Month: December 2006

Q: Which is your seesaw balance?

Posted on by Senia

One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good – he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad – he and the world is destroyed.
~ Maimonides

People have different axes along which they find balance. Most people feel when they are in balance about many axes in their lives. The above quote is about feeling the moral balance, and leaning in the good direction. People can also feel balance, for example, in these parts of their lives:

  • Physical
  • Mental
  • Emotional
  • Adventure
  • Alone-time
  • Fun vs. Work

And in each case, people can lean towards the good direction of balance. For example, if you wanted to feel YOUR OWN VERSION OF BALANCE (and I think balance is very personal) in “Fun vs. Work,” then you might resonate well with these words:

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
~ Robert Fulghum

If you wanted to keep your balance in the physical part of you, you might aim to get to the gym more, to eat more healthy foods. Different people have different needs for balance.

Today’s Question:
In which part of your life do you feel it is most important for you to have balance – and then after that, other things fall into place?

Specifically, your answer might be “stress balance” – when you have enough stress to keep you challenges but not too much so that you go nuts, that may be the optimal stress balance. It might be “alone-time balance,” a good balance between doing things on your won and with friends. Your answer might be “mental balance,” a good balance of being challenged mentally and being calm mentally. It might be “moral balance,” a good balance of making the correct and right decisions in your life.

For me, as long as I do good things physically, and as Maimonides said, “with the scale tipped to the good,” then the other parts of my life fall in line. Which balance is most important for you?!

And let’s end with some very important thoughts on balance! Especially as the temperature is going to be in the 30’s in the Northeast, in the U.S..

The balance of nature is reached when heating the house costs as much as going south for the winter.
~ James H. McGavran

When 95% of Your Brain Says Yes

Posted on by Senia

When everything else says, go, doubt says, stop.

A friend of mine has a big belief that people don’t do those things that they fear. He thinks fear is the most dangerous of all the beasts. Like an addiction, fear moves slowly, taking over a little bit, then a little more. When you are 95% sure, then the remaining 5% is doubt. Doubt is ok. Doubt and weighing options is why we can advance. Doubt, worry, caution – they all have a role in life.

And then at some point, you just have to let all of them go.
Just let the other 5% go.
Just let it go, man.

The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
~ Maimonides

Just decide. When you are 95% sure of your decision, then let me tell you something, you are sure of your decision. It’s better to make the hop. It’s better to act than to spend the day, the hour, the minute CONCERNED about not deciding. Concerned?! Who wants to spend his life concerned?

“What did you do in your life?”
“Well, I spent a lot of time beign concerned… and, um, I spent a lot of time worrying too. Some good worrying time. And then I accomplished this, this, and this.”

Who wants to spend time being concerned? Yes, yes, yes, YES! There are things that take a long time to figure out, but then once you’ve figured them out…
JUMP.

Do. Act. Live.
That’s all I mean. Don’t spend a significant part of your brainspace worrying about the 5% outlier effect. Act. Live.

Making a decision was the most important thing that my favorite professor in business school always told us as students to do, “Make a decision. The CEO needs to make firm decisions fast.”

And the most important thing after you are at the 95% sure threshold, and you are about to jump… don’t look back. Don’t WASTE your life in saying, “Well, I did have that 5% that I wasn’t certain about, so maybe that’s why this entire project went wrong.” No, that’s not why.

Once you make the decision to go, then just go. It’s as if you mentally rip away from all the disputing quotes in your head that are holding you tied to the mental torture cahmber of doubt and concern. Just go. And make an active decision that if you look back on this decision, it’s something you wanted to go into. It’s a path you want to take. Don’t sabotage your success by turning back, and looking over your shoulder. You will turn into salt if you’re looking back and not forward. Even the peacock faces forward these days. :)

Will Smith on Aristotle

Posted on by Senia

Will Smith is starring in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” and in this article, he says that he read a lot about happiness in preparing for the movie. Will Smith says he liked best what Aristotle said about happiness:

“I’ve been reading a lot about what is happiness, and I feel Aristotle had the best idea,” the 38-year-old actor said while seated in the stately wood-paneled McCormick Room atop Tribune Tower. “He broke it down in the Nicomachean Ethics. Like for me it feels directly and inexorably connected to self-esteem.

“So I always explain it as: Think of yourself as two people, and one of them is inside of you, and he’s a scorekeeper. And he keeps score of your idea of the world. … And when you have a conflict with your scorekeeper, that’s unhappiness. Happiness is being completely in sync” — he slapped his palms together — “with your own perception of goodness.”

Agreed.