Tag: needverse

194 – Managing Talent

You can’t rush art, but left-brained, pampered, carped office managers always want to. Don’t be that manager; go through hardship and get dirty experience. But, that’s just the beginning.

Managing talented people is an art in itself. Some of this art can be studied in school from an academic, theoretical viewpoint. There are some theories we might consider and some skills we might refine under classroom supervision. But, when dealing with real problems in the labor field, nothing can replace experience through fieldwork.

Every “talent” situation is different. A business needs standards or it will fail. Creative geniuses need room to blossom and bloom, going and growing whichever way their hearts take them. But, if a flower grows the wrong way it could get stepped on in the road. If business strategy standards are violated or misguided—by managers or artists—the business will fail and the creative blossom will become homeless. In any business, boundaries and the bloom must work together, and both are always unique.

Help talent by knowing if there is a hard-line requirement in the beginning. When the artist’s work doesn’t stack up to standard, don’t bully the painter to tears, just explain your problem as the confused consumer. “This is great,” and explain the ideas you didn’t think of that truly need to continue from the artist’s ideas that were different from what you expect. Only then add, “I have trouble because this part confuses me as the customer. Can you think of a way so that I won’t be confused.” Don’t tell the answer, that must flow from creativity.

We all get our turns as the talent manager and the managed talent. When it’s your turn to sit in the artist’s seat, try not to be totally undone. Many inflexible artists meltdown too early and get fired for good reason. There is no amount of kindness or “room to create” that pleases them.

Each situation is best addressed in prayer. Take your artistic project to God, regardless of your seat. Work, pray, and God will hydrate your soil with just enough inspiration to help you flourish. After all, He is the Great Creative Manager, and we are His talent.

193 – Introspect

Don’t just do something, stand there.

Think about thinking. Think about your own thinking. Take time to think about thinking. Think about how you think about your thinking—to think about whether you think about thinking the right way.

Now, if you only think about thinking about thinking, I’d just say you’re stalling. But, taking moments to trace how one idea has impacted different parts of your worldview can help you become stronger on the inside.

A worldview is like fabric. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or flamboyant, but it needs to be well-knit. Sometimes ideas are knit by a single thread, other times they are woven by warp and weft. Threads out of place, too loose, or too tight can make the entire fabric weak. Just the same, a thread that doesn’t belong can change things for worse.

A little introspection is no waste of time. Consider it maintenance, which can be overdone or underdone; your preference is not the standard. Many “personality” conflicts between friends and family stem from having different levels for introspection, accusing each other of thinking either too much or too little.

Parents who think of themselves as “hard-working” often have trouble understanding introspective children. Parents who are not introspective probably have at least one child who is. The signs are usually an idiosyncratic interest in arts or programming language—the two are similar since code is poetry and poetry is code. Introspective people are easier to understand if one takes a little time for introspection oneself. Introspection is an acquired taste. Ironically, if an introspective child becomes estranged as an adult, the gruff parent becomes more introspective so as to ask why. “Why did this happen? What did I do?” they ask themselves at last.

Too late do too many realize that introspection has its value. Do it yourself and recognize it in others. Be introspective at times, but not to a point where it interferes with work. If you struggle with being happy it might be good to take a break from your thoughts and just focus on work. That’s not the same as unhealthily avoiding problems, but, as the doctor might say, rest is the cure.

191 – Keep Going and Keep the Public Peace

One of the secret responsibilities of a leader—unwritten in every leader’s job description—is that a leader must never disturb the people.

It’s easy to gain fame and power through shock and awe, theater and thrill. But, that is not any kind of lasting model of leading. Such leaders are short lived, having countless, intense, quick-burnout relationships. Leaders that last in office and build societies and organizations that endure through industry, hardship, and conflict will be strong and confident, but they will keep the pace of society operating smoothly, never startling the people with false alarms.

