Tag Archives: kindness

Scoundrels and Rascals

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When I lived in Asia, I was taught that desire is a necessary component of deception.

My desire to “be right” often leads me right back to another deception.

Some tactics follow that might help you avoid trouble with rascals that, truth be told, are often entertaining.

They Might Be Right – I get a guaranteed laugh when I tell my wife, “I might simply be different.” She smiles, “yes, babe. You’re different alright.”

When would the other person’s course of action be right?

If we live long enough then we are almost certain to find our present selves holding different opinions from our younger selves.

The Message Not The Messenger – we share a curious desire to bring down others and a glee in catching people being naughty. My opinion of a person can prevent me from learning from them.

What can I learn from this person? this situation?

Turn People into Adjectives – when I’m locked on a person, it’s far more useful to drill down to a description of what’s triggering me.

Think about a person that’s disappointed you and dig, dig, dig… until you move beyond the person and arrive at the behavior. There is always something inside of me that’s being touched by, what I believe is, an external trigger.

Let The Situation Move Away – hands down, the most useful thing I realized. Nearly all my “problems” move away if I stop feeding them. Usually the best course of action is to chill out and let my problems leave on their own.

This doesn’t mean that I support the injustice that I see. I means that I acknowledge that my most effective antidote is being just in my own actions.

Turn problem people into adjectives and correct their behavior in myself.

  • Honesty
  • Courtesy
  • Reliability
  • Kindness
  • Gentle
  • Loving

One Kind Word

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Duty CallsSometimes I watch my friends get caught up in drama, and sometimes I watch myself.

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What’s your mission?

Whether you desire riches, fame or simply want to be loved, it helps to figure out the “why” of your existence. We get a lot of clues through the people that we admire.

Here are some of my whys for living

  • Write Books – help my kids; establish expert credentials; challenge my mind; get my ‘story’ straight
  • Blog – use my best form of expression to connect with like minded people to share my experience so we all feel less alone; experience gratitude from sharing my story; hold myself accountable to the ideas that I express publicly
  • In My Family – fulfill my role as a member of the family; What’s that role? Just love ’em.

At the care center where I volunteer, they have a flow chart that helps the team figure out when to act. I probably walked past the chart 50x before I gave it a read. The first question was revolutionary:

“Is this my domain?”

Each time I’m tempted to engage, I’ve been pausing and asking, “Is this my domain?”

It’s been eye opening to discover how much of my life isn’t my domain. In fact, I can ditch much of my internal strife by sticking to my domain.

Sometimes, it is my domain – take, my kids. With a pause, I get a chance to consider my goals, “teach my kids by my actions.” If I don’t want them to freak out with each other, then it helps not to get caught up in transient dramas.

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Being angry at injustice is a source of energy. If you pay attention to it then you can simply open up to the feeling and change the emotion. Anger, with a bit of time and breathing, can change into a desire for positive action.

That sounds great and I might get there. However, I’m not that Zen, so I convert my negative feelings to a drive to empty the dishwasher, take out the trash, fold the laundry or vacuum.

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Later, I look deeply and consider what’s really driving the response.

Often, I will try to con myself that I want to help others but, in my case, it’s a desire to make the world more like me, or get you to change your opinion to show me you care.

If I’m still stuck then I look for a way to send the person a little bit of love – a kind comment, any small gesture to help alleviate their pain. For people that get caught in hate, there’s always a source of pain that’s hidden from our view.

One kind word can break the chain.

How I Met Your Mother

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Gordo and MonicaWhen I lived in Asia, I made some money, had my best friend die and blew up my marriage.

A wise friend observed that it was fortunate that the marriage exploded because I was better off waiting until I was able to offer something to a relationship. My buddy, who would spend the next decade dealing with her breast cancer, captured an essential aspect of successful relationships – that they are best avoided until you are prepared to continually offer yourself.

I look back at my writing from that time and smile at how hostile I was to relationships. Ten weeks before I met my wife, I rode across the United States with a Swedish buddy. He gave comfort that, indeed, there were “at least three women in the world” for me. When I asked, “why three and not one?” He smiled and told me, “the world’s a big place, Gordo.”

