![]() The critical point in all of this is that in a complex world where so much is uncertain and unpredictable, it is difficult, if not impossible, to plan for the future, especially an idealistic one. Learn more about the newsletter and register here. The Gurteen Knowledge Letter is a free monthly newsletter with over 20,000 subscribers that I have been publishing by email for over 20 years. Seize the day, trusting little in the future. While we speak, time is envious and is running away from us. Scale back your long hopes to a short period. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty. The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. It is not just modern thought leaders – Seneca and Horace understood the concept over 2,000 years ago. It should deal pragmatically with the evolutionary possibilities of the present rather than seeking idealistic solutions. Knowledge Management should be focused on real, tangible intractable problems not aspirational goals. ![]() Perhaps, as a result we should, especially in management, focus more attention on what we are doing than what we should be doing.įollowing the thinking presented by the most advanced scientific researchers, the important question to answer is not what should happen in the future, but what is happening now? The sciences of complexity change our perspective and thinking. Several modern-day thought leaders have made this point in different ways: This is not just a personal philosophy but a business and societal one too. We have more control over the present than we ever do over the future. Patton Second, and this is the more interesting interpretation, focus more on what you are doing in the present rather than on creating some grandiose plan for the future. Focus less on what should happen in the future and more on what is happening nowĪ good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.Ĭredit: George S. But the light, rainbow sherbert-colored clouds sure are pretty.Īnd I hope the flashing blue and red lights aren’t just my imagination.We are food for worms. You know, I’ve heard of “terminal lucidity” before, and I hope that’s not what this is. There’s an earnestness to love that’s quiet. “There is no music in war, only the movies. One after that is the sound of an earnest, honest laugh at one of our dumb jokes. The next is the smell of a ripe tomato being cut to garnish the same old omelet that gets lovingly made every Saturday. The first is the security of a strong hand lacing its fingers between my own and holding firmly. I feel several sensations touch my mind, sort of like droplets of different inks into a water glass, each one webbing and staining the liquid with its own color for a moment before blending together. Whoever it was said being happy isn’t the burst of excitement you feel in a moment it’s about those small, consistent drips of joy over time. I don’t remember exactly who said it, my Aunt Linda maybe. ![]() And it is funny, the things you remember when you’re forced into a little quiet. Though still, there remains a silver lining in any situation. It’s spellbinding, really, like I’m being hypnotized first before they descend. They go smoothly around in their same circle, twitching them occasionally against the breeze, so they almost start to resemble some slow-moving, macabre clockwork. The birds don’t even need to beat their wings, but once in every while. One minute I’m on an evening run on Petaluma Hill to clear my head while I mull over things with Thomas, and suddenly in the next I’m motionless on the roadside, forced to do nothing but stare up at the darkening sky and think. “Hit-and-run” isn’t as much fun as it might sound, at least from my end of it. I can’t move, and looking up, I just get to watch the crows circle overhead. Of course, that gets to all be terribly ironic now. So I don’t blame myself for sometimes wanting more excitement in my life than him and his bird-watching hobby. It was sweet, but it was also very…quiet. Even our engagement was mild, popping the question on a hike out at Muir Woods. My weekends are busy enjoying life, and he likes his tame and uneventful. I swear to God, if I get out of this, I’m marrying that man.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |