Posts Tagged ‘balance’

The Opposite of Change

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Everyone seems to agree that Change is tough and challenging; that people tend to avoid it where possible.  Business leaders are supposed to drive it but can tend to prefer to avoid it where possible.   However, I don’t recall having ever heard anyone arguing that stagnation is good. 

The thing is that people and businesses are a in a constant state of flux, as humans we spend the first part of our lives growing up, then growing older and at some point this changes to becoming old.  Our products, our systems, out ideas all go through exactly this process.

Perhaps if we spent less time debating it and trying to ‘manage’ it, and a little more being it and becoming it, we might make a little more progress…. What do you think?

“I learned that the richness of life is found in adventure. . . . It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. There is stagnation only in security.”   William Orville Douglas

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Living in the Now versus Investing for the Future

Monday, May 19th, 2008

“All I know is: our Chinese live in the expectation. Expectation, is that the word close to Future? The farmers grow their rice in the spring, and they water it and expect it grow every day. The rice sprouts turn into green and the rice pole grow up taller. Then summer comes and the farmers look forward to grain growing bigger. Then the autumn harvest and the grain becomes golden. Their expectation is nearly fulfilled, but not complete. After the harvest they separate the straw and millet. The straw goes to the shepherd’s pens or the pig’s yard, and the millet goes to the market for sale. All this is so that a family can have better life in the winter and in the coming Spring Festival. In the winter they burn the roots and grass on the fields to nourish the soil for next year’s re-plant. Everything is for the next step. So look this nature, life is about the expectation, but not about now, not about today, or tonight. So you can’t only live in today, that will be the doom day.” Xiaolu Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

I thought the above extract was rather interesting as it crystallised something for me. We are always being encouraged to “Live in the Now!“, which I have always considered something of a challenge. I have had friends who have considered “Being spontaneous” as a higher state of being. The thing is that real life requires us to find a balance between these two extreme states. It is a “Both… And” world not an “Either..or” one.

Of course we should be as fully present in the moment as we can be, but we have to make time to plant seeds for tomorrow too. Finding this balance, and shifting our energy and attention appropriately is the challenge.

So today’s challenge is Be Present Now…. And act in the awareness that the choices you make in this instant are already determining you future, so make sure it is a future you wish to live through!

“Don’t let the past steal your present.” Cherralea Morgen

“We had to learn…that it did not really matter what we expected from life but rather what life expected from us.” Viktor Frankl

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Duty… it is all in the Balance

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Duty (from “due,” that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, did, past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. debt) is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action, and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognizes a duty, that person commits himself/herself to the cause involved without considering the self-interested courses of actions that may have been relevant previously.

All of us have a variety of duties that come with the various relationships and positions we have and hold; we are citizens, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, employees, bosses etc. If we look at the French root of the word duty it comes from devoir which refers to things we have to do.

As we move into adulthood we acquire certain rights (freedoms) and duties (obligations), and it is not unusual for us to proclaim the former and curse the latter. I don’t know about you but sometimes life seems to provide less and less space wherein we have freedom to choose how we dispose of our free moments and hard-earned pennies. Money itself is interesting, because having it buys us freedom and choices, but the earning of it so often ensnares us!

One of the key things about Life, and also Change, is that we like to feel that we have an option whether we do something or not. Duty tells us we have to! However, amidst our net of duties there are conflicts and balances to be struck. How do we offset the duty we owe our clients against that we owe our spouse; or those owed to our children against those to our parents? Here we each find our own recipe for balance.

If you are finding yourself overburdened by duties to others, chances are you have not factored yourself adequately into the equation. On this long, holiday weekend, learn from Sisyphus1, lay down your boulder and take a little space for yourself. You will serve others so much better on Tuesday!

“Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort” Humphrey Davy

“A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation.” Bertrand Russell
 

 

Resources:

  1. Sisyphus, cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill

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