Manage you
View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) I talk often in CreativeBoost about the importance of getting the self (http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=139aecc4fa) out of the way so you can grow personally and thrive professionally.
But let’s be clear: none of us are ever going to be able to completely muffle the ego. It has to be managed.
It should come as no surprise then that the word manage comes to us from the 16^th century Italian word maneggiare, which loosely described the handling of horses by hand. That’s a good way to see the ego: a stubborn force that’s only going to come to heel if we keep a firm hand on the reins.
Here are five thoughts on how to manage the self:
Be willing to start again
We spend the first half of our lives convinced we have all the answers to things. We spend the second half learning to ask better questions and to invite doubt into our assumptions about the world before we act. Without making that shift, we deny ourselves the power that can come from a change of mind.
No matter what you are working on, open yourself to the risk of having to start all over (http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=4cd5968426) . Learn to be less preoccupied with getting things done and more with doing things right.
Understand the difference between comfort and happiness
Beware of a scarcity mindset in your work. It misleads you into the belief of having made legitimate choices when in fact all you’ve done is found comforting excuses instead of a commitment to action.
Living comfortably is not the same as being happy. Often they’re at odds with each other.
Comfort is a desire that insulates from life’s truths. Happiness is a choice.
Every time you define happiness based on achieving an unmet desire, you are lying to yourself. Happiness exists only in what is right in front of you. Desires are things that arrive constantly at the front door of the self, wanting to be let in. Choices are the select few that you let in.
Make compound interest work for you
Your habits and choices in life serve you best when you treat them the same way that compound interest (http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=35bf935570) works. Choose them with care and deliberately. Incrementally—day by day—change comes to you. Applying that inner wisdom is how you achieve what theologian Thomas Merton described as fruitful work: a portfolio of meaningfulness.
Draw a circle around the present
The Stoics remind us that the only thing we have completely in our control is how we react to events and actions in the present and that we must do so guided by our virtues, not our passions.
Seneca says it best: “These two things must be cut away: fear of the future, and the memory of past sufferings. The latter no longer concern me, and the future does not concern me yet.”
Hold difficult poses and embrace the blues
Learn to breathe and smile while in difficult poses. It’s the best thing I’ve learned (and have to keep learning) in yoga.
Hard poses are tough. Tough things hurt. And hurty thing are scary.
Instead, don’t run from ideas or things that scare you. Fuse yoga and jazz to find your inner resiliency. Embrace your blues the way a skilled musician would. Here’s how Wynton Marsalis explains it in his excellent book Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life:
“I have learned that the biggest mistake a jazz musician can make is to run from the blues. In my septet, we had a saying about the type of self-knowledge that scares you: don’t run from it, run toward it. And the blues can be found anywhere. That’s what John Lewis meant when he talked about the internal search for the blues. It’s also why, when you embrace the blues, no matter who you are, you’re embracing your own heritage as a human being.”
Very best, Patrick
P.S. Sharing CreativeBoost with others is the #1 way that it continues to grow. Do that now. http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=|URL:MC_SUBJECT|: |URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT| Tweet (http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=|URL:MC_SUBJECT|: |URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT|) http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=|URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT| Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=|URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT|)
============================================================ |IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE| |LIST:DESCRIPTION|
Our mailing address is: |LIST_ADDRESS| |END:IF|
unsubscribe from this list (|UNSUB|) update subscription preferences (|UPDATE_PROFILE|)
|IF:REWARDS| |REWARDS_TEXT| |END:IF|