Greater Things

Our minds constrain us to settle for good things

Embrace zeal and enhance ambition, take risks

Often it is said, “less is more”. Have we forgotten that the subject is actually more? We say less is more to understand how to achieve more. If we are juggling 10 things, we may ruin everything, and should actually do two things successfully then fail at ten. True, sometimes we need to ‘prune’ things in our life, even sacrifice tasks that consume mental energy, in order to focus. But sometimes more is more.

Our mind constrains us. We have a certain ceiling by our own doing, because of our self-perception, which may be rooted in humility, or false humility. We are constrained by fear, anxiety, and low confidence. We lack scope to envision greater things. The mind can be like a muscle in the sense that you train your mind bit by bit to think bigger. Don’t think small. Believe in greater things.

When we go through such a process of thinking bigger, we may experience some unexpected feelings. For example, virtues like modesty are constraining. By thinking greater, you may feel you’ve betrayed your values. Greater means being critical of others, seeing they lack faith. Your success entails the failure or relative weakness of others whom you may appreciate or sympathize with. So guilt is involved, at least for a moment. Break the mold anyway - meditate on power, believe in your calling, embrace the zeal for it.

Money is not sacred. People can be afraid of money, or they treat anything related to money as dirty, negative, corrupt. That is also constraining. Efficiency is critical but one also needs, in context, to loosen up regarding money. Use money, take risks.

Delegation is another part of this principle. In management you learn to delegate. In Israeli military boot camp, they drill in your mind to help carry the load, to serve. When you reach leadership training they break that mindset: if you are carrying the load, you are not commanding, managing, leading. That is totally counter intuitive and creates ambivalent feelings. The point is not that you can’t carry the load with others, but don’t let that constrain you and the mission, the organization, the purpose. You have to let go of work.

There is necessarily a measure of sacrifice and compromise, letting go of things you want to control, things that subtly provide you with job security, and comfort because you’re already good at it. Learn to let go, take the risk, in the attempt at growing the organization. Do what you are the best at, do the things that mean leading to greater things. Let go of the other functions.

When you grow and expand, more is more. Gains in one area leads to gains in another. Not despite but because of success in adjacent territory. More operations, more results, more people, more income, more reach, more influence.

#leadership