Introspection

To quote the man Burns, the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang aft agley. No matter how much you prepare, plans often go awry. And that’s when you either make excuses, or make more plans. Often, I think, it’s not the present environment that’s causing problems, but your past.

There are two instances this week that have inspired my curiosity. The first from a friend decrying his current employment situation (lack of strategic objectives and simply talent of his current managers). Was the failure by others though his opportunity to shine? Sometimes yes, but through disappointment, anger and frustration at those less talented pulling ahead of him in the company, he cannot see the light. Re-phrasing, he will not see the light. For him, his chemical make-up, his ‘this is how I am’ and identifying the errors of others is where the blame is. This I cannot countenance. You’re the master of your own ship, no one else.  You cannot change the sea or wind, but you’re holding the tiller. 

The second example came from a friend’s past ‘fight or flight’ scenario in a relationship that has sown a seed – in this case, emotional euphoria attached to a memory guiding future decision making without even realising it. It may well be a valid conclusion, it may well be nonsensical, but in either case, unless you spend time with yourself, on self-analysis, on the why you do things, you’ll never know. Then whatever the outcome, comes self-healing and some self-love. 

​For me, in a topsy-turvy week as a product has neared launch, there have been overtures from different parts of the business that potential to plunge the project into madness. As it is, we’re still ploughing away, dodging and weaving, coercing stakeholders at every point whilst not losing sight of our goals. Constantly conjuring ideas has actually been fun rather than taxing, and I owe this in part to James Altucher – for all his ‘higher energy’ twaddle, I have stuck to trying to develop ten ideas a day. This encourages brain nimbleness (maybe) when presented with problems. As a colleague questioned whether our sanity could take another week of change, the response was simple: these are the critical tasks for the week, each can birth a multitude of omnishables (or cacophony of clusterfuc*s, for the alliteration). Be ready. And bring some biscuits, naturally.

Image reference:
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/07/how-self-love-got-out-of-control-the-rise-of-narcissism-politics
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