People describe anger, depression, and many other emotions as negative or bad, as if they don’t want them in their lives. They’re useful! They motivate you to change what causes them, generally things in your environments and beliefs. What causes them is conflict between yourself and others, internal conflict, and wanting the world to change, mainly. As long as conflict exists, which is forever since no one shares your interests[…] Keep reading →
People don’t always behave consistently with the world. Why not? Because they don’t see the world perfectly, they see it filtered through their beliefs and the limitations of their perception. They certainly don’t always behave consistently with your perception of the world. Why not? Because their beliefs and yours differ. They don’t even behave consistently with what they say their beliefs are. Why not? Because when people communicate, they mix[…] Keep reading →
If you like my perspective on being human and our place in the world, I recommend watching the videos of James Burke from BBC. They’re mostly available on YouTube. I first saw his series Connections and The Day The Universe Changed in the 80s on PBS. I watch them again periodically. His work is some of the few I find I like watching repeats as much as the original. I[…] Keep reading →
It’s snowing heavily and people are complaining the winter has been long. It’s as if people know the saying Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. and then forget it when things they can’t change happen. What’s the point of knowing the words of phrases but not learning how to do[…] Keep reading →
Yet again, another paper on empathy only associates it with emotions we don’t like—sadness, loss, etc. Almost never laughter, joy, fun, and feelings we like. I wrote about this before and how catastrophically it impedes people from developing what is otherwise an important tool for relationships, leadership, your own health, and more. I’m not even going to mention the paper because it’s so counterproductive. Wikipedia describes empathy like: discerning what[…] Keep reading →
How do you think when someone acts unexpectedly, especially a way you don’t like. That result is usually the opposite of leadership, where you want people behaving the way you lead them. I used to think something like They did something wrong. Why would they do that?!? What’s their problem? I know how to do this right. I have to change them. What should I do to get them to[…] Keep reading →
We all have similar emotional systems, so why do we behave so differently? I illustrated below how people who have identical drives and emotional systems with only different beliefs can end up behaving differently yet feeling internally the same. I plan to represent it more graphically and pretty, but this is where I am so far. It shows that internally, we all think and react similarly. Only a slight difference[…] Keep reading →