You're Great! Therefore, You're Afraid.

The most talented people often have the most anxiety and fear. And there's a reason for that. Once it's understood, it can be overcome.

First, some background. In an airport bookstore a week or two ago, I bought a fascinating book, The Work: My Search for a Life that Matters, by Wes Moore. He's the author of a previous bestseller, The Other Wes Moore, whose story is that he found out about another young man who was around his age, living just blocks away in the same tough neighborhood, who had the same name, and who had experienced a very different path in life. When our author, Wes Moore, was graduating from Valley Forge Military Academy, and Johns Hopkins University, and going off to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and then working as a trader in financial services in London before serving in Afghanistan as a Captain in the US Army, and then becoming a White House Fellow and working with Condoleezza Rice at the State Department, speaking at the Democratic Convention and on and on, the other Wes Moore, who shared such a similar childhood, was sitting in prison for life, convicted of murder. Our Wes Moore wanted to understand that. 

In the book I'm reading now, The Work, there are lots of great passages on life struggle and success. In one, Moore reflects on talent and fear and the importance of confidence. He writes, on page 155:

I began to recognize that the best decisions I had made in my life were the ones where I let go of fear and had confidence in myself, my training, and God. Ironically, each success fostered a momentary amnesia about its foundation. I found myself in a complicated place where the more "successful" I became, the more I clung to "safety," almost as if I'd completely forgotten most of the tenets that had made me successful in the first place.

He goes on to write, in the next paragraph, about a fellow Rhodes Scholar and says: 

He would joke with me about how sometimes the people with the most promise are also the most fearful, and in many cases fear is what keeps the promise from turning into action.

I've seen this in my own life and in the lives of countless people. Talent brings high expectations, and we become fearful of disappointing other people, as well as ourselves. What if we try and fail? What if I fall on my face? What if I give it my best shot and the world knocks me back on my butt? We think that would be terrible. We imagine it as monumentally embarrassing. It evokes in us a great fear. So we hesitate trying at all. We play it safe. And that prevents the success we could have had.

When we understand this dynamic, we can overcome it, as our high achieving Wes Moore has. There is no "safe" in life apart from using our gifts and talents to the full, regardless of whether the world seems to embrace or dismiss us. Rather than thinking about expectations and fearing disappointments, we should focus on possibilities, and pursue what we think is right, regardless of how we think it might work out. In the end, that mindset is even more important than talent, and is what Captain Wes Moore, or at least his counterparts in military strategy, might call a "force multiplier." Confidence is just the decision to go forth with what you have, and do whatever you can, for the good of others, and in fulfillment of your own potential in life.

When fear gives way to fortitude and faith, great and fortuitous things can happen.

Adversity. The Spice of Life.

Adversity. It's the spice of life.

That's a quote from the amazing film Haute Cuisine, as spoken by an elderly president of France, to his cook, at least as I remember it. If you haven't seen this little cinematic masterpiece of excellence, it's on Netflix streaming. It's a inspiring portrait of someone who really cares about what she's doing, and works as an artist. The observation about life from which we begin today was spoken to her as comforting advice when she confessed to having big troubles with government officials who suddenly stepped in, interfered with her work and insisted on cost savings, low calories, and no rich sauces for her boss.

Adversity. The Spice of Life. What does spice do? Well, it imparts flavor, interest, and sometimes even a gustatory version of drama. How gripping would life be without trouble, difficulty, and seemingly impossible obstacles? How many great tales could have the form "I tried a new path, and everything went just fine"? What would film, literature, or life be without conflict and challenge?

A life without adversity. It might be nice, for even a very long time, but it couldn't be heroic or adventurous or exciting. It would end up as a big yawn. Trouble challenges us. It forces us to be creative, persistent, and brave. It strengthens us. The worst pain I've ever experienced was at the same time an existential jolt of enlightenment that built my overall life confidence like nothing else ever had.

You win when you can smile at adversity, and even on occasion laugh in its face. You prevail when you can use it for your own growth, wisdom, and accomplishments. It's all about the right attitude and the right action. That's the standard philosophical formula. 

Take on the right attitude. Take the right action. The spice makes all the difference.

In proper measure, a dash of adversity may indeed be the energizing spice that enhances all the flavors of life. Bon Appetite!

A Slow Start. A Pause. An Improbability.

