Being Point

Tag: Power

  • Does Less Ambition Make You Happier – But Also Less Useful?

    Ambition, as we have seen this week, can be a mixed blessing. Edison said poignantly, “If I had not had so much ambition and not tried so many things, I probably would have been happier, but less useful.”

    Is that the tradeoff: Give up happiness for being useful? Do you think Edison’s ambition was for being useful or for fame, fortune, accomplishment itself, or for the challenge of inventing things to solve problems?

    Is your ambition useful or counter-productive? Has ambition ever gotten in the way of your happiness? Again, don’t limit your thinking about ambition to power, money or the like.

    As with all things, ask yourself the question: “How does this quality (of ambition) both serve and mis-serve me? The winning approach is balancing out those answers to something that works well for you.

  • Are There Valid Ambitions Unrelated To Power And Money?

    Ambition is most often thought of in terms of money and power. Yet, the word itself can accurately be used to refer to all kinds of human goals.

    Suppose, for example, that you wanted to pursue a calling of being of service to impoverished people. You are passionate about helping and making a difference. You want to help a lot of people, and you desire to have your work produce meaningful positive change in their lives.

    Would you consider that mindset ambitious? Does it fit to think of oneself as ambitious in serving others, or in protecting the environment, or in making the world a better place?

    What are your ambitions that are unrelated to power and money? Are you an ambitious spouse, life partner, parent, family member, volunteer or friend?

    What kind of thought do you give to the level of ambition you bring to being a friend, partner, etc.? Would you like to be more ambitious in these areas? Would you like to be less ambitious for money and power? Does ambition serve you or mis-serve you?

  • What Happens If No One Understands The Technology That We Use?

    Have human beings kept up with the technology that we have invented? I must admit that I couldn’t successfully detail for you how most things work besides a general description. Carl Sagan said:

    “We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”

    Many of us learn enough about a given technology to use the features that we most want, but never learning how to use many other features. My new iMac is a great example of available technology that I’m confident that I have not learned. I want to spend time on the tutorials, but I never seem to make that time.

    How do we develop a working relationship with technology so that we can feel comfortable understanding what we are using? Does this problem have a solution – or are we doomed to experience what Sagan predicts?

  • When Is Surrender Sweet?

    Surrender can mean defeat . . . or surrender can mean transcendence.

    If it’s defeat, we are called upon to be strong, learn from what happened, and move beyond what we were fighting against. We can learn to be resilient.

    However, surrender can be useful if thought about in the context of giving in to something ultimately larger than ourselves and yielding to it for our own growth and evolution.

    Writer Sara Paddison, “When we know love matters more than anything, and we know that nothing else REALLY matters, we move into the state of surrender. Surrender does not diminish our power; it enhances it.”

    Can you think of a place where “Sweet Surrender” has significantly enhanced your power? Are there any areas of your life where yielding to love or some other great force would actually make you far more powerful as a human being? Has your not surrendering actually diminished you in the past? What are the ultimate consequences of your not surrendering?

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.