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Considering Wisdom #52
A weekly newsletter from BobBarnardnm.com
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Please share this with your friends so we can encourage others to consider wisdom.
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Thoughts on the intersection of Society/Culture, Productivity/You, and Wisdom/Knowledge.
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Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. Benjamin Franklin
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It has been a quiet week with time for a few Zoom meetings, golf, and writing. I am in the quiet time between my significant job learning period and finding their routine levels; they are each settling into a routine that only requires brief spurts of activity. So, I am trying to find a new balance between these spurts and writing. Not clear on the flow yet.
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Be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant. Marcus Aurelius
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Are you satisfied with your progress, or must you reach completion? Do you need to get your way or make progress toward a good solution? We must face this daily- is progress enough, or do we need to reach our goal? For example, I was in Arkansas when schools were integrated in the 60s; clearly progress but far from reaching the goal of equality. Another example, the LGBTQ community was happy for a while with the progress they made. But the recent backlash and changes to our laws have caused serious regression in their progress toward equality.
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Marcus Aurelius tells us we should be satisfied with even the slightest progress. This makes some sense because many of society's problems today are highly complex and will take generations to solve. But for those of us who think of ourselves as problem solvers, this is a very difficult admonition from the past. We want solutions now, and we remove our biases slowly.
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Many of us work to solve problems or achieve goals that are lofty and beyond our reach. But Marcus Aurelius is telling us to take joy in the slightest progress and not to dwell on the fact that we didn’t get it done.
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By treating the outcome as unimportant rather than as if our lives depended on it, we don’t have to feel guilty that we didn’t reach the goal. We don’t need to feel it is somehow our fault that we didn’t reach our end goal because the result is often unreachable in our lifetime. He tells us not to wallow in the guilt of failure, but to rejoice in our progress.
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This is a real problem for me because I like to find a solution and move on, whether it is ideal or not. I am not interested in studying something to death or discussing it ad nauseum. Let’s pick a solution and try it. We can always pick another later. This is something I must work on all the time, especially when I am working with others.
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By reflecting on what happens and understanding why you feel that way, you can begin to know yourself better and make your life easier. I have found that one of my shortfalls is impatience, and I always have to be aware of it.
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1. How do you feel when you don’t get something done?
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2. Why do you feel that way?
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3. How can you forgive yourself and take joy in progress?
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1. List the last time you felt guilty when you didn’t get something done.
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2. Write down in your journal why you felt this way.
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