Decisions - A mental prompt to action
The flip side of inspiration is manipulation, and sadly who wants to regulate someone's beliefs, thoughts, or activities. A recent brief stint at a public company exposed the heavy handiness of manipulation by concealing behind the union contracts excerpts. Work this many hours freely, or we will demand you to work this many hours are not conducive to creativeness, loyalty, and staff retention.
Decisions: (n)
mental directives
prompts to action
results we crave
I resolved to pivot away from the company focusing on my two core values of respect and joy. Respect to me is not about how we treat someone else. Instead, it is how we converse with ourselves using our internal voice. If we can't speak positive things about ourselves, why do you think they would talk to others differently. Likewise, joy appears from what we do, not why.
I don't look at decisions to change something we thought was correct at the time as quitting or even failing; it is simply a pivot toward something better. A pivot creates space for one decision to change trajectory, and this writing is laying the groundwork for that next chapter.
My internal voice is named Casper. He was an adorable silver ragdoll cat we adopted. Casper would sleep most of the day, wake up, and then like the Halloween cat silhouette, arch his back and run sideways at you with claws exposed and teeth ready to munch. Once he settled down after being tossed into a corner, he would behave the rest of the day. As soon as the sunset and darkness fell, he wanted to be outside independently. You may be asking yourself why I named my internal voice after this crazy cat. My inner brain voice is quiet most of the day, but when I'm least expecting it, or at the worst time, here comes that feline voice to attack any positive steps of the day. Many would say it is doing so to protect me, but I think it shows the fear I haven't given attention to, and it wants to make sure I pay attention as the tiny scratches begin ever so slightly to bleed. I say evil kitty at this time, and as I open the door to toss it outside, I quietly ask myself, "Casper, what are you telling me to focus on as you've got my attention. Okay, I hear you; now go off and explore so I can focus on it."
In a course recently, I was asked, "if your life was a TV show and this was the Season 2 premiere, what would it look like?" What a powerful yet straightforward question on the surface. But it shouldn't be a kneejerk response. Instead, it needs to come from within based on where the storyline is heading, including what you desire and how you want to feel. I will reserve my response to this question for a later post. Additionally, I will share how I envision the opening scenes will play out and whose characters live another day and whose role is obsolete.