
What do I/we bring to the problem?
It’s never just a problem.
*Alan Lightman’s A Sense Of The Mysterious; Bill Burnett and Dave Evans’ How To Live A Meaningful Life.
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