Every society has its moments to rise up in reflection and wrath. The most peaceful societies are the most fierce when their wrath is roused. Consider that Canada was the only nation to ever overpower the United States in war, 1812. Or, consider William Wallace who wanted to be a priest. When actual tragedy strikes, a peacefully strong people will pause to gather their faculties before rooting out the problem permanently.

Beware of any people who thrive or work in peace. Black slaves of America were such a people, undermined by their slavemasters, but later a political force to be reckoned with, just as the Pilgrim-founded American colonies before them. Oppressing, insulting, or otherwise disturbing a peaceful people is a deadly sin.

Trains need to run on time, roads must remain clear, the disruptions of construction should be few and far between. Follow Chicago’s example and do roadwork at night if possible. Keep the economy functioning, avail jobs without the burden of over-regulation, and let people assemble and discuss whatever they want without nannying or censoring their free exchange of candid ideas.

When different peoples are at odds, don’t smack everyone who deserves a good smacking. The peace of the many doesn’t deserve the fallout of smacking the head of a family, business, or state. Be tolerant toward insults, sooth wounds, don’t gag the mouth the shrieks in pain no matter how much your animal instincts want to. Warn of transition’s bumpiness, but make it as smooth as people allow. Use charm, wit, and tact to keep dialog going and solve big problems one bite at a time.

190 – Keep Calm and Carry On

Don’t trust in your own resources—your schedule, your friends, favors whether owed or promised, your money, or your smarts, talents, skills, education, or looks whether ugly or gorgeous. Base your trust on God’s hand to hold and uphold you. Then, you will stand no matter what comes your way.

The center of every storm brings its own calm. You yourself can be that peace. If you bring your own peace, then you are like another storm against the storm. Peace itself is a weapon.

Never grasp hastily at opportunities. When an army attacks, it plans for the enemy to respond. A good war strategist will even present phony “escape routs” in order to move the enemy into an ambush. Your red carpet way out will always include peace. Wait for the peaceful and proper moment before you move.

One of the oldest tactics of demons is to contrive plans so evil and terrible that almost every human will try to deny that the evil plan is real. This way, only the wickedest people will take up such plans. Yet, discovering those plans will naturally scare good people into going frantic. This is part of the plan used by demons on a regular basis. “Being discovered” is part of a grand strategy scare tactic to take away peace from their victims. Don’t fall for it. Keep calm and carry on.

Jesus is the prince of peace. Of course, being the Truth himself, Jesus will draw controversy and divide even immediate family members. But, Jesus brings peace and calm confidence to those who accept him for the Truth he is. He settles conflicts that whole world considers too impossible to settle, bringing peace and making friends even between the greatest of foes. Jesus’s ministry to the world is that Truth and Peace come together in him because Truth and Peace can only come if they come together because the root of conflict is fear, which is not driven away by compromise, but by confidence.

Many problems only exist because we think they are problematic, arising from our imagination of fear and worry. Act like a thing is not a problem and it just won’t might be.

189 – Act Sentient, not Addictive

A tree follows the rules that govern its life process. Roots grow down toward water, branches grow up toward light. Those are the “morals” of a tree and the tree follows them automatically. If a tree were to search for water in the dry, hot sun or grow leaves for sunlight in the dark, damp soil, the tree would die. Trees depend on “tree morals” in order to thrive and survive. The rules must be something for the tree to grow, even if leaves were for soil and roots for light—the rules must be set somehow for the survival of the tree.

Our own human bodies have some similar rules about where to grow arms and legs. But, unlike the tree, humans have the option to obey or disobey many of the rules that our survival depends upon. Consider many communicable diseases as an example. Certain activities make people more vulnerable to disease, other activities make people less vulnerable—such as abstaining from more vulnerable things and, in particular, washing hands especially before eating.

Trees follow their “tree morals” without any problem. As a result, they live and thrive. But, we humans have the choice of whether to follow “human morals” that empower us to live, survive, and thrive. Too often, we run counter to our necessary morals and, instead, make self-destructive choices. This is because God, in His goodness, created us with a choice. When we follow the path of life, it is not as programmed minions, but as a choice. God does not program us to love Him and choose life. We choose love and life willingly.

