Never Waste a Calamity

Every calamity is a spur and a valuable hint. – Emerson

Yes, I am riffing off the recent political meme in the post title. (“Never let a crisis go to waste.” (Attributed, I believe, to Rahm Emanuel).)

That aside, Emerson’s words are an extremely valuable reminder.

We ignore “failures” and “calamities” at our peril.

Every result comes from a cause. And whether our role in the “cause” was 1% or 100%, we do indeed have a role in everything we experience.

When we notice and reflect on the results in our lives we can do better in creating/shaping/influencing the causes.

When we ignore, or are otherwise oblivious to, the cause-and-effect nature of life we have little chance to create the sort of life we want.

The key is to own both the successes and failures – they are both just results (owing from causes… ).

Similar Posts

  • The Charming Gardners

    Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust Who reminds you of your the happiness within you? Notice I took slight issue with Proust’s words and didn’t say “makes us happy?” To really believe that is to give away your…

  • Know Your Priorities

    “The key is not to prioritize what is on the schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey The critical bit here is you must know your priorities to schedule them. Not: what’s demanding your attention from moment-to-moment, or the pressing thing, or what you want right now because you think it’ll make you…

  • Behavior Always Wins

    You can tell me what you want, what you dream about, what your “Ideal Life” would be, what you want to start or stop, . . . , but all that matters is what you do. At the end of the day: behavior always wins. All that – really – matters is action. Of course, emotions beget…

  • Be More Than Just Busy

    “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau People say they’re so busy, so stressed, that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it, that there aren’t enough hours in the day, if I could just…

  • A View of Leadership

    There is the timeless, changeless core: our humanity — that which we truly ARE, what we have always been (regardless of our (sometimes) behavior to the contrary). And then there is the external: behavior — that which must interact and adapt, this is what leaders DO. The core is who they are, behavior is what they do….