Blog Category: Security
“Security Is Mostly A Superstition”
Almost everyone has seen this Helen Keller quote: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.”
Keller, of course, overcame tremendous odds to become a living example of courage and persistence. She had to manifest security from her core – little reliant on the kinds of things that many of us have used to simulate security.
Times of loss and great challenge reveal the degree of self-security that a person possesses or can access. Have you ever personally experienced – or observed – great loss having an impact on feelings of security . . . one way or the other?
How able have you been to follow Keller’s example? Are her words just talk, or can we create a grand adventure from adversity and learn to be secure in our ability to get through tougher times?
Pretty words . . . or words to live by? How can her observation be translated into reality in your life?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Marketing to Our Physical Insecurities
The opposite of secure is insecure, and all humans have insecurities of various kinds. We are works in progress, and being compassionate about the insecurities of ourselves and others is kind and loving.
Insecurities often result from comparing how we think we should be to how we perceive that we are. For example, our media portray physical perfection as the only acceptable way to be, yet most of us are far from that definition of physical perfection . . . which may lead to feeling insecure.
Many industries are based on marketing to our physical insecurities. Cher said, “I’m insecure about everything because I’m never going to look in the mirror and see this blond, blue-eyed girl. That is what my idea of what I’d like to look like.”
No one will have to share it with the group, but think about some aspect of your physical self with which you have been insecure. Then ask yourself what impact that feeling of insecurity has had on your life thus far.
How would you like to change your historic point of view about any feelings of physical insecurity? Have you ever said or done anything to cause another person to feel insecure about her or his physicality?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Security Is A Paradox and An Oxymoron
With apologies to General Douglas Macarthur, his words about security may be just a tad strident. He said, “There is no security on this earth – only opportunity.” Apparently, another “security purist” who, to be sure, is technically correct in the absolutist construct of black-and-white thinking on our topic of the week.
Yet, we all know that life is a paradox. As Louis Adamic (a non-General whom I had never heard of) said, “Living is like licking honey off a thorn.” So it is with security: we can have health, wealth and wisdom . . . and, in the having of them, we can FEEL secure. Yet, since nothing endures, that feeling of security is fleeting . . . even if it last for decades.
Security may uniquely be both a one-word oxymoron as well as a one-word paradox . . . in any case, tough to reconcile with the realities of everyday life. Most likely, a solid way of dealing with any form of perfectionism – as absolute security is – is to use it to strive toward, but to resist being seduced by the promise of its NEVER CHANGING.
Dig deep and sense how you really FEEL about security. Not how you THINK about it, but how, deep in your gut you feel. Maybe confused, wistful, curious and perhaps even angry?
Perhaps the best security is the ability to appreciate the human experience in all its contradictions and up’s and down’s. How do you deal with your desire for security? Have you ever felt driven to make choices based on your perceived need for any kind of security?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
How Do You Define Financial Security?
Perhaps, for purposes of this discussion, we can accept that absolute security does not exist . . . in order to allow a practical conversation about relative security. A very simplistic way to define SECURITY is FREEDOM FROM CONCERN OR WORRY.
Let’s take on financial security first. Do you consider yourself financially secure? Why or why not? Without violating any confidence about your personal financial situation, can you share with the group how you define financial security?
Again, ABSOLUTE SECURITY would mean that you had enough money for the rest of your life (unknown duration) and it was always going to be safe and liquid and available to you . . . in an economic climate that did not erode its purchasing power through either inflation or deflation . . . and on and on.
The point being . . . that we have to come to terms with relative financial security to achieve a certain comfort level. A certain amount of cash to last for a period of time that you decide is “sufficiently secure,” a livelihood, macro-economic conditions that allow you to maintain or expand your security.
It’s always interesting to challenge assumptions. In this time of an ailing economy, it’s useful to examine what we require to feel secure. What is it for you? How much are you concerned about financial security?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Your Individual Relationship to Security
Our minds are reeling and our heads spinning over the state of our economy. We hear pundits talking about terrifying things from deflation to the end of capitalism. All the while, each of us is dealing with our own individual relationship to security.
Not “security” in the policing sense of the word, but “security” as safety . . . and even as a feeling of being protected against change and / or from loss.
Shakespeare said, “Security is the chief enemy of mortals.”
How so? It’s easy to say there’s no real security because change can happen in an instant. Yet, security, like everything else, exists in degrees. For example, someone with assets certainly has more *financial* security than a person who is destitute.
Perhaps the quest for ABSOLUTE SECURITY is what Shakespeare is talking about . . . the natural human desire to arrange things just so and to keep them that way.
What is your relationship to security? Financial, relational, health, safety, job?
How secure are you in your ability to handle whatever comes up in life? How can you feel more secure in the face of rapidly-changing times?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.