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Willingness to Take Responsibility

“What if he doesn’t accept
my apology?” asked the CEO.

“His response
is his responsibility.
The question I’m asking
is what responsibility
are you willing to take?” I remarked.

“My responsibility?” he asked.

“Yes,
whether your apology
is accepted or not,
which is within his ability
to respond,
thus his response-ability
and his choice,
are you willing to choose apology
simply because
it is within your response-ability?” I replied.

“…
I am.” he replied.

“Why?” I probed.

“It’s funny.
I don’t know why,
but just thinking about it
makes me feel healed.” he reflected.

Goal vs Vision

Vision
is what you’re looking at
without needing
to reaching it.

Goal
is something
you reach.

You can turn your vision
into a goal,
but you can also focus
on a vision
without making it
a goal,
because focus
gives us direction
and that may be
enough.

Two Stones

When stones enter the tumbler
what’s easy to observe is how smooth
they become

When used as metaphor for people
it may seem like this makes people different

What it actually does is it broadesn our understanding

of somethat
and we

The sharp edges of others no longer feel so sharp,
beucase we know what they mean not merely wahat they say

This isn’t to say that one should tolerate
it merely means beyond tolerance, respect is also valuable.

Being vs Having

Sometimes
we speak
as if we are
others.

“I am sad”
vs
“I am feeling sadness”

“I am a CEO”
vs
“I play the role of a CEO”

“I am fit”
vs
“I have a fit body”

Perhaps we speak this way
out of habit.

Perhaps we speak this way
when we hyper-empathize.

No matter the reason,
it’s worth creating
distinctions
and boundaries with them,
so we can empathize.

Validating Others

It can be hard
to validate others
when it seems as though
validating them
means
invalidating
ourselves.

It can be crucial
to ask yourself
whether it is true
that validating others
means
invalidating ourselves,
or
that we simply cannot see
the situation
in such a way
that validatings others
need not mean
invalidating
ourselves.

Expectations

“I hate the fact
that the only way I can feel better
in my co-founder relationship
is to think of my co-founder
as an employee.”
said the founder.

“What do you mean?”
I asked.

“I have to lower my expectations.”
the founder answered.

“Lower how?”
I asked

“That he may not be able to support me
the way I want him
to support me.”

It’s OK

“I thought
that all my problems would be solved

once I raised enough
money.” he said.

“I thought
that all my problems would be solved

once I hired enough
experts.” he continued.

“I thought
that all my problems would be solved

once I achieved enough
annual revenue.” he let out a sigh.

“I have no more excuses.
All this time,
I have been lying to myself.”
he remarked.

“It’s OK.
We all lie to ourselves
from time
to time.