Some people come into the world like they've been shot out of a cannon. The rest of us, not so much. Some of us are slow starters. It takes us a while to find our path and to get moving along it. And many of us can find ourselves, after a vivid beginning, in an extended time of pause, where our forward momentum seems diminished, or even gone, and we appear stuck. Many of us struggle, to apparently no avail, and come to view any sort of qualitatively different, and better, future as a sadly immense improbability.

But we have to remember how many slow starters and late bloomers have gone on to tremendous success. It's amazing how often a long pause in life's journey has been the prelude to something great. And, ironically, it's astonishing how much the improbable actually happens, all the time, confounding everyone's expectations.

A book review in a recent Sunday New York Times, tells of a young man who wanted to be an artist, and who ended up, in his twenties, in a psychiatric asylum, which did not exactly bode well for his future. And then, when he was released, he seemed to have absolutely no prospects at all. To quote the reviewer:

"A 30-year-old with no money, no job, and no plan, van Gogh retreats to his parents' home."

Yeah. Vincent van Gogh. And the rest, as we love to say, is history.

There are countless such stories in our past. There will be just as many in our future, or more. So, if you feel that you're off to a slow start, in a job, or in life, or you think that destiny has hit the pause button on your career, or for your life, keep hope alive, keep believing, and keep your eyes wide open, looking for the next development that can make all the difference.

Your Starry Night, and next brightly sunlit day, may be just around the corner.

The Power of Perspective

Wisdom is always about attaining a proper perspective. Whatever challenge you might face, whatever situation might confront and even stymie you right now, there's a perspective available on it that will help you move forward productively and well. Once you've found that perspective, you can use it powerfully to help create the future that's best for you, or your business, or your family, or even in all ways.

Whenever I read a really good book and in it come across some amazing new perspectives on life, I ponder how many billions of people there are in the world, and how many interesting perspectives they may have on things that matter to me, and to all of us. I sometimes fantasize interviewing everyone on earth, one person at a time, and listening deeply to what they have to say. Sure, there are idiots and fools, simpletons and fanatics, and plenty of people full of hatred and delusion. But perhaps a minute or two safely spent with even their number would provide new perspectives that could be useful. And even though you'd think I was old enough to know better at age 62, I suspect that the fools and fanatics and monsters are actually a very small fraction of our fellows in this life. There are plenty of everyday sages that we could learn from, if we would just talk to them and hear what they've experienced.

Of course, none of us has the time or the means to talk to everyone alive. And we've already missed a lot by not talking to those who have come and gone before us. But we can make the most of the time and opportunities we do have by engaging the people who cross our paths, and actually listening and taking in what they say.

I learn from the people I sit next to on airplanes, from cab and limo drivers, from front desk clerks in hotels, from cooks and waiters, and from friends and neighbors, any time I can. And I'm sometimes amazed at how an offhand remark, or a story, I heard just from joining some stranger in conversation years ago, can still reverberate for me today, and enliven how I think of a new opportunity or challenge that I confront.

When we take the time to talk and really listen, we benefit. The perspectives we hear can sometimes be just what we need.

Stoic Joy. Natural Joy.

In preparation for a trip across the country not long ago, I did something I rarely do: I took one of my own books along to read. It was The Stoic Art of Living: Inner Resilience and Outer Results. It was published ten years ago, and I had not re read it since the early days after it first appeared on bookstore shelves. I tried to approach it objectively, as I would any book. And I have to admit that I really enjoyed it! I had forgotten various little discoveries I had made when I first wrote the original draft of the book, going back almost twenty years. The top three Roman stoics, the slave Epictetus, the prominent lawyer Seneca, and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius had great and practical insights about life that can tremendously enhance our experience of the world today. Their wisdom, at its best, will never go out of style.

The stoics had many perspectives that can help us. Inner resilience is the best path for outer results. Things are not often what they seem. Most of our difficulties come not from the world, but from how we think about things in the world. Nothing can truly harm a good person. By changing our thoughts, we can change our lives. Nothing is to be feared. And I could go on. But, to me, perhaps chief among their insights was the claim that joy is our natural state.

Think about that for a second. Joy is our natural state. If any stoic philosopher was right in thinking this, then either you are experiencing joy right now, or there is some unnatural, unnecessary obstacle in your life blocking that joy, and it's an obstacle you can remove.

If you are, right now, in a state of joy, congratulations. If you aren't, then you should be asking yourself what's getting in the way. What's blocking you from the state of mind that should be your natural default setting? The possibilities are many. And you can't do anything about the ones operative in your life right now until you can identify them. The stoics were confident that, whatever the obstacles might be, you can eliminate them through controlling your emotions, and in turn, you can do that by controlling your thoughts. It's just that simple.