Squash Court

[This is the squash court where I met your mother]

In the middle of 2004, I conquered my fears and walked into a room of (mostly) female, triathletes. They were training under the instruction of a six-time world champion, Dave Scott. Dave personifies the old coaching adage “challenge your men and love your ladies.” He didn’t cut me any slack!

It was a complicated situation as my wife-to-be was going out with my landlord’s brother and neither of us were aware that we should be together. I played a long game, got her out of the country and we were engaged before she returned to Boulder.

Nelson, NZ in 2005

[Here’s your mother as a young woman in New Zealand. She was working as my extra-special soigneur at a stage race.]

We were lucky. We grew into each other.

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The journey that led to a wonderful life partner began years before I met Monica. I started by cultivating independent self-love, which sounds like something you’d hear in yoga class.

In the language of business…

To do a good deal, you have to be willing to do no deal, a fundamental component of success.

Divorce caused me enough pain to make me hostile to any form of intimacy. First a childhood divorce, then my own as an adult. There were deep feelings of failure associated with marriage. I had not learned how to strengthen a marriage and was preoccupied with the illusion of failure.

After my divorce, I made myself a better person. This was not my goal. Becoming a better person happened because I stopped living the values of other people – back then I was misled by money and assets. Later I was misled by victory and vanity. At the end, I hope to end up with kindness, good humor and service!

My introversion, and pride, fed a desire to prove that I could be happy alone. Truth be told, I was never alone – I wrote frequently and had two very close friendships. One of these was with Scott Molina and he joked that I had ’embarked on the longest dry streak known to man.’ Scott’s observation still makes me smile!

To make myself relationship worthy, I needed to create a life where I was happy without an intimate relationship. In order to have something to give, I needed to develop a source of energy outside of the relationship. I found my source in athletics and nature.

The great spiritual traditions write about love being the source. I have a long way to go there. My love for my children is a sign explaining that everything I need is within myself.

As an introvert, the teaching that I’m my own source feels natural because I’m happy when I’m alone. However, I need to be careful that I’m not alone too much. First, because there is a deep human need for intimacy. Second, because a life with meaning requires us to do good work in the world.

After five years of working on myself, I met my wife. In Monica, I discovered that I enjoyed spending time with her more than I enjoyed being alone. I’m not sure if that will make sense to an extroverted reader, who might find solitude draining. However, for the sociopathic hermit in me, it was a revelation.

To create an intention for success, I tell my wife, frequently:

  • There’s no way I am going to improve my situation through any pathway other than our marriage.
  • I’m grateful for all you do – family life is a challenge but I know that family life alone would be far, far more challenging.
  • While I accept that it only takes one person to crater a relationship, I will never speak about failure on my side. If we hit hard times then I’ll stay close and wait for you to come to your senses.
  • I hold the trust between us as sacred.

All thoughts to the contrary, of what I state above, are a sign of temporary insanity!

Ironman New Zealand 2004

[As a couple, Ironman New Zealand 2004 was our best ever. Your mother swam 2.4 miles in 46 minutes and finished 2nd overall. Living in love makes you powerful!]

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day I met your mother and I’m so grateful.

Love you, Babe!

The Luckiest People In The History of People

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Last month, after three years, we had the final community night for my daughter’s preschool. I looked around the room and smiled at what a varied bunch we were. Big, small, young, old, crunchy and corporate… each of us with a kid attending preschool.

At these gatherings, we do a check in (link is to my 2013 article). We get a chance to share one joy and one challenge of being with our kids. The group is a powerful experience and, because it was the last gathering of this group of parents, many of us were emotional.

I’ve come to realize that these circles are valuable because I’m given the opportunity to not-solve the problems of everyone there. As you’ll see in the 2013 article, I don’t always take that opportunity.

I did better with listening at my 8th gathering. Some parents were saddened by the thought that their time in the community was coming to an end. They shared that their kids were also feeling sad about leaving the community and moving on to kindergarden. Here’s what I took away with me from the meeting.

