Showing all posts in The Point

Many conflicts don’t get squared without some scuffle. Someone ignores some important courtesy. Someone else takes offense or sustains injury. The offender ignores the polite call for help. Sabers rattle. Pistols come out of their holsters. The tavern piano player stops playing.

Things only calm down when the offended, injured party kindly asks for peace. Peacefulness requires that we win friendships, not brawls. We must forgive, rebuild burnt bridges, and build new bridges. That’s the only gratifying conclusion. But, that doesn’t mean sabers shouldn’t rattle. Winning peace requires something that will get everyone’s attention. But, it still ends with peace.  · · · →

Nonsense is no moral roadmap. You can’t infuse yourself with both poison and wisdom, then experience a satisfied life. So much in our world of failed advisors is nonsense. Nonsense is all a failure can teach. One of the biggest oxymorons ever is an “economics professor”; if the teacher truly understood economics, the teacher wouldn’t have a job, especially working for a bureaucratic university. That’s just nonsense.

The smokescreen is a classic confusion tactic in military and police strategy. Nonsense only blinds. So-called “wisdom” from a failure is as nourishing as bubble gum. It tastes sweet, but clogs your system.  · · · →

Getting a fix on your location can be hard when we don’t want to face the ugly truth about where we really are. Maybe you don’t want to know where you are in life because it would say something bad about someone else in your life—the truth about where that person is in life. But, navigation requires knowing your location.

Mirrors are good, as every musician, dancer, and actor knows. They give us a fix on the status we need in order to navigate. But, don’t just look at it every once in a while, keep watch on it.  · · · →

It’s not our weaknesses which determine our ability to work with others; it’s our strengths. Strengths cover our weaknesses, but that is not to say that covering a weakness makes a team strong. Somewhere, a team must carry all different, necessary strengths somewhere among its team members. Whether those strengths compensate for a weakness somewhere on the team is irrelevant; it is the recipe of strengths that leads a team to its victory.

How much time is wasted on evaluating people’s weaknesses or need to improve? As you improve and grow, remember: We get more of whatever we focus on.  · · · →