LOGICal eMOTIONs

A Message to Garcia

// January 6th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Brain Dump, Logical Emotions, The MINeD Field

General Calixto Garcia (left) and Brig. General William Ludlow, taken during their conference at the time of the landing of the American army, from p. 312 of Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain, Vol. II, published by Harper and Brothers in 1899. (another site indicates that it's Garcia on the right and Rowan on the left... dunno - probably stick with Wiki's data)

For whatever reason, Mark Gorman popped into my brain the other day. There is the small possibility that I was seriously deficient in Cajun humor at the time, but it was likely someting else. Mark Gorman is many things, but mainly, he is a minister and a speaker. As an athiest, Mr. Gorman is probably one of the least offensive ministers around – and he’s funny to boot. If you’re into that sort of thing and you haven’t heard him before, I would suggest checking him out – hey, it’s not every day you get a recommendation about a minister from an athiest! On the speaking side of things, Mark has been on the circuit for a number of years and he always has a great message regardless of the topic he’s on.

Many years back I was given a tape of Mark’s from when he did a talk back in the day for a group in the old Amway system. Amway/Quixtar – good/bad – not the point. The point is that many of the large training organizations associated with various MLM’s had/have the resources to bring in some great speakers. The tape in question was ‘A Higher Standard of Excellence‘ in which Mark relayed the article by Elbert Hubbard called ‘A Message to Garcia‘.

Because of various copyrights, I don’t think it would be wise to post the audio from the tape, however, if you have not read ‘A Message to Garcia’, here it is in its entirety complete with a foreword to put it in better context (if you have read/heard it, feel free to skip on down – I have a bit more for you):

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The Discussion

// September 4th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Logical Emotions, The MINeD Field

“Here you pass me by with barely a glance, absorbed in your own world, passing judgement based on what you see – not what you know. You don’t know me. You don’t know the life I’ve led, or the choices I’ve made. I’ve made decisions – some of them were good, and some of them bad. Have I not paid the price for my decisions? My actions? Do I not wish that I could go back and change the past? Deep inside, you know how close you came to being where I am today, yet I am the one here, not there amongst you. You are quick to judge me, but let me ask you: Would you even try to help if I asked?”

And Failure simply lay there, with nothing to say.

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Vi veri veniversum vivus vici

// November 13th, 2007 // No Comments » // Brain Dump, The MINeD Field

“By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.”

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Focus On Things You Can Change

// October 1st, 2007 // 4 Comments » // Logical Emotions, The MINeD Field

Last week, Robert Hruzek wrote a great post on Where’s Your Focus? where he told the story about a flight with only one engine. The point to his analogy was about not focusing on the engine that wasn’t working, but focus on the one that was! Or rather, where are you focusing in your life – on the things that aren’t working, or the things that are?

This particular analogy got me thinking, and although I agree with not focusing on that which isn’t working, my brain decided to take it one step further in that focusing on the engine that is working is of no use either…

On a plane with one engine working, and one that is not, as a passenger there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it. If you’re looking out the window at the engine that is working, there is nothing you can do to keep it working and there is nothing you can do if it happens to stop working..

If we shift our point of view to the pilots of this particular flight, their focus was directed at the engine having troubles, a decision (to shut it down) was made, and their focus then shifted to the one that was working to ensure that it was OK. Once it was determined that the engine was functioning properly and that they could land with only a single engine (planes are built this way – well, the good ones anyways), there was nothing more that could be done there and so their focus shifted once again. It shifted this time to their clients (passengers) with the intention of letting them know what was happening, and that they need not be alarmed when they saw the bad engine shut down. Once the passengers had been updated and reassured that they wouldn’t be creating a large hole in the ground in the very near future, the pilot’s focus shifted yet again to the things that could be controlled.

I agree with Bob that focus needs to be moved away from the things that aren’t working in our lives, however, to take it just one step further, things that ARE working simply need to be recognized and our focus needs to be directed to the things that we can control (or influence) to keep things working.

As a passenger on that flight, focusing on either engine really serves no purpose at all simply because there is nothing you can do about either one. Nobody is going to come running back from the flight deck and ask you to focus on the working engine in order to keep it running for them.

