Reading of the Week
Gold Coins: A Matter of Perspective If the gold coins have come to you, they’re asking you, quite literally, to consider your perspective toward money. In the fable, a group of coins sits in their treasure chest, not silently, but reflecting with each other on the ways they have been used by humans. There’s the man who was so nervous about having them he dropped one down a drain. But there’s also the young girl who picked one up as part of her collection to save for buying her first house. Other perspectives? Without judgment, what’s your own perspective toward money? Have you even thought about it? The gold coins, by virtue of their own value, are asking you to, in a way more consciously than we often do, reflect on what is of most value to us and to actively consider the ways the presence physical money can in good ways add to the quality of our lives. What here resonates for you, and what’s one specific action step you could take to follow up?
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Going for the Gold
“Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” Think of a time when you really worked for something you wanted or when you really wanted to excel and do well? On a particular test? A job interview? A sports competition? Champion wrestler Dan Gable reminds us that sometimes we emphasize the outward trappings but it’s even more important to focus on the qualities that make these kinds of endeavors successful: the hard work, the determination, the guts. There’s a hidden lesson here too. Sometimes we want things, and we’re impatient to get them. That is, we don’t just want something; we want it now! Must be nice, right? And sometimes things work out just that easily. But sometimes what we forget or don’t give enough credence to is just the hard work, the determination and the guts that serve as the due diligence to where we want to go. Not only was Rome not built in a day, but if our hopes and dreams are really worth it—as of course they are—let’s celebrate not just the end result of their achievement but the process of building successful habits that move us, step by step, mile by mile, to their achievement. There’s gold out there marking the end of a journey, but each step of that journey has equally as many nuggets to accumulate along the way. In what one or two ways this week might you find a little more gold as you work toward achieving an outcome? How might you use this as a stepping stone toward habituating more appreciation for the day-to-day things you’re doing right? Gold Thought of the Week
Praise! “Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.” Samuel Johnson How do you feel when someone gives you a compliment or says something positive aboutyou ? How do you feel when you praise someone else? Sometimes the expression of appreciation makes us uncomfortable or we feel we don’t deserve the attention. But, for me, Samuel Johnson highlights some interesting food for thought and provides some important reminders. First, the questions he raises are thought provoking. How often do we give and receive praise? Is such giving and receiving really as rare as his comparison to the scarcity of diamonds and gold indicate? Does the lack of such expression really serve to increase its value when given? While I agree with Johnson that praise, compliments and expressions of appreciation towards others are rarer than we might think, his observation interests me because I disagree with his views on their importance. I would like to see us remember to say or do more things to value and appreciate each other more of the time. More acknowledgment, more highlighting what we’re doing right and more attention to what’s working could truly change our ways of feeling and of being. Might it not be the case on the psychological level if not on the monetary markets that the giving and receiving of more praise and appreciation could actually increase by leaps and bounds the ways we think about our own individual value? What do you think of these ideas, in what one or two ways this week might you take note how you feel when you receive appreciation, and how might you send out a few more good thoughts and praise to specific people? Reading of the Week
Gold Coins: Neutral Observer If the fabled gold coins have come to you, they’re asking you to become kinder to yourself. They want you to become less judgmental. They want you to reflect on the choices you have made, but they want you to do so in a very specific way. As they obviously are, they want you to be neutral. Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t make yourself wrong. Simply take time to reflect on some of your options, choices and decisions. Which ones have moved you closer to achieving things you wanted? Which haven’t worked the way you thought they would? What are some of the next set of choices you can make which will get you on track to achieve more? Think about it: it’s actually quite a wonderful message. Reflecting on these questions from a neutral place and without judging your past actions will move you by leaps and bounds as you head out to meet the next inspiring challenges you set for yourself. What here resonates for you, and what’s one specific action step you could take to follow up? Reading of the Week
Gold Coins: Choices If the fabled Gold Coins have come to you, they’re asking you to reflect on the quality of your choices and decisions. Comfortably ensconced in their treasure chest, they’re a set of coins given the unique opportunity to tell their stories and to describe how they have been used by humans. Talk about the ultimate role reversal! When have they been squandered? When have they been collected and used well? They’re not here to make demands or to judge; they’re here to ask you to become more conscious, and since they denote all the special qualities of the gold of which they are made, they’re here to remind you your choices are special and important too. Use that quality of the gold as a reminder to get clearer when you’re making choices, and, as well, use those choices as a means to better capture your own and unique special nature. What here resonates for you, and what’s one specific action step you could take to follow up? Gold Quote of the Week
What’s Important? “I have to follow my thoughts and mine for the gold. I have to dig it out.” Bill Cosby What have you been “thinking” about lately? In the last hour? The last five minutes? Do you even “know??” Just consider. Bill Cosby’s quote is so great because in such a few words he so evocatively describes the nature of our usual thought process. “I have to follow my thoughts and mine for the gold.” How often in the first place do we follow our thoughts? How often do we take notice of what is going through our minds? I’m trying to write this but …The dog’s on the couch. There’s noise out in the street. The tv is on and I can’t really hear it…. And what do these random thoughts have to do with writing about Bill Cosby’s quote anyway? Actually, quite a lot because they offer an example of how easy it is for our minds to wander far from the task at hand. focusing on our thoughts, one thought at a time, can prove pretty challenging. We get so busy that we don’t slow down to sort out what we’re thinking from what we’re doing, and in any case, most of us simply aren’t used to such monitoring of an internal process. Additionally, , the image of “mining for the gold” is so apt because once we do focus on our thoughts, there can be so much chatter we get lost and don’t even begin to consider what’s most important. It really is like slogging through all the dust and debris and having to digand slow down to find the real nuggets. Finally, the analogy to digging for gold invokes the same kind of spirit of adventure we highlight when we think about people who actively set out to foreign territory seeking buried treasure. Why not use that same spirit to get as excited about the internal process of figuring out what’s most important to us Though he’s known for his humor, this time Bill Cosby’s couple of sentences really, to mix the metaphors, hit the nail on the head. What a gentle way to help us think about thinking, and what a smart metaphor linking the act of thinking to mining for gold. Let’s go for it, and let’s enjoy the adventure. How might Bill Cosby’s ideas be useful to you, and in what one or two ways this week might you better mine your thoughts? |
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August 2015
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