The stoics were philosophers who wanted to help us peel back the worry and anger, the suffering and agitation, the distraction and confusion that too often rules our lives, and get back to the natural state of joy. When we experience that natural joy, we flow forward with all the power that we're meant to have in this life. And that's the power, in the deepest sense, of love.

What's keeping us from it?

The Urge and the Pause

What makes you eat that extra burger, get that additional serving, have just one more drink, and maybe at least half a one after that? What pulls the trigger on that negative comment or angry outburst in response to what strikes you as idiocy, or as an insulting remark? What moves us to do almost anything that we later regret?

There's an urge, an insistent urge, and we act on it. Or, to use another helpful metaphor, there's a big itch, and we scratch it. In her practical little book on change, Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears, the American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron, passes on some useful advice. Consider poison ivy. When we have it and scratch, we spread the problem. We end up itching even more. And that most often results in even more scratching, and an even bigger problem. Great metaphor.

The meditative approach that she recommends instead is to pause, notice the itch, feel it fully, live with it, and refrain from reacting quickly and naturally by scratching. It's often more helpful to consider the itch than to obey it. You might ask yourself why the itch is there. You might remind yourself what will happen, as it always does, if you scratch, as you normally do. How will you look back on the scratching tomorrow? The intense urgency of the urge is always a passing thing. Resist for thirty seconds, or a minute, and the battle is won.

Scratch it now and you'll have to fight a bigger battle later. Now is always the time to pause, and consider, and learn to feel, before giving in to the urge that never makes things better, but worse.

Small pauses can solve big problems, and help to erase long term habits. When we use our minds properly, we can defeat what may long have defeated us. What we need is a new urge - to pause.

Transformation

One of the most enduring themes in world literature is transformation. The great commonality among the otherwise very different religions across the globe is the possibility of transformation. And in business, there's nothing more important than the promise of this very thing.

Transformation is all about where we are now, where we ideally need to be, and how best to get from this present to that future.

In the world of work, transformation is about turning potentiality into actuality, a need into a business, raw materials into products, people into performers, potential customers into loyal fans and investments into profits.

In life, our weaknesses can be transformed into strengths, our limitations can be morphed into the outlines of our distinctive excellence, and our mistakes can be redeemed into new wisdom.

The nearly magical spark of all positive transformations is a vision that can turn regular men and women into heroes, despite all the challenges and setbacks they might face. The right vision creates the right energy in the right people to produce the right results.

The greatest wonder in our world is the ongoing possibility for transformation that it allows.

When we understand deeply where we are, envision clearly where we could be, and create boldly a path forward that will spark the best in those around us, as well as in our own hearts, we provide the leadership necessary for great transformations.

Running the Race Well

I just came across an old image. Life is like a relay race. So is your work. Someone has passed a baton to you. And you're now running with it. At some point, you'll pass it on to someone else. As you run, you should reflect on at least these considerations:

1. The person who gave you the baton - Who was it? What do you owe him or her, as a result of the gift of that baton? What responsibility has been passed on to you with it?

2. The person you'll eventually give the baton - Who will it be? Do you know? Do you care? Are you selecting a proper recipient, even now? What do you owe that person? What responsibility do you have to him or her? What duty, or possibility, or momentum, will you pass on?

3. On a deeper level, is this the right race for you? When you pass off the baton, should you then find a different race, or a different track?

To run the race of your life or work well is to take care of these things. And, while you hold the baton, you move forward as well as you can, and you uphold the process at its best.

That's running the race well.

Create an Extraordinary Life

Create an Extraordinary Life. That's the motto of the Morehead-Cain Foundation, the people who sent me to college. And it's piece of advice that each of us should heed.

No one in my family background, so far as I could tell, had ever been to college. My relatives were mechanics, truck drivers, and farmers who went to work, or served their country in the military, right out of high school. When I was a senior at Durham High, my mother told me there was no money for college. Then, out of the blue, or to be more precise, the Carolina Blue, I was nominated for what at the time was called a Morehead Scholarship, now a Morehead-Cain. After writing an application and going to three interviews, they told me I would have a completely free education at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I soon learned that I also had a magic ticket to meet all the best people, work with the top professors, and follow my instincts wherever they might lead. The scholarship was a doorway, and a long red carpet, that would guide me to an extraordinary life.

