Jolt! (15 page)

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of “crackpot” than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.
—THOMAS J. WATSON, FOUNDER OF IBM

Commit to a life of creativity and original thinking. Dress differently, drive home an unusual way, look at your job from a new perspective, stop taking people and things for granted. A life of creativity is a wonderful world where you'll encounter new possibilities and see the world from a distinctive viewpoint. Just as in many other areas of change, some people will be upset with you. Lots of people out there hate creative thinking. They don't like change, and therefore originality is something they are uncomfortable with and shun. Many people in corporate leadership don't like their policies questioned or their dictates doubted.

But the results of original thinking cannot be doubted, questioned, or criticized.

Tom Kelley, in the closing of
The Art of Innovation
(see p. 87 here), wrote:

Try it yourself. Innovation isn't about perfection. You've got to shank a few before your swing smooths out. Get out there and observe the market, your customers, and products. Brainstorm like crazy and prototype in bursts. You know the drill. The next time you're knee deep in a challenging project, don't forget the true spirit of innovation. That's right. Have some serious fun. (297)

Perhaps the best-selling point for creative thinking is fun. It makes work seem like a playground and can transform your attitude toward your job and your business. Innovation can build teams of top performers and create a corporate atmosphere of excitement, enthusiasm, and loyalty.

It works in your personal life as well. When you can view every aspect of your life as a creative opportunity, the mundane becomes a compelling adventure and you'll begin to see everything in a new light.

The classic advertisements for Apple computer said it best: “Think Different.”

» JOLT #13
EMBRACE AMBIGUITY
Appreciating the Mystery of Life

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
—F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, NOVELIST

If you really want something in life, you have to work for it. Now, quiet! They're about to announce the lottery numbers.
—HOMER SIMPSON

I
like to toss out provocative thoughts on Twitter and Facebook just to see the reaction. It often leads to fascinating discussions, but more than anything I've noticed just how black-and-white some people can be. They want clear and simple answers to everything and can't tolerate shades of gray. But the truth is, we don't have answers for a lot that happens in the world.

Why does one family experience tragedy and another doesn't? Why does a company fail in spite of a great product? Why is there so much need in the world? Why can't I accomplish my dream?

One of the hallmarks of the modern mind—especially during the last hundred years—was certainty. The rise of modern science made us believe that everything can be proven given enough time, and in the age of modernity, we came to see our world as something measurable, concrete, and exact.

But we've discovered that life isn't as exact as we thought. In our age of “scientism,” we put our faith in science and considered religious belief to be primitive and foolish. We discovered that, while science matters enormously, it doesn't necessarily hold the promise we thought it did. Marriages still fail, rates of violence and crime have not fallen, and wars still exist.

Life is wonderful, but it is also quite messy.

As a pastor's son, I attended more funerals by age twelve than most people attend in a lifetime. My dad conducted funerals for children, teenagers, young adults—many people who had no reason to die and every reason to live.

Again I saw that . . . the race is not to the swift . . . nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all.
—ECCLESIASTES 9:11 NRSV

If we are to understand
real
change, we have to accept the mystery of life, realize that it's not always fair and that we don't have all the answers. If postmodern thought can help us, this is perhaps its strongest argument. Life is not necessarily about certainty, being right, or finding all the answers.

In a disrupted world, the secret to life is about asking the right questions.

From the beginning, we have been creatures of choice. We are not ruled by instincts, robotic instructions, or programming. We have a choice—but within that choice is the great paradox.

Choice means . . .

• we are free to do evil as well as good.

• we live in a world where birth, life, and growth are balanced by decay, disease, and destruction.

• the responsibility to do the right thing—not the license to do what we please.

• true redemption is in the struggle of life.

• ambiguity.

Listen to the evening news for very long and you'll see the parade of people demanding “rights” for everything you can possibly imagine. On camera these people are quick to talk about
rights
, but not so quick to talk about
responsibilities
. Understanding ambiguity is to take responsibility for our own lives in spite of what happens to us. Accepting ambiguity may be our greatest act of faith.

Bookstores are filled with books providing easy answers. Go to the self-help or business section and you'll find a multitude of titles such as
The Three Easy Steps to Financial Success, Living at Your Best, Successful Families
, or
The Secrets of a Strong Marriage
. I've read most of those type of books over the years, and I have to admit that I'm still not as financially secure as I'd like, I could still be living better, my family does dumb things, and my wife and I continue to have our spats. I've discovered the search for easy answers is a futile effort that usually leads to failure.

Yes, much of the information in these books is terrific. Many of the facts are right-on, and they include things that can really help people. But the truth is, life isn't about finding easy answers—life is about asking the right questions.

When you can get away from your obsessive search for effortless answers to the problems you face, you'll begin to understand a much bigger picture.

» LIFE DOESN'T ALWAYS MAKE SENSE.

Sometimes no matter how hard we work, the project still fails. No matter how hard we try, our spouses still file for divorce. And no matter how much we intervene, a child still experiments with drugs or alcohol.

I watched the TV news last night as a father wept because his thirteen-year-old daughter decided to take the family car on a joyride, lost control, and killed two young children. She came from a good family, she was an excellent student, and her parents loved her and raised her by the book. There was no reason for her impulse, but she did it anyway, and now three families are shattered.

