Ability to respond & authority

The much less talked section of leadership is that of authority and responsibility; more so regarding responsibility.

In my younger days, when I was still in school, I realized very quickly that I did not want to lead groups to do anything, simply because my teachers did not give me certain authority to make decisions. Responsibility without authority is frustrating, it feels like being a hapless helpless servant. Thus, I shunned from leadership positions like being a student councilor, or even being a drill sergeant for my extra-curricular activity. The fact is, I learned to detest authorities who held on to their power in fear that something might go wrong.

Now, as I am older, and hopefully much wiser, I learned that I probably did not know much about responsibility. When authority was given to me to complete tasks, I had tended to abuse this authority, not by giving people hell in what they do. When the project failed, I, who delegated the work to my team members, refused to take responsibility for the project, but rather blame my group members for the incompetence. This is harsh, but I’ve done that before.

So, I learned, good leadership is not easy. Authority must be backed by responsibility and vice versa. Someone who does not take responsibility for his own life, becomes a liability to society. Another who does account for his actions, becomes a valued member of society. And this is just the beginning journey of being a good leader: First to yourself and then to the community as a whole.

Flexibility

While I am concerned about the awareness of my body as well as how flexible I am, here’s a clip worth much to be talked about. Not just about the ability of the person to manipulate his body in such a way, it awes us, but about his flexibility as well.

Of course, only after his passing, the King of Pop grabs the limelight again with his talents. This clip puts me close to tears, because of its emotional content, and the commitment he had to his craft.

Testing using ScribeFire

I have not blogged for a while, but I have found a tool that allows me to just blog from a more convenient platform. ScribeFire seems to be working, and this is a test post. =)

Running again

I am going to start running again. I have to re-look at how I choose my shoes. I enjoy running barefoot, but granite roads are painful to have my bare skin… so I will have to choose a shoe that will not inhibit my running posture as when I run barefooted, and yet protect me from the toughness of granite roads.

Sounds like it is going to be an interesting venture.

Seedy buying

A good brother and I discussed what it means to purchase a CD worthwhile. He brought up really interesting points:

- His purchases should at least leave his kids a legacy.

- The purchase should be something that has interesting musical ideas, to learn and wean from.

Right now, I am in the midst of packing my room. I want to clear some of my least wanted CDs… And I thought it would be good to have some guidelines to what I should keep and what I can give/throw away.

So based on his ideas, I have formulated my own:

- I will keep CDs that was significant in a period of my life.

- I will keep CDs that I can listen to it over and over again.

- I will keep CDs that have a calming effect.

- I will not keep CDs that are there because they are part of the complete collection.

- CDs that exhibit new ideas or interesting ideas will be considered carefully.

I think I got my list down… now to rummage thru my 600+ collection.

what’s wrong with being emotional?

I’ve been sneaking to my local bookstore, reading chapters of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. Go buy it, ease my conscience.

So far, I have finished chapter 1 and 2. Here is what I got from chapter 1.

Many of us make decisions based on the information available on what is present. Seldom do we dig into our selves to find out what our stand is, or what our values are before making a decision. It is sort of like a Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” situation, only it is based on external ideas not internal beliefs.

This proves dangerous to us, because it makes us more irrational than rational. This tells us many things about us. We do not take ourselves seriously, and we do not know our values seriously. We are easily swept into making emotional decisions.

Dan explains that we tend to always make decisions based on the the information given directly to us. That is, whatever choices given at that moment would be compared with each other, and then the ‘best’ decision is made.

However, unbeknowst to ourselves, we fail to value each choice based on the values that we have personally.

Interesting how marketers use this mechanism to make us buy things that we really may not need.

Read the book, what is written here is simply my understanding. Dan has done an excellent job illustrating his observations, I am just trying to be smart.

Good read

I started reading this book: Tribes by Seth Godin. Google his name, google his book. I am excited and stoked about his book.

His book is all about creating movements. I did not realize I was creating a movement, and that was why I faced so much resistance. This was particularly so in the former organization I worked for. Well, to balance things out, I would say that I was quite difficult to get along with.

Back to the book. If you are bored with your working life, and want to find some meaning in it, I recommend this book.

After reading this book, you might find the real answer to why you have not found meaning in your life.

Have a good read!

we cannot control…

There is the idea of external control and internal control.

I would love to think about what I want to do, and do what I think, but it is never so simple, isn’t it?

Imagine someone putting a gun to your head and telling you to relax.

Think about the day that you want to sleep, but you can’t think yourself to sleep.

What about the time you told yourself not to be nervous?

We cannot control many things about our lives.

Being

There is always this striving to be me about me. Sounds almost paradoxical, yet I perhaps am loss, and do not know the difference being me and doing me.

That aside, I bought my first CD in a long while from HMV. It was only $7.95. I purchased this CD so that I could hear the works and the pristine voice of Corrine Bailey Rae.

I also bought a book that cost me quite a tidy sum of $41.00 from Borders bookstore. A book that I have sort of been looking to purchased.

It was a good day.

contributions

Being a human, I like to put as many things as possible into neat little boxes. Categorize them, shelf them, store them. Unpack them, use them, re-examine them, put them into different boxes.

The good thing is that my training in my bachelor degree and my post-graduate diploma has helped expanded my horizons on a greater level.

I dare say that nothing on earth exists on its own. Every thing on earth has its place and context. This context is usually consists a rich description, which would probaby point to the richness of life itself.

The point I have been pondering on is: every problem I have, has many many contributing factors. No problem stands out with one root cause. Or wait, could it be there problems can stem from one root cause that needs to be fleshed out to fully appreciate the problem?