Are You Too Efficient?
I know, in today’s modern times it seems like a nonsense question. But I’m here to explore it, and even dismantle it some, as I’ve fallen for the ‘efficiency over most all else’ doctrine, myself. LOL, I am a Capricorn, an earth sign, and we typically love structure and order — thanks to the influence of Saturn. Yet even Saturn is wrapped in these gorgeous color-burst rings! I take this to mean that structure is here to serve us, not the other way around. It can create a safe place from which to explore the magical mystery tour of your life.UPDATE 21 January 2023:I wish for others to learn from my experience of being addicted to straight routes and shortcuts and instead exploring rest stops where the soul nature can feed us treats. It’s like being in the ballpark as wanting to write AND make art, like loving pitching as well as batting, regardless of “how good” I am at either. Joy is its own goal; don’t let efficiency be the “own goal” that controls you, to use the modern usage.
Take a Breather from the Business Books
Business books took over the landscape a few decades ago and continue to hold their grip on us. I mean, who doesn’t want to be successful? (LOL, there are some people though I doubt they are reading this newsletter.)Just-in-time manufacturing. Shaving seconds off the process. Eliminating extraneous conversations. Shorter and shorter meetings. Standing meetings. Just get to the point! Not all bad, of course, but these ideas shouldn’t get to operate alone, in a vacuum of consciousness.The point of this post is to push efficiency out of the “top dog” position and make room for the other values that inspire humanity. It’s one subset of my newly embraced campaign for Humanity 2.0.The blessing of kismet is that when we notice something and it tingles inside of us, the Universe magically serves up more and more. It’s akin to researching a new car and then seeing more and more of that brand on the road. The basic math likely doesn’t change in terms of cars on the road, but our attention does. And it happens with no measurable effort. How cool is that?What if a Few Words Alone Can Lift Us Up?I was so moved by Hakeem Jeffries’ speech on the House floor, how he so succinctly and cleverly called up the alphabet to cite contrasts. The result? An easy choice for many of us. So, let’s take the easy path to find more good vibes and continue this process of re-wiring our brains for uplifting news rather than being response addicts to trauma and negativity. Hint hint, below.
I submit to you this list for cogitation. I’ve provided graphics below in case you want to have these handy in another form. Digital or printable. In your photo album or tacked to your refrigerator.Let’s feel better together with this consciousness alphabet.Awe vs angstBliss vs banalityCurious vs criticalDelight vs drudgeryExuberance vs efficiencyFree-Spirited vs functionalGo for it vs grandiosityHappiness vs hopelessnessIntuition vs intelligence?Jovial vs joylessKoolaid vs kvetchLoose vs lockedMagical vs mundaneNirvana vs noiseOpen-hearted vs operationalPrecious vs preservedQueen vs quibbleRambunctious vs routineSpontaneous vs servileThankful vs thoughtlessUnderstanding vs unkindVivacious vs viciousWhimsical vs worthlessXenophile v xenophobeYummy vs yuckyZest vs zeroKeep reading after the photo galleries for a few more links that inspired this week’s post.
For Further Exploration
Hakeem Jeffries’ speech on the House FloorI found watching and listening to this to be exhilarating! Oh, the words and the delivery!Money issues confuse our experience of joyThis is a terrific post by Morgan Housel on “The Art and Science of Spending Money.” I identified some of my neuroses in there and love the lifetime changes many of us experience in relation to spending or saving money.Embracing the power of AWEI learned about this new book by writer, Rebecca Solnit, on Twitter. Maybe you’ll join me for the virtual discussion on January 26th. And may I say again, my fellow UC Berkeley colleagues continue to “bring it.”
Are you too efficient?
