Control sounds appealing until it has you: you earned it, now you must submit to the drudgery of maintaining control. There is no longer a challenge of achieving. You are trapped in endless maintenance, which makes the novelty of chaos suddenly appealing.
Tag: chaos
- Theme: Self
Entropy vs. Tenacity
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1–2 minutesOur stubborn refusal to let the world fall apart is painfully costly. Yet, someone has to put in the energy to maintain the shape of things.
There are always offers of ease, often with a new language of priorities sidestepping difficulty. This is merely another entropy: the entropy of self. - Theme: Growth
Urgent vs Important
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1–2 minutesThe urgent is almost never important, but if we put off the ‘important’ (because it is more difficult or divisive) it will eventually become both important and urgent. This is when chaos ensues.
The difficulty is prioritizing: there is an appeal in urgent (easy/short-term/immediate) problem-solving, while work on the important (difficult/long-term/meaningful) problems sets the values that prevent cascading collapses of all things becoming chaotically urgent.
Paraphrase of "the 7 habits of highly effective people" and the Eisenhower Matrix. - Theme: Self
A pimple inside your nose
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1–2 minutesSome situations are like having a pimple inside your nose.
They are painful, your nose turns red, and you either look like you have a cold or you’re an alcoholic. You randomly sneeze or have snot dripping down your enflamed proboscis, and you suffer it.
Eventually, it takes care of itself, and there is such sweet relief in returning to normal. - Theme: Growth
The sin of neutrality
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1–2 minutesTo remain neutral creates a vacuum.
We often stay neutral out of respect for individual sovereignty (freedom of choice or preference). Yet, without articulating an alternative, substantive vision our friends/family are left to the predation of marketed mantras that divide: "to each their own."