On Competence

When one starts their career, they are unsure of things they say, tend to listen rather than share input and opinions. Just recently, I have had the honor to meet some people from the world´s undebatable number 1 consultancy. We were talking about one of the global crises humanity is currently facing. I thought to myself: I care about this issue, but these guys are the best in the world in their capacity, they are the most competent to lead the trend of research / action.
So I stayed put. Until I started listening deeper and realized, that these guys have the numbers right no doubt, but they have the passion missing. And without deeply caring for a topic, you cannot see the big picture and its nuances . Without doing so, no comprehensive and effective action is possible.
They may have been the most competent in "hardware" - the facts, but lagged behind in contextualizing, understanding the subtleness of certain approaches and issues.
Bottom line, we need to join efforts if we want to stand a chance in fixing the system. But will we join efforts? I wish we did, but for some reasons our history does not seem to suggest that we will. Nevertheless, let´s not extrapolate history but build a new future! With competence on the hardware and software alike :-)

Channeling energy & Horses

I feel ups and downs and look for the recipe to avoid them. I mean, I really don´t mind ups, but when I´m down, it´s better not to be around me :-( People have been telling me for a while to manage my energy, so I tried some yoga lessons, which was good for my back pain, but since I failed at looking at my own thoughts as if they were just passing in front on my eyes, it did not help me let go of things and centering my energy.
I thought that was ok. It still feels ok, when I am up. But not when I am down.
And today I heard another simple reason why I should find a way to manage my energy: So, when I am down, I feel like I am without any energy at all. But then I cannot pull myself up. Which sucks. Coz you´re down and you stay there. Not the coolest place to be, that´s for sure.
So, today I had the chance to focus on a problem and talk to a horse. Well, the horse wasn´t listening, but I was trying to make it walk around me, even trot. First the horse pushed its face into mine. Apparently, I wasn´t authoritative enough. It´s difficult to think straight and act authoritatively with a horse in you face, I can tell you that. So, ok, after some calming down and spending time to center my energy, the horse started walking. But not the way I wanted. After an hour, though, I felt pretty relieved, when I told the horse to gallop and it did. Bottom line, when you center your energy and tell the horse to do something, it does it. When you pretend to be an authority, the horse pushes its face into yours. Horses feel when you pretend to be something or when you really are "it".
Learning of the day: Work with horses and you´ll learn to channel you energy.
Or the other way round: Any time you start feeling that your energy is leaving you, imagine thatthere´s a horse you want to gallop around you. Focus on it. It will help you center your energy and prevent you from deflating completely from one second to the other...
Hehe, let´s see if it works for me. Will give an update later this year :-)

The Traffic Light Button

If you have spent some time in Amsterdam (an the same may apply to many other cities of the world), you know the buttons you are meant to push by the traffic light so that it eventually turns green for your direction. There are different types of buttons, but the most common one is a button you press and without receiving any minor light or sound signal, you wait for the traffic light to turn green. Most of the time, waiting seems to long and you press it again. Or just keep pressing it or keep pushing it with a 20*/sec frequency until the light turns green.
In theory, just one push is enough. The problem is, that since you not not receive a signal back, you keep wondering if your "action" will cause any "reaction".
On mornings when its not raining, I find this "button pushing" an interesting metaphor for several moments in our everyday, when you "inject energy" into something, but do not know for a long time, if it's worth it. If your investment (not necessarily monetary) will have its returns, if your efforts are worth it. Interestingly enough, I find it a good tool to help me understand why businesses often think in short terms. Long terms, without immediately knowing if your efforts are worth it can be excruciating. I am an impatient type. Maybe it's an illusion to think that I would think in long term if I was to lead a company.
But I like to entertain this illusion.