Our tendency to run contrary to the path leading to life started with the sin of Adam eating the only forbidden fruit, thus planting sin into our bodies. Because of this, we sinfully-instinctively gravitate to object to morals, whatever they may be. If trees could sin as humans could, they would object, even if their leaves were for the soil and roots for sunlight.

Our ongoing tendency to object to our own moral needs—whatever they may be—is nothing more than an addiction to lawlessness—and addictions never help anyone do anything worth doing.

186 – Lawlessness & Legalism Are Mere Addictions

Rules are not in themselves automatically good, but having no rules at all is automatically bad. Humanity needs the right set of rules, just how rules of the road empower everyone to arrive safely and quickly. The inability to follow any rules at all—whether good or bad—keeps people oppressed by poverty. Anarchy itself is a tyrant.

Legalism has been wrongly labeled as “making absolute what the Bible does not”. Adding rules to the Bible is actually “man-made religion”; “legalism” is the belief that God’s rules are merely moot, serving no pragmatic, sensible, and quite understandable purpose.

Lawlessness, by contrast, is a quasi-religious worldview. Lawlessness applied to the Bible seeks what “sins” God doesn’t care if we commit in the name of “forgiveness”. Both legalism and lawlessness ask whether we should feel obligated or liberated concerning moral rules. The premise is wrong for both.

When Israel obeyed God’s command not to eat pork, they weren’t “mystically better” than other nations; they were less likely to get sick in a world without soap and therefore more likely to survive against attacks from evil nations that instituted human sacrifices. Banning pork had nothing to do with pigs having “less favorable spirits” than cows and sheep, but simple survival. It made common sense. Unfortunately, the erroneous teaching of the New Testament Pharisees was “legalism”, viewing these rules as having some impractical, ethereal value in and of themselves. Pork was simply unhealthy. By Jesus’s time, society knew how to cook. So, God declared it “clean” to Peter, thus the Jerusalem Council did too.

God’s rules in the Bible are not any part of some silly test. People need rules. But, legalistic religious teachers don’t understand this. They oppress people with rules, viewing the Bible as a club to smack people with. Legalism creates just as much anarchy as its lawless worldview counterpart. By not hitting the nail on the head, the nail gets bent. Regardless of whether the nail bends right or left, hitting it again will damage the furniture.

Legalism is an addiction to following rules as an end to themselves. Lawlessness is much the same—addiction to having the free-spirited, uncontrolled life of an wild animal.

183 – We Were Created to Love and Be Loved

From the Beginning, God created us for the sake of love. We cannot exist without love. We cannot succeed at anything without love. Friendships, business, family ties, academics, government, society, international and domestic peace—everything depends on love in order to continue. This is because we as humans were made for love—both to give and to receive.

Our ability to love others is one in the same as our ability to receive love. Receiving and giving love are actually the same, single action. Sometimes we perceive and “feel” more receiving or more giving, but love really is always a two-way street.

No one can receive love without giving love. No one can love others without being capable of receiving love.

The person who leads the cause for compassion, head of an organization that helps those in need, but cannot accept the simple act of love, is not fully loving others, no matter how big the cause or organization may grow. Many people who are outwardly known as “the caregiver”, but don’t know how to accept love from others, are on a question to have love, but still haven’t found it yet. Don’t be surprised to find out who this is.

Just the same, many people seek to be loved by others. They know what they seek and they seek to be loved with conscious intent. They pray for God to send people who will love them. But, the truth holds just the same for them: Our human capacity to receive love and to give love are one in the same!

If you need to feel loved, then give love to others. If you feel love for others and you want to demonstrate that love for others, then pray for God to increase your own capacity to receive love that you might not be able to return.

Love between us and God is where it all begins and where it all ends. By loving God and accepting God’s great love for us, we automatically grow in our giving and receiving love with others—it’s an unavoidable consequence of true love with God and only flows from love with God first. Love is a God-centered circle.