I love the way the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word ‘extraordinary.’ It uses terms like ‘exceptional,’ ‘surprising,’ and ‘unusually great.’ By contrast, the word ‘ordinary’ gets this treatment:  

"Regular, normal, customary, usual, not exceptional, not above the usual, commonplace…"

There is, in principle, absolutely nothing wrong with what’s ordinary – except when it’s also poor-to-mediocre, or significantly less than our best. But that’s exactly the problem, isn’t it? That’s just what ordinary most ordinarily is.

The ordinary life is typically one defined by the past rather than by the possible, by other people’s expectations rather than our own aspirations, by what’s easy rather than what’s right, and by always considering the safe path rather than the best one. Ordinary efforts seldom yield exceptional results.  
    
Why should we settle for ordinary when so much more is available? Something extraordinary beckons to us all, and simply awaits our passionate, determined response. But we don’t have to answer the call alone. Some of the most exceptionally wise people in all of human history have left us incredible insights on how to create and live an extraordinary life. That's why I urge people all the time to read the great practical philosophers of the past - people like Lao Tsu, Confucius, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Hadrat Ali, Balthasar Gracian, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. They are some of our best guides to what an extraordinary life can be, for each of us.

This past weekend, the Morehead-Cain Foundation celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its wonderful Associate Director, Megan Mazzochi, who arrived at her job in Chapel Hill at a time when the foundation had no computers and was debating whether it needed a fax machine. For three decades, she's helped waves of young students, such as I once was, to enter the doorway of an extraordinary life. She and the great director Chuck Lovelace, with their remarkable staff, have made extraordinary things possible for more people than they can ever know. They've encouraged and supported me in every way imaginable throughout my career as a university professor and now as a public philosopher. They've shown me in vivid ways how we can each live extraordinary lives while helping others to do the same. They inspire me in an ongoing way. And through their work with future leaders in every facet of our society, they give me an additional source of hope for the future.

Megan at the Morehead-Cain Foundation, The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Like Megan Mazzochi, like Chuck Lovelace and the exceptional staff of the Morehead-Cain Foundation, and like the great thinkers of the ages who have left their wisdom behind for us to use, let's all try to play a role in helping others to live their own version of an extraordinary life, as we do so, likewise, to our own great benefit.

Oh, and for a short video of people congratulating Megan and thanking her for all her hard work over the decades, plus, at the end, a little country music style ditty I composed and played in honor of her truly super extraordinary extraordinariness, click here.

Some Journal Entries on Wisdom

I just finished editing the last of eight novels that I've been writing over the past four years. No, don't go Amazon them, or Google them yet. I haven't yet shopped them around to publishers. They're still our little secret. So, Shhh.

But, today, I wanted to share a few journal entries from one of the characters, some realizations he's had about wisdom. The character is only 14 years old, but he's been mentored by some amazing people, and has had many insights that are typically far beyond his years. Here are just a few short entries you may enjoy, as you contemplate the past year and envision the new year that's already been born.

Wisdom may come to us in words, but it lives with us in actions.

Knowledge is in the mind. Wisdom is in the heart.

We’re meant to possess knowledge. Wisdom is meant to possess us.

A life without wisdom is barren, regardless of the fireworks it contains.

Wisdom and love go together. You can't truly have one without the other.

The Wow Factor, Vegas-Style

Las Vegas is the World Capital of Attention Grabbing Overstimulation. In such a ramped up mega cacophony of sights and sounds, it's hard for anything or anyone to stand out for more than twenty seconds. That's why I was so surprised, on Fremont Street, in downtown Vegas the other night, to see an outdoor bartender quietly but flamboyantly wowing thirsty partiers who had been wandering up and down the avenue. He was an individual who truly stood out. And that's not easy, in his context. Every ten feet, there's a superhero, a breakdancer, a contortionist, a magician, musician, or a barely garbed man or woman, sometimes in a minimalistic historical costume, soliciting your attention and financial compliments. Have your picture taken with a Chippendales Dancer. Eat a Chili Dog with Darth Vader or Mr. T. How can anyone compete?

The treat of the evening was watching this one silent bar man skillfully juggling bottles and putting on a real show with each drink order, whether he got the applause and thanks he deserved or not. His skill, focus, and untiring commitment to make each customer feel special formed together a cluster of qualities that were a rare delight to see.

The noise level on Fremont can be mind-numbing. The light show projected onto the high canopy ninety feet above the street, playing off the apparently millions of neon signs also blinking from all sides, can be the ultimate distraction from any human performer. But this one guy just continued to do his thing, undaunted by the massive competition for attention that swirled all around him. Most mere mortals serving the whole range of humanity under the endless sonic assault of high decibel chaos from all directions would just hunker down, do the job, and try to get through the shift. Not this guy. You almost forgot the noise and the wild freak show flowing all around you, as he plied his craft and smoothly performed for each customer. Watching him reminded me of something important.