As I looked at that weeping father, I realized there are no easy answers in life.

I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
—ECCLESIASTES 1:14 NRSV

If you think the Bible is a story of fairy tales for wimps, think again. The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes was written by a man who had seen everything, been everywhere, and owned as much as any man on the earth. He had enjoyed everything life had to offer, and all he saw was emptiness and vanity. He understood the difference between a life of true understanding and a life devoid of purpose and meaning. It's a book that deals with the reality of living and doesn't hold back or cut corners.

Film critic and professor of theology and culture Robert Johnston wrote in his book
Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes Through the Lens of Contemporary Film
:

Medieval Old Testament scholars called Ecclesiastes one of the Bible's “two most dangerous books.” (The other was the Song of Songs with its overt sensuality.) Though its trenchant observations on life reveal a fragile joy—a useless beauty—its paragraphs also brim over with a cynicism and even a despair that seem out of place in the Bible's grand narrative. (19)

But at the end of this despair, the writer of Ecclesiastes also offers us hope. He offers real wisdom instead of easy answers. Life is not a manageable project or a test to be taken. We can find small joys every day if we have eyes of faith. We can find meaning if we search for a greater purpose. And perhaps most important, we need to realize that life is a great gift.

In M. Night Shyamalan's movie
Signs
, a Pennsylvania minister has lost his faith and abandoned his calling because of the senseless death of his wife. But as the story unfolds, he discovers fragments of meaning in normally inconsequential events. Things others don't notice begin to have enormous meaning for this former pastor. The Bible says in 1 Corinthinans 13:12 that now we see in part, and for him, the parts begin to make sense. Finally, as he is able to set aside his bitterness and anger, he begins to piece together the meaning and once again discover his faith.

So what can we make of this idea of ambiguity? How can we face a world without all the answers when we have deep questions and yearnings that we don't understand?

Writer Peter Block suggests that we should stop looking for simple answers and start asking bigger questions. For things that really matter, you'll find the real answer deep inside the question. It's interesting that when the people of the New Testament asked Jesus questions, he turned right back to them with another question. Great teachers and philosophers throughout history have done the same thing.

These teachers understood the power of questions and how questions can be the key to real understanding. Life is complicated. Life is difficult. Life is not so neat. The obvious answers we're looking for aren't always in front of our noses.

» STOP WAITING TO FINISH.

Life is about the journey, not the destination. It sounds trite and clichéd, but its real meaning is more powerful than we can imagine. It's written on cute motivational posters, but we ignore its real power. Stop waiting to arrive. As a young man, I spent most of my life “waiting to finish.” Driving in the car on summer vacation, I couldn't wait to get there; in school, I couldn't wait to get out of class; at work, I couldn't wait to finish the project. Then one day I realized that I've spent most of my life waiting for something and never enjoying the process. I had missed most of life's greatest moments in anticipation of something else.

Nothing reveals that frustration as much as watching your children grow. Our daughters are grown, and it's amazing to realize that only yesterday they were sitting on my lap telling me what they wanted for Christmas. Kathleen and I watch home videos and wish we could go back, just for a day. They grew up so fast, and I wish I had been in the moment and relished those early days a little more.

My life is here and now. My family is here and now. My marriage is here and now. My career is here and now. The journey happens every day.

Dr. Larry Poland, founder of Mastermedia International in Hollywood, puts it this way: “Stop rowing and start sailing.” Dr. Poland describes most people as struggling against the wind, rowing, giving it their best but wearing themselves out in the process. They want to control their direction and force the boat to go a particular way.

Experienced sailors know that if they just relax a little, they can steer but let the wind do the real work. You might not go in the exact direction you prefer, and you might even wander off course a little. But knowing how to steer will still take you to the same place and allow you to enjoy the trip.

Sometimes, like a drowning man, we struggle against the very things that can save us.

Sit back, relax a little, and accept the mystery. Perhaps how you get there doesn't matter quite so much. The writer of Ecclesiastes knew that we all end up at the same destination—dust. The only difference is how we enjoy the journey.

We can either celebrate the mystery and ambiguity of life or spend our years upset, frustrated, angry, and bitter because things don't always go our way or finish like we wanted. Hospitals are filled with people who have allowed stress to break down their minds and bodies, and in a significant number of cases, it was stress over things that they had no control over.

I can't change the weather, change other people's behavior, or add a single day to my life. So I'm going to focus on things I
can
change and leave the rest to God.

As a believer in God I have to believe that God is in control, and for me to always demand answers is to assume his role. I've decided to sit back and let him be God and let me be me.

» JOLT #14
THE POWER OF GENEROSITY
Getting More Out of Life by Giving It Away

When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor.
—NORMAN VINCENT PEALE

Generosity with strings is not generosity; it is a deal.
—MARYA MANNES, WRITER AND CRITIC

E
arly in my career, I produced an infomercial program for a client in Hollywood. In those days, infomercials were a new type of advertising and usually featured a thirty-minute program designed to sell products such as exercise machines, kitchen tools, or makeup. An old college friend recommended me, and since it was a new style of advertising, I was eager to be part of the project.

Until I met the client
.

At first he seemed quite normal. His office was average, and he was located in a nice part of town. His secretary seemed nice enough, and everything about him appeared to indicate that he was a legitimate, effective producer.