Balancing the Why and How

Every Monday I offer up my thoughts on management; personal and professional

 

Goals-“Dreams with Deadlines.”  

When looking to achieve a goal, it is crucial to examine the “Why” and not just the “How”.  The reason: Achieving an unexamined goal will only bring limited satisfaction.

Asking why leads to introspection and refinement, which in turn, leads to healthier, more personally fulfilling goals.  This not only goes for one’s personal life but their professional one as well; if the executive team has only the how and not the why, it will come across to junior management as shallow and uninspired. 

Communicating why a goal has been set helps motivate and focus not only your subordinates but yourself as well.  Having a true grasp of why you want to get something accomplished will go a long way to helping you become a more effective person: at work and at home. 

D is for dErek- E

The way we see ourselves depends on what mirror we use.

 

 

03:15PM 

 

Eventually there comes a time when living a lie takes an
motional toll.  To help me cope with my fears and insecurities I developed a proclivity towards unhealthy addictions. 

 

I began traversing a dangerous path that would lead to three addictions:  nicotine, naughty pictures and knowledge.

 

EXAMINED 

 

Firstly: nicotine.  It began with chewing tobacco in middle school, then cigarettes and dip in high school.  It helped ease my nerves and let me escape from my problems, even if for a moment.  Although I haven’t really smoked as a habit in many years, hardly a stressful situation goes by that doesn’t cause me to wish for a smoke or even a black and mild. 

 

Secondly: Naughty Pictures.  Pornography to be exact.  I have already done an extensive series on porn in this blog, so I won’t go into too much detail here.  What I will say is that Playboys turned into Penthouses and Penthouses themselves turned into hardcore movies, which turned into internet porn: the crack/cocaine of porn addiction.  I will let this humorous yet very true picture make my point for me….

If you can’t read it, it states: “What has been seen cannot be unseen”.  I have said it before and I will say it again, porn is a degenerative addiction that slips and slopes into a swamp of sub-human smut. 

 

Thirdly: Knowledge.  “But wait” you cry “How is this a bad thing?”  Well, on the surface, it isn’t.  But as Demtri Martin says here, when used as a coping mechanism for dealing with insecurity, it can become a hindrance to developing happy healthy social habits.  When solving puzzles and having knowledge becomes your way measuring self-worth, (instead of measuring yourself by the intrinsic worth that you were fearfully and wonderfully created,) it is an addiction. 

 

Lucky for me, when I was eighteen years old I was deployed to Falls Church, VA with my National Guard unit; I realized that my entire life, which I had so carefully plotted out, was turning out nothing like the picturesque utopia in my mind.  It is during this time that I began to examine my external circumstances; this lead to a sustained introspection, a true reflection on who I really was.  And I didn’t like what I saw one bit. 

 

It was time to Reconsider my Rationalizations and Realize the dystopia my life had become.  I needed to be Reconciled and Redeemed.  The next post will be brought to you by the letter R.