It's not our circumstances or our competition that determines our level of excellence or success; it's our inner commitment to what we do, and to the people we serve. 

We should never let challenges shut us down, but raise us up to peak performance. In the end, it's up to us. For a look at our man in Vegas, play the few seconds below.

Self Reflective Consciousness

Self Reflective Consciousness is the distinctive type of awareness that carries within itself the ability to consider and think about ourselves. It's the mind's inner mirror that reflects to us what we're doing and thinking, and lets us ponder that. It provides the capacity for self appraisal, self judgment, self correction, and self guidance.

It's our great glory, and our big problem. It allows us to consider, choose, adapt, and transform our lives. It also lets us critique, doubt, second-guess, and worry about our lives. It's the chief engine of  what we know as personal excellence. And it's the chief obstacle to that same exalted state. We need to make the most of it, and equally, to rise above it.

Fortunately, the phenomenon of self reflective consciousness can itself help us to get into a position to leave it behind, as we enter "The Zone" or "Flow" or the "Deep Play" of creative work, athletic mastery, musical reverie, or even a great relationship, at its best.

Is it then a ladder to be climbed and eventually kicked away? Or is it a lifeline that we need always with us, at least in the background, despite our equal need to transcend it?

The top performers in any art, science, or work, in their greatest moments, as they report later to us, rose above it, kicked it aside, and shed its limitations as they soared to their highest achievements. They became self forgetful in order to reach the pinnacle of self fulfillment.

This reflective state of consciousness, this inner mirror and critic, is a blessing when it helps us to find our way, and a curse when it just gets in our way. We need to grow better at using this capacity so well that it will help us to soar far beyond its limiting and commenting chatter. 

Then, we enter the realm where we can fly.

Anybody For a Signed Ebook? A What?

When I was a kid, a famous circus came to town. My mother arranged for me to meet The Human Cannonball. He was pretty impressive. And I happened to have in my hand a toy Arabic sword, the old-fashioned kind with a wide, curved blade, four inches across and made of smooth flat white plastic. The equally flat handle was a snazzy red. The Cannonball shook hands with me and then offered to sign my sword. Wait. What? I could actually get his autograph? Cool! To a small town boy like me, he was like a god among men. This was going to be my first celebrity autograph, ever! I handed him my weapon and he pulled out a pen with some sort of wide black ink flow and scrawled his name big across the pristine blade and gave it back to me. Wow. I was thrilled.

Until I got home and realized that the sword would look better with the autograph on the handle, not the blade. So, I went back into my room, got out a variety of erasers and soap and some washcloths, and went to work on the signature, completely removing it from the blade. I then meticulously redid what he had written, but now, in a much smaller size, onto the handle, tracing carefully the sort of flamboyant cursive script he had used. I was so excited when I ran into the kitchen to show my mom how I had moved the man's autograph to a better position!

I clearly didn't grasp fully enough the concept of an autograph. And, now I realize that, maybe, I still don't. My mother explained that the only autograph was when the man's own hand held the pen that put the ink onto the surface being signed. When I erased that ink, I had destroyed the autograph. It was gone. I then had just written his name on the handle, exactly as I could have done had I never met him at all. Oh. My shock at this realization was visceral. So, to be a real autograph, the guy (or lady) has to hold the pen (or pencil, or paint brush - I got the extension of the pen idea, just fine - I thought) and actually use it to touch the object being signed. That's what makes for an autograph!

Or, perhaps not.

Have you ever heard of a signed ebook? It's being done. When ebooks first came out, I wondered what would happen to the time honored custom of author autographs. Of course, we all had dancing in our heads visions of iPads and Kindles and Nooks whose backs would be absolutely covered with tiny little author signings, presumably in permanent, indelible ink, as the closest possibility. Nope. Wrong again.

One of the most innovative companies now publishing and selling ebooks, ZolaBooks.com, is currently making signed ebooks available, and I can tell you that it's no mass produced, fake signature thing. They recently sent me an iPad loaded with new tech and apps designed especially for this, so that I could help them test personalized author signatures for ebooks.

