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As my meandering quest for success progressed from its 1951 beginning I am now convinced three factors are proven essentials in noteworthy achievements: actions (what I am doing), behavior (who I am being during the doing), perception (how I am seeing myself, others and the rest of it through the process). The first two – doing/being – are a duality sages have noted for centuries, highlighted on this desk plaque from the seventies: |
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“The way to do is to be.” Lao Tzu “The way to be is to do." Nietzsche “Do-Be-Do-Be-Do…" Sinatra |
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One storied view of the doing/being dyad is of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha in Bethany (Luke 10:38-42) where Martha was busy with meal preparations, “doing for”, as Mary was engaged in “being with” Jesus, listening to his words. When Mary objected to Mary not helping, Jesus said Mary’s way was better. Both are important, but “being with” is the human connector. There are times when one is most appropriate, yet I remember John Bradshaw’s reminder, “We are human beings, not human doings.” The third, perception, seeing, is our worldview. The truly successful, those who live humanely, develop and continue refining a healthy one which filled with verifiable information and core beliefs, two essentials for viable opinions, freed from bias. In summary, “Success is theirs who are doing what they really want to do while being who they really want to be as an original self, with others, and the rest of it, seeing what is from a healthy perspective with a single proviso: Being more helpful than not.” Easy to say, hard to do, yet possible when we focus on what’s most important in the moment. |
#1: Premises | #2: Fundamentals | #4: Questions | #5: Stages of Living | #6: The Process
© 2019-2021 Gordon Hill (posted 8/6/21)