Is your decision just really yours?

Seeing is believing. That’s what we’re supposed to believe right?

Look again. Or should I say think again?

Dan Ariely – one of my favourite behavioral scientists – shows that our belief in “seeing is believing” is fundamentally flawed. It is so flawed that it raises questions about that inner eye of ours which oversees our decisions. How much of what we think we judge as our own decision is actually a decision of our own?

If you’re interested in more stories like these: check Dan Ariely’s blog: Predictably Irrational or read his book Predictably Irrational.

Now what does this tell us about being superbly human?

“The map is not the territory”. This is a quote by A. Korzybski (wikipedia). What you believe you see is never what you get. It is however how you work with what you think you have. And that’s great as long as you believe that the real destination of your journey is the journey itself.

So how about your map? Whose map is it anyway?

In other words do you do what you do because you want it or do you do it because somebody else has drawn a map (and path) for you?

Quick example: as a kid, your mother has bought you three pairs of trousers: blue, black and red. Every morning before you get dressed, you open your closet and you can choose between blue, black and red. On the Trousers-Crossroad there are only 4 options: no trousers, blue, black and red. That’s the map. Is it the territory? Not likely.

Now look at your life. You get up in the morning, what do you do?

Do you still feel like the world is limited to the three pairs of trousers your mother has bought you?

This limited set of options can however be easy and helpful sometimes (we do need these patterns because we would die if we would have to weigh every possible option), but does it still work for you? If it doesn’t then stop staring at your map. Now.

Start exploring, start drawing.

What would happen if you ‘invented’ an option, add an extra pair to the set? Chances are you can do that. Chances are it will make you more satisfied than you are now.

The map you use to make your way in your life wasn’t drawn by fate. It is drawn by lots of people, also by you. And sometimes it’s helpful, but when you get stuck, it means you’ve discovered something new. It means you’ve presented yourself with an exquisite opportunity to redraw your map and discover a new area of the underlying territory.

Make no mistake. Drawing a whole new map out of nothing is not what I’m aiming at. What I’m talking about are small changes. Take one step at the time. Explore boundaries, learn how to deal with setbacks, grow confidence.

Are you willing to change your map and explore? Are you willing to decide for yourself, one step at the time?

If it helps, I’m redrawing my map as I’m writing right now. I just lost my job and I’m going to explore where starting my own business is going to take me.

Take care,

Hannes

When magic happens – how to turn something bad into something great

This is a story about change and how changing things is as much as about making changes as it is about allowing change to happen. This is a story about how something really frustrating and annoying turned into a great gift. This is a story about the power of being superbly human. Enjoy.

The last couple of months I wake up at night. Why, I don’t know. But when I’m awake I lay there listening and I hear a buzz coming out of the hallway. I was convinced that the noise was caused by my neighbour’s fridges. He’s running a bakery and his fridges are next to our hallway.

So I decided that I had to talk to him. But I kept delaying our meeting. And at the same time I started making up conversations in my head. I started to make scenario’s, started to design strategies about how to obtain my goal, how to anticipate a possible ‘no, I don’t believe you’ and so on. The more I waited, the more tensed I became and the harder it seemed to get in touch and talk about what I thought was happening.

I even got to a point where I thought I wouldn’t be able to keep calm enough to have a proper conversation. And so I talked about it with my coach. He wrote a wonderful letter, showing understanding and compassion. He was familiar with this experience and urged me to be compassionate towards myself and my neighbour. Bottom line was: give each other the chance to have a fruitful experience in trying to find a solution together.

My proposal for changing the world, for good.

The proposal is this:

At the beginning of the year every company publicly engages itself into establishing sustainability targets additionaly to their financial goals.

At the beginning of the year each of these targets are made public together with a suggested roadmaps.

The key rule is this:

Profits will not be paid out to any staff member, nor to any shareholder in the form of dividends if at the end of the year one of these targets isn’t met.

All financial gain should be reinvested into reaching the other targets until they are reached.

These targets are suposed to be:

• significantly more advanced than the targets the year before (if reached)
• reduction of ecological strain + advancement of ecological gain
• reduction of social strain + advancement of social gain
• reduction of financial strain + advancement of financial gain

What targets are chosen and how companies define advancement is left to their responsibility.

But what is obligatory is that these acts are made public at the beginning of each year and are publicly accounted for at the end of each year.

The penalty on still paying dividends and bonuses while not meeting the sustainability targets is this:

Nothing. Still, make no mistake, the cost of ignoring this rule will be tremendous. It will be so high and so destabilizing it will definitely make more sense to try and make things happen.

The tipping point is this:

This rule will affect positive change on a global scale if and only if:

• some companies who are willing to lead voluntarily adopt this proposal as a key part of their mission statements
• some national governments of nations who are willing to lead voluntarily adopt this proposal as a part of their legislation
• some stock exchange authorities who are willing to lead voluntarily adopt this proposal as rule for any company who wants to enter their stock exchane
• some people who are willing to lead voluntarily take it upon them to spread this message, bring it to the people who can actually make things happen in the places mentioned above and engage them in making the change

My appeal to you is this:

• spread the word
• make it happen