Zola is an innovative publisher, seller, and community of readers that's pioneering some new dimensions for the experience of literature in our new tech world. They approached me a while back and asked me to join an amazing group of, otherwise, highly respected authors to offer them exclusive ebook rights on a few of my own titles. So I gave them the rights to True Success, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, and the most incredible long term project I've ever done, a look through the ages at what the deepest thinkers have said about life success, a book called The 7 Cs of Success, which is available only in ebook, at this stage, and only at Zola.

A few days ago, I wrote about the recent climb of El Capitain, and how Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson acted in accordance with seven universal conditions for success in pursuing their astonishing achievement. I listed this framework of ideas that I refer to as The 7 Cs of Success. And lots of people have asked me where they can read more about them.

I first discussed The 7 Cs at depth in the book True Success, and then took a different look at them in the follow-up study, The Art of Achievement. But the most comprehensive examination of them ever is in the exclusive ebook The 7 Cs of Success. In it, I start with Lao Tsu, in the Tao Te Ching, and Confucius, in the Analects, and work my way forward through the history of deep and practical philosophy on how we can best make our lives matter and attain our greatest dreams. There is no real science of success that works like chemistry or botany, despite what many people say, but there is a powerful art of achievement. And it's this art that many of the great practical philosophers have outlined throughout human history.

In The 7 Cs of Success, I explore the deepest and most useful thoughts of the two great Chinese sages; plus the insights of the classic statesman of Rome, Cicero; a Muslim Mystic, Hadrat Ali; a Spanish Jesuit, Balthasar Gracian; the quintessential American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson; and a contemporary Japanese billionaire - go find out who he is. What's wild is how much such different thinkers have in common. And yet, their distinctive nuances can help us to realize exactly what we need to be doing right now to craft the comprehensive success and the satisfying future we want.

I'm writing about them today because Zola has given me an opportunity to be one of the first authors in the country who can personally sign ebooks, one at a time, in the new tech version of the old fashioned mode. They've developed a way to do this, and are having me prototype it for them and try it out. So if any of you guys want to explore The 7 Cs of Success in the book by the same name, or in True Success, or if you want to see the different but complementary framework of ideas in If Aristotle Ran General Motors, Zola is offering signed versions of those books right now, in order to make it possible for me to use an iPad and my index finger (unless you request, for example, a thumb) and do a personal signature on the book, or books, for you.

Any of you who have been reading my blog posts for a while will know that I don't really do the self-promotional "Buy my book" stuff you so often see online. But this is a crazy opportunity for me to learn how to sign books using cutting edge technology and for you to get a signed book available nowhere else. So if you'd like to try this, go to www.Zolabooks.com/tom-morris and click whatever you prefer. The drop down right above the price will get you a signed copy.

So, go experience this now, if you'd like, by using the links above or clicking

Sign Me an Ebook!

And let me know what you think! But please don't figure out how to move the signature you get to another place in your ebook book. I still can't guarantee that would count as an autograph. Best Wishes. Tom

Luck and You and Me

Are you lucky or unlucky? It just might be that this doesn't really matter - unless, of course, you're in Vegas, like I am today. Believe it or not, philosophy often happens here. Maybe even more often than good luck.

Let me quote Diane Ackerman, from her great book Deep Play, where she is exploring how even our hardest work can be undertaken as a form of play. While pondering the role of something like luck in the game of life, she refers to an ancient text and writes: 

"In the Sanskrit Mahabharata, for example, we find men, who represent the seasons, deciding the world's weather and crop yield by rolling gold and silver dice. But, aside from luck or the favor of the gods, the player succeeds by his or her own talents." 

What does she mean by 'luck' here? Maybe anything beyond human choice, the force or cluster of forces that brings things into our lives apart from our own contrivance. You could equally speak of fate, or destiny, or divine providence. But for the sake of understanding Ackerman's remark, let's stick with luck. Then, we can articulate what I take to be her insight. We can say it a number of ways.

Luck sets the course. We decide how to play it.

Luck arranges the obstacles. We figure out how to move around and through them.

Again, perhaps: 

Luck paves the road. We choose how to travel it.

We all have challenges. Everyone has opportunities. Sometimes, one situation is both. And, viewed properly, the world presents much more of this duality than you might imagine. An opportunity turns out to be, also, and perhaps unexpectedly, a problem. A problem is revealed, in the end, to contain an opportunity. This happens all the time. I like to think of this phenomenon as a turnaround. Things that come into our lives can be, ultimately, quite different from what they at first seem. It's up to us how to react, respond, and rearrange our expectations.

Of course, luck is also often referred to as chance. And there's an ancient perspective on this. Chance favors the prepared mind, the skilled hand, the creative spirit, and the person with lots of great relationships.