So what can we focus on that we can have control or influence over? Well, in this particular situation, we can focus on our own emotions over the situation. We can keep ourselves from freaking out and adversely affecting others around us. We can focus on helping our fellow passengers who don’t understand the fact that the flight is still ‘safe’ by explaining that planes are designed so that landing can be accomplished with only one engine. There are always things we can do in situations where our focus can be of benefit, even when the main issue is out of our control.

Don’t focus on the things you can’t control – focus on the things you can!

Photo by zerega

Popularity: 9% [?]

Engineered Meanings

// August 16th, 2007 // 15 Comments » // Brain Dump, The MINeD Field

Fellow Torontonian Stefanie let us know of this “World Clock” over on Poodwaddle.com.

Although a very nicely designed clock, I wonder if the world really needs it.

Yes, yes, it brings awareness to the problems in the world, however, that is just my issue! At what point do we stop focusing on the problems and start focusing on the solutions?

Every single person that goes and views the clock comes away a little depressed. Those who don’t must be able to look at the 2% of the content (Births) and feel good that there are more babies in the world. (?!) That’s right, out of 50 items tracked, 2% is actually considered POSITIVE while the remaining 98% is decidedly (and intended to be) NEGATIVE.

I find myself asking the question: Why so much time on a downer, and not an upper?

Could a clock not have been created that shows (for example):

1. Cancers Cured
2. Diabetes Now Managed
3. Swimming Lessons Taken
4. Sought Help Rather Than Killing Themselves
5. Condoms in Use
6. Little Malaria Pills Taken
7. Acres of Improved Agriculture
8. Species Discovered

And the list goes on. Yes, I do hear the arguments welling up inside about the fact that we must draw attention to these problems in the world, and yes, I do agree that more people should know what is going on around them, but is this the way? In order to solve the challenge, do we focus our attention on the challenge, or do we focus on the solution? We know what the challenge is and we know why it is a challenge, yet where is the progress meter?

Changes in the world and changes for the better are happening constantly, and not by accident. We are aware of cancer, suicides, extinction, and leprosy and yes, there are numbers to go with them – heck, absolutely anything can be tracked, yet are these the numbers we want to be tracking?

Should we track the number of times you didn’t tell your significant other that you love them, or do we track the number of times you did?

Should we track the number of times you didn’t simply smile and say ‘Thank you’ when offered a compliment, or do we track the number of times you did?

Should we track your selfish acts, or your generous acts?

Should we track the bad things about your life, or the good things? What? The good things?! But if we take the bad stuff, make it into a fancy clock, and put it on the internet, surely it must be a good thing, right? It will make people more aware of the problems in your life, the number of incidents so far this year/month/week/day, and we can just watch the numbers grow! Won’t the world THEN be a better place? Oh, it won’t? Huh…

So then why do we accept the double-standard? The reality is that they are just simply numbers and we are the ones who are attaching meaning to them. If there was a number below ‘Cardiovascular Diseases’ that was increasing at a faster rate and was labeled “Cured Cardiovascular Diseases’, would we not attach a different meaning? The challenge is that there is no comparative information given, and the engineered meaning is that this clock is bad – fascinating – yet bad.

“Engineered Meaning”, in the negative sense, is quite possibly the worst thing going. It relies on speculation, and the general pessimism of society to attach meaning where there ought not to be any.

Take for example, a police car going down the street with it’s lights flashing. For most, the first reaction and meaning would be that something bad has happened and the police are responding. Could be an accident, a robbery, a domestic disturbance – whatever. Now it could be possible that that particular car is racing ahead to the next intersection to stop traffic to let the charity marathon pass through… All that happened is that a police car went by with it’s lights on – what we attach as the meaning is entirely up to us.

When we look at the clock, right now (as of my “now” when writing this), there were 700 injuries due to fire. So, is that good or bad? Well, bad if you’re one of the 700, yet good if you’re number 701 and the number is down from it’s usual 710.

Without comparative data, the numbers provided in the clock are simply that – numbers – no more, no less. With engineered meaning however, they have been selected so that the majority of the population will look at them and attach negative meaning. There is no comparative information to state facts that “yes these are bad numbers because they are up from last year” – no, they are just numbers.

Be careful what you attach meaning to and make sure it is indeed YOUR meaning… it affects how you view the world around you.

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