Expand Your Mind: Take These Personally
by Miki Saxon
The links I’m sharing today are meant to be taken personally. They are about you and others in your world, so you may want to share them.
A couple of weeks ago I pointed you to a discussion that HBS professor Jim Heskett had initiated questioning the 24/7 style of today’s work. The forum is closed and Heskett has summarized the results based on comments that are well worth reading.
“There is a lot wrong with the way we work… (…) But ultimately the primary culprit is us.”
Following that came an essay on busyness to which I really related. Busy seems to be the new black, but you may want to consider varying your wardrobe.
They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.
Now take a look at why living optimistically (not touchy-feely everything is wonderful) has real health benefits and the follow-up real-world example.
“…optimism is not about being positive so much as it is about being motivated and persistent.”
Years ago I wrote Being “Special” Can Ruin Your Children’s Lives and then watched as Millennials graduated college and entered the workforce with no clue that there was more to it than showing up and trying. In a high school commencement speech the speaker told students that they were neither special nor exceptional, but that did not change their value (you can see the entire speech here).
I wonder if there is any room for the ordinary any more, for the child or teenager — or adult —…who will be a good citizen but won’t set the world on fire.
— we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement,” he told the students and parents. “We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.”
Personally, I believe there is not only plenty of room, but also great need.
We are of enormous value in our own world as well as the world at large.
Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho
