A meditation on the power of bias and story. I lie frequently and with great energy. I lie with reckless abandon. I lie until the lie I told is true. I lied about being an avid reader until I started reading every day. I lied about being brave enough to speak on stage, until I was looking out at a crowd, alive. I lied about being a structured professional, until I became a team leader....
What if everyone had a fixed monthly budget dedicated to making people happy? Regardless of size, such a budget flips a conceptual switch in the mind. You must optimise for happiness. You become a happiness optimiser. You are forced into serious consideration about what actions would bring most joy into the world. What a way to step out of the egocentric, and into empathy. You consider the question “how can I make this person happy” on a frequent basis – but even better, you consider “how can I make this person most happy”!...
In the daily grind, heads stay bowed. Feet trample worn paths. The world shrinks to tunnel vision in a grey cityscape with a screen in the middle. Be the one who stops. The one who sees – and lives. Be the one who notices. When you do this, something magical happens to those around you. You give permission. Go first, pay attention to the unnoticed, and remark upon that which is remarkable....
I spend time with people like me. I am one of those people who has enough. When I want to help people, whether to pay it forward or for any other reason, I help people who I spend time with, who are like me. People who have enough. I never help those who do not have enough. This pattern is hard to break, but must be broken. If I only hold a light for those who have light, why bother?...
What a great question to ask to inform the direction a life should take. Where are my students? Where are the people, who are on a journey that I can help them through? Where are the people I can teach? How can I take them where they said they wanted to go?