House of Eratosthenes

For all the time executives spend concerned about physical strength and health, when it comes down to it, mental strength can mean even more. Particularly for entrepreneurs, numerous articles talk about critical characteristics of mental strength—tenacity, “grit,” optimism, and an unfailing ability as Forbes contributor David Williams says, to “fail up.”

However, we can also define mental strength by identifying the things mentally strong individuals don’t do. Over the weekend, I was impressed by this list compiled by Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, that she shared in LifeHack. It impressed me enough I’d also like to share her list here along with my thoughts on how each of these items is particularly applicable to entrepreneurs.

The list is:

1. They Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves
2. They Don’t Give Away Their Power
3. They Don’t Shy Away from Change
4. They Don’t Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control
5. They Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone
6. They Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks
7. They Don’t Dwell on the Past
8. They Don’t Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over
9. They Don’t Resent Other People’s Success
10. They Don’t Give Up After the First Failure
11. They Don’t Fear Alone Time
12. They Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything
13. They Don’t Expect Immediate Results

That’s pretty good. It can be made better though.

Looking at it from a very high-altitude view, this looks to me like thirteen things that are essentially just one thing. Not that I would quibble with Morin zooming in, breaking things out and exploring details; there’s generally some good value to be added there, and not just for writing the thought up in magazine articles. Nevertheless, these things are all of one common value, and that value has to do with confidence in one’s own self, one’s own capabilities, one’s own sense of judgment.

To me, that’s all Step Two stuff. Step One is to do what you can to make the correct decisions. Do your research, figure out what it all means, decide how to deal with it.

From all this, time becomes more and more important. I speak not of the sense of time as a finite resource to be spent judiciously, although there is that as well, but rather of the roles played by the past, the present and the future. Time becomes important to both of these steps. Morin covers it in her #7: “Don’t dwell on the past.” A delicate balance confronts us here, since #8 says “Don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over.”

What did that bumper sticker say: Don’t change the future because of the past, the past doesn’t merit that much importance and the future doesn’t deserve the abuse. Eh, that’s not it, it’s not even close enough to trigger an effective Google search. But it does capture the sentiment. The past holds lessons. From a practical point of view, that is all it holds. The future, obligations aside, is a blank slate. The past is, not so much a model, but a patchwork of skid marks where theory collided with reality, full of little inspections that can be done. The future gives you latitude for your creative impulses, the past gives you knowledge. Use both.

Be limited by neither.

And bandwagon-thinking, like “this will make a lot of people unhappy” or “I don’t see anyone else doing that,” are limiting thoughts. They are not conducive to mental strength, nor to the results netted by mentally strong people.

The past is, not so much a model, but a patchwork of skid marks where theory collided with reality, full of little inspections that can be done.

I like that phrasing. I like the sentiment even more! Problem is, history is written by the victors, and in this case, the victors are leftist academics. I’ve read a lot of academic history over the years, and lemme tell ya, it’s all pretty much “and here’s why XYZ proves capitalism doesn’t work” or “here’s XYZ rationalizations for why socialism failed in this case, even though it’s obvious to anyone without a PhD that socialism itself was the problem.”

Anyone taking the long view of the 20th century with a halfway disinterested eye would be forced to conclude that Karl Marx and all his works are transcendentally, cosmically wrong — value has little to no relationship with labor; people don’t tend to think of themselves in class categories; etc. But as that would put 99.8% of humanities professors out of a job, we’ve got an entire industry devoted to not noticing those skidmarks, explaining away that collision, denying that “reality” itself exists outside of social and linguistic conventions….
- Severian | 12/12/2013 @ 09:52
bandwagon-thinking, like “this will make a lot of people unhappy” or “I don’t see anyone else doing that,”?

Wow.
I couldn’t disagree more.
the (jumping on the) bandwagon behavior I find obstructive and annoying tends to be
“Well. EVERYBODY’S doin’ it….”, and absolute thoughtlessness of whoever might be “unhappy”
when subjected to “Only the “right kind” of folks can see the importance invested in touting the Emperor’s New Clothes”.

Admittedly, semantics, of course.
Riding, and waving, from someone else’s bandwagon, (coat tails, etc.) with “everybody else” (let’s say.. Least Common Denominator) generates FAR more elation, with FAR less angst, and takes FAR less effort, than…say… riding alone, along the the crowded street, in a nag drawn manure cart… to the vastly more efficient, and ironically popular, Guillotine that one has invented and built.

As far as The List. I’d LIKE to think such traits are ones I consistently aspire to, but have to confess to bouts of occasional useless, self- serving, self pity, that eventually evolves into the self-challenge to succeed.
” Popular” social psychologists, and other “mental health” supernumiaries might jump on the bandwagon, chiding me for non introspective bottling-up of my emotions. I call it … put a plug in the jug and get OFF the pity potty.

Phrases that big thinkers I’ve known MAY have heard at some point in their lives. Call it “fail up” if one must.
- CaptDMO | 12/13/2013 @ 01:43

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

Thirteen Things They AvoidThursday, December 12th, 2013

Thirteen Things They Avoid
Thursday, December 12th, 2013