I've been reading "Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People" - it's basically a small thought or passage to read and ponder each day, based on "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey. I skip around a bit (intentionally), and I really liked this one I stumbled across today:
"By working on knowledge, skill and desire, we can break through to new levels of personal and interpersonal effectiveness as we break with old paradigms that may have been a source of pseudo-security for years."
Breaking old paradigms? Pseudo-security? Nice. I think the desires are always there. We're just too effective at squelching them so we don't seek out the knowledge or skills necessary to bring them to life.
It's interesting how we can buzz along each day in a constant flurry of activity, never touching on or acquiring new knowledge and new skills to tap into those desires. It's this even-keel, white noise level of doing that makes us feel pseudo-secure with clocking out each day. A faux level of accomplishment - an old, comfortable paradigm. While in the backs of our minds and deep in our hearts, we are burning and itching and clamoring to do more, achieve more, try more... be more! We know it's right below the surface of our daily monotony - but we also know we would need to stop the momentum cold in its tracks, acquire new know-how and plug-in new (untested) ideas and new (scary) routines to become More. "Oh, the upheaval of it all! It's too much!" (I'm being dramatic.)
Who wants to do that? "Oopsies, no time for The New Ideas and The New Routines today! Maybe tomorrow!" And all the while we feel a tremendous amount of guilt for quieting our desires another day. The desires we know could lead us down a path of new successes and new triumphs. For me, when I squash down my guilt for not taking more risks or getting out of my daily ruts, it eats me alive. And that's far more dangerous to my ego and security in the long run. To thine ownself be true.
I am going to be reflecting on this one big time... making a post-it to stick on my monitor to check myself tomorrow and the next few days... to see what I've done to break through my pseudo-security. (And I'm having a deja vu while I write this. Maybe I've already reflected on this. Maybe this is why I'm already doing what I'm doing... Creeps!)