We need to remember, the world isn't here to give us what we want, but to help make us into what we can be. And I, for one, could use a little help.

What luck!

Philosophy as Necessary

What can help provide the stepping stones to the future we most want and deserve?

You can likely guess my answer: philosophy.

In a fascinating essay in Sunday's New York Times Book Review, where he ruminates on the nature of our culture right now, which can look very non philosophical, Leon Wieseltier nevertheless wrote:

Wherever mortal beings are thoughtful about their mortality, and finite beings ponder their finitude, at whatever level of intellectual articulation, there is philosophy. Philosophy is ubiquitous and inalienable; even the discourse about the end of philosophy is philosophy.

And while Wieseltier is correct in what he says, as far as he goes, it's not just when we're contemplating our mortality or finitude that we're engaging in philosophy. As he hints later in his essay, whenever we're trying to figure out real matters of worth, we're doing philosophy.

In our work lives, we're always thinking about the setting and attaining of goals. We do that in our personal lives, too, if we have any measure of ambition concerning personal growth and change. But whenever we think of goals and the means to them, the question will always arise, at least implicitly, as to what goals are worth our pursuit and what means or methods are worth our time and energy. And those questions can't fully be answered without a sense of what sort of life is worth living. And that's the core of philosophy, in it's most practical and existential mode.

What's worthy of us? What's a waste? Who do I want to be? What am I becoming, as a result of what I'm doing? Does a certain activity lift me up, or lower me down? These are serious questions, but asking them and guiding our lives by them doesn't require that we be serious in the sense of somber. We can have fun in all the best ways. We can play and frolic, mentally and physically. We can enjoy immensely what the world has to offer, while still guiding our steps with wisdom and what the ancients called virtue, their own concept for personal strength, or power. 

Philosophy may be one of the most under-appreciated necessities in life. But that doesn't keep it from being necessary. The more we come to appreciate it, the better we can do it, and the more our lives benefit, as a result. Let it help provide you with the stepping stones to the future you most want and deserve.

The Most Important Thing I've Learned

Perhaps the single most important thing I've learned as a philosopher is, that life is supposed to be a series of adventures, lived with love, confidence, and a real concern for others, as well as for ourselves. The adventure we're on right now, whatever it might be, and however great or challenging it seems, is preparing us for the next one, and often in ways we can't even imagine.

The uncertainty of the future is just the open field of possibility for adventure and creativity that we all need, moving forward, even though it can feel uncomfortable and even, at times, scary.

The key to successful living is to be open to new ideas and new paths along the way. The world is an endless kaleidoscope of opportunities, many of which may be so hidden as to require your investigative discovery, as well as openness.

Your ongoing job that's connected with this is what I call 3-D Living:

Discover your talents,

Develop those talents, and

Deploy them into the world for the good of others, as well as yourself.

3-D Living is a process that, ideally, never ends.

The most important moment in your life is the Right Now that allows for the Soon Next. And even though that sounds a little bit like a prolix fortune cookie, it's true, whether Confucius said it or not. Life is a dynamic process. We're to carry with us a dynamic orientation, leaning forward with the adventure we're now on, embracing the present, and preparing for the future.

Questions

Questions bring us new truths, new perspectives, and sometimes new possibilities.

Is there a question you should be asking now that you're not yet posing? That was, actually, mine. But I hope it soon leads to others.

Questions begin to unwrap the presents that life has for us - the great gifts and challenges and delights that can lie ahead.

It's easy to ask little questions: "I wonder what I should have for lunch today?" But it's the hard questions that can be life changing.

Is there a question you've been avoiding? Is there one you should be asking?

Socrates lead the way, and showed us that, even when we can't get clear answers, posing and considering the right questions can still lead us forward in powerful ways.

It may be time for a mood - the interrogatory mood. What should you be asking yourself now?

The Adventurous Mind

Where is your next adventure? What will it be? When will it happen? And, how?

In her book, Deep Play, the modern poetic explorer of all things, Diane Ackerman, writes: "People often ask me where they might go to find adventure. Adventure is not something you must travel to find, I tell them, it's something you take with you."

The adventurous mind is always on the lookout for the new and challenging and wild - something to be explored, tackled, or tamed. Adventure is an attitude, a dynamic inclination, a way of living and working. It's best found where you are. And then it takes you to where you need to be. It's always about what's next. It's the way curiosity moves through uncertainty with danger or delight.

