The Wise Choice
It was driven into my head during my stint in Children’s Ministry (in a good way 😉).
“Make the wise choice!”
Intellectually, we understand.
If our emotional intelligence is developed at all, we (hopefully) appreciate the fact that well-meaning sojourners may have different belief systems that support choices that are not aligned with one another’s.
Got it.
Today’s message, though in support of ‘the wise choice’ mantra, is not intended to underscore its importance.
Rather, my hope is to challenge the core motivation(s) that may be behind our convictions and obedience to it as leaders.
First, let’s get the most obvious negative motivation out of the way – the “I’m better than you” mindset (and its close relative “I know better than you”).
Unfortunately, these two exist on a pervasive level. They reek of pride, arrogance, and classism. Though ‘the wise choice’ may have been made, a negative echo has been left in its wake.
A second motivation is concerned more about image, standing, and reputation than true wisdom. We want to look like we know what we’re doing. We want people to think well of us. We certainly don’t want to make the wrong decision.
This one is bad, too, because it is grounded in self-protection. The context for ‘the wise choice’ is inherently compromised. The freedom to investigate, ask hard questions, and make tough decisions is restricted, and the results can be crippling.
A third motivation is one’s desire to maintain tradition, whether for self or for the org (be it business, family, church, etc…). Quaintly referred to some form of “this is how we do things around here”, the scope of wisdom in this scenario is narrowed.
In a powerful scene from “Dead Poets Society” (1989), teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) at one point encouraged his students to stand on their desks.
It was a silly stunt, but the message was on point. “I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.”
Tradition has its place, but don’t misinterpret it as the priority source of wisdom.
Though I’m sure there are others, I want to skip to what I believe to be the more altruistic form of motivation we should strive for as purpose driven leaders:
We strive to make ‘the wise choice’ because we are driven by an insatiable desire to co-create a better tomorrow.
(I warned you it was altruistic!)
Even so, this motivation applies to virtually every decision we make.
Jordan Peterson contends that we are all visionaries – that we all wake up to “the possibility of the day” – and that every decision we make leads us toward heaven or hell on earth.
The question isn’t about whether or not you and I have a vision.
The question we must ask ourselves has to do with how far out into the future our vision is projected.
“Or you’re sophisticated and you integrate…with a higher order and sophisticated vision.
Translation: You and I are oriented to either short-term gratification or long-term success, and every decision we make is likely motivated by that orientation.
As leaders, we have a unique responsibility based in our awareness of this reality.
You and I are called to reorient ourselves toward the latter – to be a “high-order ethical actor” – to “make the wise choice” – not for a better today, but for a better tomorrow.
This orientation can be applied to everything from our diet, exercise and sleep decisions to multi-million-dollar M&A.
You and I have the power of choice. Our choices are heavily influenced by the length of our vision. And even the smallest of our choices have a significant butterfly effect on the future of our world.
By the very nature of our Monday Morning Stretch MO, these are relatively incomplete thoughts intended to get us thinking.
I hope and trust these mental stretches are serving you well.
Blessings to you, my friends!
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This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
“Brave New World”
- Aldous Huxley
From Amazon: Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.
Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature.
MMS 25-04
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Blessings to you, my friend!
