As I described recently, the way out of self-pity is service. The way to a meaningful life is to focus on contributing to something bigger than yourself.
But how do you know if you are in an excellent role to make your best contribution professionally, personally, or in your spiritual community?
How do you face change, risk, and uncertainty?
One helpful way to understand this is to identify the primary way you think, and the way you are naturally hardwired to think can fit powerfully with your type of work. Or it can help explain if you regularly feel discouraged and disconnected from the work you do.
While there is significant value in learning to show up and get your job done efficiently, you will thrive and create the most value when your ways of thinking fit your position.
If you are primarily a concrete thinker, you thrive in organizing chaos and getting things done.
If you are mainly an abstract thinker, you flourish in having the space and time to be creative and inventive, not to mention the support of those who can get things done alongside you.
If you straddle the middle of the spectrum, you can be a great fit for management roles.
To dig into understanding how you, and your team, can work in your sweet spot, understand your "Thinking Wavelength."
Resources
Take this free, Thinking Wavelength assessment created by the good folks at Paterson Center. Here is the PDF of the assessment. Begin the short evaluation on page 7.
After identifying your Thinking Wavelength, watch this 14-minute interview about how to apply it best.
Share this Thinking Wavelength and other great resources by sending your friends and colleagues to sign up to receive the Words of Wisdom every Wednesday.
Quotes
"You are who you are. Gaining clarity and truth about yourself helps to determine what needs to change."
"Most people are convinced that as long as they are not overtly forced to do something by an outside power, their decisions are theirs, and that if they want something, it is they who want it. But this is one of the great illusions we have about ourselves. A great number of our decisions are not really our own but are suggested to us from the outside; we have succeeded in persuading ourselves that it is we who have made the decision, whereas we have actually conformed with expectations of others, driven by the fear of isolation and by more direct threats to our life, freedom, and comfort."
Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom
Endnote
One of the keys to successfully navigating modern society's complexity is to be both a sovereign individual, free to think and act for yourself, while simultaneously committing to a deeply rooted tradition and community in service to others and their needs. The more you understand yourself, how you think, and why you are the way you are, the more you can add value to your world and community.
Live wisely,
Josh
P.S. Take the Thinking Wavelength assessment and share your results with your closest friends! Feel free to share your results with me and ask me any questions you'd like.
