Jun

23

Balancing Contentment With Ambition

Filed Under Philosophy | Leave a Comment

How do we balance contentment with ambition? If they are opposites, how can they mutually coexist?

As Rand once said, “there are no contradictions”. If there seem to be, one of the premises is false. In this case, it is the notion that contentment and ambition are on the same scale. That if a person is more ambitious, they are less content. And if a person is more content, they are less ambitious.

I believe that contentment and ambition exist on different spectrums – in fact, different time dimensions.

Contentment is an indicator of how one deals with the present moment. What is the emotional state for the NOW. A person with a high level of contentment is able to have inner peace and tranquility in every given moment. A person with low level of contentment is anxious or agitated in any given moment.

Ambition deals with a future state – where a person would like to be in a different time dimension from the NOW. A person with a high level of ambition has a large delta from current state to future state. A person with a low level of ambition has a small delta from current state to future state.

As such, we can experience high levels of contentment and ambition at the same time (like the Dalai Lama).  Or we can have low levels of both – such a person is never happy with what they have, nor are they desiring to make any change for their current situation.   A person can also have low contentment and high ambition – these people are constantly striving for more but are never satisfied.  Or a person can have a high level of contentment and low ambition.  These people are happy and peaceful but never reach their full potential.

What are YOUR levels of contentment and ambition?

Jun

12

The Trust Triangle

Filed Under Human Resources & Leadership | Leave a Comment

Trust = Competency + Integrity.

Competency is the result of track record. This can be recognized through occupational achievements, education, raw intelligence, etc.

Integrity is the result of a person’s spiritual state and value system. This can be recognized through their moral choices, lifestyle, honesty, consistency, commitment, etc.

When we meet somebody new, in order to trust them, we must validate both their competency and integrity. Similarly, for somebody to trust us, they must validate our competency and integrity. This can take time as we dig into their history, get to know them, etc. However, this process can be sped up through use of the “Trust Triangle”.

The Trust Triangle works by principle of extension. Person A trusts person B, and vice versa. Person A does not know person C, but person B trusts person C and vice versa. Person A’s trust for person C accelerates through person B’s trust of person C.

In this way, we can accelerate a person’s confidence in ourselves by establishing trust through a mutual third party. Similarly we can vet a person’s trustability through a mutual third party.

As such, it is important to build a wide network of trust so we have more nodalities to vet and establish trust through.