The Best Is Often Where You Least Expect It

By Ernst: 2023: We have to look elsewhere, enter unknown areas and give non-obvious ideas a chance.

Who? What? Where to?

Christmas 2023. A world in turmoil, and that is putting it mildly.

More and more people, organizations and even countries are falling into oppression. We all look around with uncertainty. What on earth is happening? What should I do? Where do I have to go? What is going on in the world, in my organization, in my life? Is there anyone to lean on? Someone, who can tell me, which direction I should go? Or at least someone who calmly tells me that everything will be okay

Salvation is near

Two thousand and twenty-three years ago it was no different. Great upheaval, crises, uncertain times, people were looking for something to hold on to, for direction. Eyes were focused on the court, but emperors, pharaohs and their wise men also did not have the desired answers. Ultimately, for many, salvation came from a completely unexpected source: in a remote corner of a third-rate village, a child was born in an abandoned stable. For lack of anything better, the animals’ feeding trough was used as a cradle. This child, Jesus, was ultimately seen by many as Savior, Guide, and Leader.

Seeking…

Should we now all look for ‘a new Jesus’ again? No, I don’t think so. But what this story can tell us is that for enlightenment and redemption we may have to look elsewhere, enter unknown areas and give non-obvious ideas a chance.

Determine course from your own Essence

More and more people and organizations are discovering that the way we are used to doing things no longer delivers what we expect based on our knowledge and experience. If the way you are used to doing things, suddenly no longer works, and you have to look for something else, you will be adrift for a moment, directionless. In order to determine a new direction, it is essential to know what the essence of your existence is and the goal you ultimately want to achieve. With all the luxury and excess of recent years, these are precisely the two things that people and organizations no longer recognize. And if you don’t know what your own essence is, the core of your own self, and you don’t know why you are on this earth, what goal you ultimately want to achieve… well, then it is logical that fear and uncertainty will strike.

Do it differently

Now stop using your mind to get out of the vortex that makes you rudderless, directionless and defenseless. Have you not yet noticed that this does not work (anymore)? The late Steven Covey, among others, said that a person actually has four forms of intelligence: physical (physical reactions), mental (mind), emotional (feelings) and spiritual (intuition). We mainly try to get back on track with our mental intelligence (thinking a lot) and our physical intelligence (working very hard). Unfortunately, without much success.

What does work

How long will it be before we discover and use the other two? When are we going to leave the palaces of the mind to discover feeling and intuition in the unsightly and desolate outer areas of our personality? And yes, when we finally discover it, it will be a baby, just like 2023 years ago. Not yet capable of much, but cooing with joy that it has been discovered. So, we have to feed it, give it attention, play with it and take it seriously. If we do this with our feelings and intuition, as people or organizations, it will quickly help us to provide direction and guidance. And if you listen carefully to your own inner self, you will hear a little voice saying in a calm tone that everything will be okay. And so, it is.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a steady New Year.