Where do new things come from? The adventurous mind finds them, or makes them. It's the mindset of discovery and creation. It's also the soul of intentional becoming and growth. It's a spirit and a cousin of courage. Its enemy is inertia, armed with fear. It's up to us to cultivate it and free this wellspring of the new from whatever would chain it down and hold it back.

So: Where's your next adventure?

You carry it inside you.

Bring it to the world.

Crazy Big Goals

This week, the world watched Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson climb the Dawn Wall of El Capitain, in Yosemite National Park, over a stretch of 19 days. We all applauded in amazement as they struggled and succeeded at what's often described as the most challenging rock climb in the world. It was the first time the 3,000 foot sheer rock face had ever been taken on in a single expedition while using just hands and feet, rather than with the artificial means climbers have employed before. And there were many little failures that came before the crazy big outrageous success. I heard a television commentator put it well when he said about one of the guys: "He fell and fell and fell, until he didn't."

And that, in itself, is a great lesson.

Afterwards, Jorgeson said, "I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall, if you will. We've been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day, and maybe they can put this project in their own context."

As I read the details of their longtime dream, preparation, and execution of the climb, I saw the philosophers' 7 Cs of Success all through the story. Tommy and Kevin had:

C1 - A clear CONCEPTION of what they wanted, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined

C2 - A strong CONFIDENCE they could reach that goal

C3 - A focused CONCENTRATION on what it would take

C4 - A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing their vision

C5 - An emotional COMMITMENT to what they were doing

C6 - A good CHARACTER to guide and keep them on course

C7 - A CAPACITY TO ENJOY the process along the way.

Whenever we see exceptional achievement in the world, we'll see the implementation and operation of these seven simple conditions that I've been speaking on for over 25 years. During that quarter of a century, I've seen many people get excited about The 7 Cs of Success but never apply them systematically in their lives, and others whose excitement translated into a relentless application of the conditions and a level of success that astonished everyone around them.

The philosophers can preach to us all day long, but it's what we learn by seeing people like Tommy and Kevin live their dream that really brings home to us how the right approach to anything can turn Crazy Big Goals into Crazy Big Success Stories.

Now. Go create your own.

Oh. And if you want to read more, go see the books True Success, or The Art of Achievement, or the big, comprehensive study of how the great thinkers have brought us these ideas and suggested that we use them, the new ebook, The 7 Cs of Success.

Insult, Offense, and Rage

Contrary to apparently widespread opinion, it’s not possible to insult, offend, demean, or disparage a great leader, prophet, religion, nation, or individual. It’s easy, of course, to insult and enrage lesser people. Many seem prepared to take umbrage at nearly anything. But true greatness is in this distinct way completely untouchable. The target is too far from its detractors. Any arrow of invective or caricature will fall short.
 
Public events of recent days and decades can seem to indicate the opposite. A movie is announced to be an offense and an insult to a revered leader, or to an entire swath of the human population. A cartoon, a video, or a passage in a book can be said to have committed a grievous injury that must be avenged “by all means necessary.”
 
The problem is that all this rage and reaction is based on a faulty understanding of the very notions of insult and offense that are being used to explain and justify the responses of anger, threat, and violence that seem so enormously out of proportion to whatever incited the response.
 
You just can’t claim with logical consistency both that your leader, or nation, or cause is great, and that he, she, or it has been insulted, offended, or demeaned by any words or works of art. It’s literally impossible to successfully insult, offend, demean, or disparage real greatness.
 
There’s an old proverb: The lordly lion ignores the yapping of small dogs. This is an image of a philosophical insight. Greatness has, within itself, its own intrinsic honor and worthiness of respect. When it’s not shown that respect, a wrong is done, not to the great person, nation, movement or religion being attacked, but both by and to and in the one communicating the disrespect. With anything other than greatness, however, things are quite different. But true greatness has an essential immunity to such diminishment.
 
Socrates believed that others could harm us only physically. We alone are capable of hurting and demeaning ourselves spiritually. He was also convinced that the worst efforts of lesser men could never do genuine harm to the souls of greater men, however they might contrive to inflict that damage.
 
Of course, there’s often a dynamic of insult, offense, and rage within businesses and industries, as well as within cultures. And far too much energy is wasted on these things. Any who react with anger and even rage to such perceived wounds need to engage in the age-old enterprise of self-examination. Are they defending their honor, or their great mentor’s honor? True honor needs no such defense. It’s fine, as it is. Once they understand this, then, perhaps, they'll be able to discover what's really going on in their own hearts and minds, and make some changes that can result in something philosophically and emotionally healthier.