Seeking Coastal Utopia

Have you ever been to the circus or have you ever seen videos of the clown car? A bunch of clowns cramped inside, clambering out one after another. Yet you never really know who is driving. They had no purpose other than piing in with most likely no specific directions, no specific purpose other than being slightly silly? In case you are slightly analytical and curious about how they fit so many clowns into cars, Car and Driver devised some physics to justify the science behind clown car stuffing . “plenty of room in this beauty” photo by The Creative Exchange on  Unsplash When you think of the image of the clown car where multiple clowns cycle in and out of the vehicle, running in various directions, switching sides, changing locations, you lose track of who is where and which ones are in the show. The misdirection, constant change and people moving all over the place can cause you to lose track of who is doing what. Unfortunately, some organizations are much like cl...

Maybe we should even restate it by saying that simple is always better. “eyeglasses with black frames” by Jess Watters on  Unsplash Simple. The word itself is simple. The opposite of complex, the opposite of making it so confusing that it requires three people to work on it. It is as simple as one element, one piece. Simple is elegant in its scarcity. When you say “ wow, that was simple, ” you say it with a smile. When you say “ wow, that was complex ” it is usually prefaced or closed with expletives. Now, this is not a treatise against technology, even though technology is taking over. It is adding more complexity to our cars (e.g. self-driving vehicles) or that our appliances are now connected to the web and have browsers and screens built into them, enabled to determine where you are short on foodstuffs. There are (lots of) times when you want simple. It is recognized that self-driving vehicles are required to be complex because of the daunting task for eng...

I always have to do things that I don’t want to do in life and work. Things that are not even close to being described as “fun.” More often than not, every time we have someone telling us to do something we want to rebel, especially if we know it is not fun. “man pouring coffee in a white mug” by Nathan Dumlao on  Unsplash Our response? Screw you! Don’t tell me what to do! Yet, conversely, the things that we don’t want to do are often the right things that we should do . What is the right thing to do? The right thing is always the right thing! Yeah, thanks for the sage advice Fisher. Sheesh. When we talk about the right thing, we talk about behaviors that allow us to be prosocial: actions that build relationships and to make good connections with our fellow humans or to be one with our environment. These behaviors allow us to make our work friends happier and more effective because we did the right thing. Can you think of one thing that is not fun but you ...

Fear. Abject, mind-numbing, paralyzing fear. Photo by Kiwihug on  Unsplash We have fears that are far from life or death situations. Fear freezes us, makes us indecisive. We have a fight or flight mechanism that protects us from fear (see Lizard Brain ) assuming, of course, you need protection from that fear. Yet, if you decide to face your fear, to step toward your fear, you may find yourself in a new world that you never knew existed . There are different ways to face your fear, but many of them require a change in your behavior, or a change in your demeanor that leads to courage, to act on those fears . Turning that fear into anger (or even fury depending on the level of fear that exists) can be your guide. Not everyone has realized this is a choice they can make. Now in my case, this behavior may have been programming from an early age, or even the military mindset created from the Marine Corps (Semper Fidelis brothers), but fear is a catalyst for me. It is the reason ...