Month: August 2012

As I think I have mentioned in the past, this blog serves many purposes, and it particularly useful as a tool to remember what I believe in.  It always amazes me when I look back and think “wow, what a smart idea, I with I had thought of that”, even though I had.

However, I realized the other day, that I had lost touch with myself.  It’s not something I had planned on doing, rather in the normal course of the business of life, combined with the fact that I finally had the emotional energy to fully reengage creatively with the world, I stopped taking the time to look inward.

It was only yesterday, when I took some time to focus, that I realized that I in fact, had forgotten how.  Wow, the most powerful tool that I learned, had been kicked by the wayside.

While this blog is a labor of love, it also resembles my outward looking instead of my inward focus.   Interestingly, I have found myself to be the most effective, both in my public and private life, when my focus was inward.  So it is time, to stop looking outside, for the time being, and look inward to regain my inner balance.

I still am about 40 posts shy of my original goal, due to the brief break I took back in April/May, but in fact, as of Sunday a year has passed since I started the blog, and I have posted 220 distinct and hopefully somewhat unique, ideas.  Not a bad accomplishment at all if I do say so myself and a project that I am proud of.   I would imagine that I will start up again in the future, but for now, I think it is time to remove the self-imposed production pressure of this blog, and work on other important life projects.  (Side note, if you put your email in the subscribe box on the right, you will be alerted when the blog starts again.)

So I will miss you, my invisible friends, who have supported me this past year with your reading of my thoughts.  While in truth, I never had the success I had hoped for, if I measure success in my readership, it certainly served me very well in other ways. Perhaps it has even taught me to be a little more humble as I continue my path through life.

Probably not.

However, I can think of no more important lesson to end with.  So I think I will.

With love and appreciation,
Josh

As I mentioned yesterday, I am attending a convention in Orlando this week, and am staying at one of the resorts associated with Epcot.  Disney came in and offered us a half-day “leadership training,” which in my mind was rather worthless, but did provide an unintentional lesson, that is very powerful, figure out a way to leverage.

What I found amazing was the pervasive Disney culture, that soaked into their employees, to such a point that they seemed to drip Disney.  The employees, seemed to have a cultish attachment to the company, unlike any other group of employees that I had ever seen.   It was almost like the soul of the people had been sucked out, and replaced with Disney created, allegences.

Honestly, it was rather off-putting,  however, the fact that a company was able to instill this level of culture, and allegiance, took my breath away.

So I wondered, how could they pull this off?  How do they make robots out of men?

My gut is that Disney is able to create a story that their employees buy into – and ultimately, sell themselves on – due to the fact that Disney is so focused on creating an production.  In fact, even our leadership training, seemed like nothing other than another Disney production.

Of course, it is ironic that Disney workers would buy into a false story and treat it like it was true.  But that does seem to be the magic of Disney.

Let’s bring this all home, and point out some practical lessons for business.

First, create a story that involves meaning, and make sure that your employees buy into it, in a real way.  Second, lets remember not to allows others stories to manipulate us, unless we are looking to be manipulated.

I am spending some time in Orlando for a conference this week, and it brings brought to mind, the endlessly repetiive loop of the ride It’s A Small World.  Having brought this to mind, I want to take a moment to talk about affinity groups, and why it seems like it is a small world, while in fact, it truly is not a small world at all.

I have already hinted at the reason why we feel like the world is small.  Affinity groups.

An affinity group, as I will define it is a group that we select to put ourselves in, and while this might not be a formal group per se, there is some common thread that brings together the people involved in the group.  It could be a shared value, a common heritiage, geographic location, or something altogether different.  Perhaps even some combination of the multiple things.

The problem with affinity groups, is that often these groups have common charactaristics and interests, so even once we leave that affinity group for another, we end up in a strinkingly similar world view.

While trapped in this world, we find ourselves in a place where the world, like the Disney ride, loops, and appears to us as a small world.

However, what is important to bring to mind, is that there are many, many other groups with which we have no connection, due to constricting ourselves, into some small world.

So while the world may appear to us to be small, in truth, it is absolutely huge.  It is just our small mind, that doesn’t comprehend this reality.

I recently started a Meetup group for singles my age in Atlanta, and as part of publicizing the group approached various other leaders that work with the target population asking them for their assistance getting the word out.

The response I received from one group in particular was negative, since they viewed me as competition to their own established programs.  Which is sad.

You see, there seem to be two ways to view the world.  As one of scarcity or as one of plenty.

Most people view the world with an eye towards scarcity since from one perspective, it certainly seems that way.  Plus for much of human existence, as hunter-gatherers, which makes up the majority of human history, it may well have been true.

This perspective creates people who are scared to to live and are constantly positioning to protect their fiefdom.  They live in a world where they are in a constant struggle to make their way and protect what they have.  They protect it with power, lies, and manipulation, among other negative traits.

However, the world has grown, and now in our global industrial society, we are truly in a world of plenty.  Unfortunately, as a society we haven’t yet broken off our mental chains that bind, and habits of old.

A better, and more true, approach is to view the world as one of plenty.  One where resources are always available if we know where to look for them and help each other.  A world where it is safe to be open emotionally, financially, physically.  A world that has room for each of us as an individual, and whose call signs are truth, giving, and love.

This is the world that we live in.  I just wonder how long it will take for us all to realize this new reality.

Lately, many women that I know from different walks of life and even different generations have shared with me that they are reading the book, 50 Shade of Gray.  While I haven’t read the book, which is selling faster than Harry Potter, due to my extreme lack of interest in the subject matter (sorry ladies!), I thought I would blog based on my reaction to what others have told me about the book.

To be honest, the fact that this book has become so popular is not that surprising. Graphic sexual novels have been around for quite a while, and provide an outlet for people to explore what they perceive as their “darker side” in a safe way.

While I am personally not that interested in controlling women or being controlled, since it is my belief that people can never be controlled, and anything more is just an illusion, the popularity of this book does seem to imply that a significant group of women like to imagine being sexually adventurous.  After all, what you watch is what you crave.

One other thing I don’t quite understand, is why women don’t ask their husbands or lovers to role play, if this apparently is so important to them, but I have to guess that their relationships don’t allow for such open exploration.  How sad.  Further, I am sure that some adults don’t allow for safe sexual play in whatever method they deem fun due to stoic belief systems.  Also sad.

However, what is more interesting to me is the social acceptance that seems to have surrounded this book.  People are openly talking about it with friends and strangers.

This is a good thing.

Historically, in the western world, due to the religiosity of society, that “the darker side” has existed, but has been labelled as unhealthy, and immoral, and thus, while continued to be practiced, resulted in the unwanted issue of guilt, which has very negative ramifications on the individual striving for happy living.

Let me clarify. I am not taking a stance on whether pornography is good or bad, as that is not the purpose of this post.  Rather, the point is that if you are into something, and not willing to admit to it, there is a incongruency in the truthfulness of your life, that will lead to unhappiness, and will end up exploding under negative pressure somewhere else in life.

However, with the general acceptance of this book by society, I think it demonstrates a new moral fortitude to live honestly,  for which I have deep respect.