Sadness about the end is an opportunity to teach our kids, and ourselves, about the realities of life. The reality being that everything ends and that it is ok to feel whatever we want about endings, including sadness.

It’s OK to show emotion.

My children think I’m the strongest man in the world. They’ve also seen me cry. They know I’m real.

When you feel the sadness of the ending, remember the craziness of living with your children. Hold the sadness of the ending against every parent’s fear that “this will never end!”

Hold the two qualities in your heart and look for a chance to teach it to your kids.

This lesson is everywhere – traffic, winter, rainy days, Monday, smog…

It’s seems strange but, when I’m calm, the sadness leads me to joy when I’m back with the kids. There will come a time when my children are not going to be cradled in my arms yelling at me.

The trick is to focus on the cradling, rather than the yelling.

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I was also struck by what a fluke it was that we ended up together – sitting on little chairs, at preschool, in Colorado, on a pleasant spring night.

I know enough about the private lives of the other parents to realize that we’ve all experienced a variation of death, illness, divorce or hardship over the last three years.

In addition to shared hardship, it struck me that we happen to be lucky to have healthy kids and the ability to send them to a place where they are loved.

Lexi's Pillow

Tens of billions of people have lived on our planet and I ended up on my little chair, sewing a pillow for my daughter, smiling to myself.

I’ve been chuckling about that for a month.

Very few people, in the history of people, have the opportunity to live the life that’s available to us.

What are you grateful for?

More Than Money – Sharing Time

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It’s common to think of volunteering as giving time to a cause.

The most powerful lesson of hospice is the reality that, short of organ donation, I can’t give time to anyone.

What I can do is share time.

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In most of our roles, we can be swapped out. Absent someone to love, this can be a lonely reality. Family roles, particularly parenting children, is an area where it’s more difficult to replace us. Interestingly, these are roles where love dominates. Kids can survive just about anything if they are supported by the knowledge that they are loved.

My family is central to my life’s work. It’s the most direct way I can influence the world. Volunteering is most useful when it makes me a better member of my family. By “better” I mean wise.

Given that I’m married to a woman where “the tone is the message,” I want to spend time in situations that improve my soft skills. My family, and my marriage, doesn’t receive much benefit when I improve my technical knowledge.

Gordo and the Easter BunnyVolunteering puts me in situations where I am truly clueless. For at least a few hours a week, it’s good to realize that I’m clueless! Specific to hospice:

  • there’s no ability to fix anything
  • I’m not empowered to do anything other than serve
  • my best course of action is nearly always “quiet presence”
  • I create a habit of doing what needs to be done
  • I do my work without expectation of being thanked, or paid

If you have young kids, or elderly parents/grandparents, then you may find a lot of similarities with my list and your role.

Most of the friction that I observe in families is due to someone seeking to fix a situation that isn’t their domain, or doesn’t have a solution.

In terms of self-improvement:

  • Volunteering rewards me if I act in a manner completely different than my typical persona. Until I started volunteering, I had never received positive feedback for being a quiet, humble helper.
  • Caring for the sick has an unavoidable benefit of increasing tolerance. You can’t help but change your opinion of people when you’re serving them.
  • Making a habit of good deeds gives me ammunition to take on the voice in my head that tells me that I’m falling short.
  • Pushing my fear envelope is exciting and increases my ability to think clearly in situations that are emotionally charged.
  • Work that challenges the heart leaves me feeling grateful and gratitude is an effective antidote for most everything that ails me.

Whatever your field, when you hear the call, I urge you to follow it.

Goodness through action.

The Cool Kids

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Every so often I find myself captivated by someone that entertains me by being a complete dick to strangers.

Careers and fame are built around this quirk in human psychology.

Look to the opposite side of a polarizing issue and you’ll find yourself attracted to someone that uses “justified hate” to bring down one of your opponents.

I might even find myself wanting to appeal to the bullies for approval – to fulfill my own need for acceptance.

Bullies love to build teams around themselves – you don’t want yourself, or your kids, on those teams.

I’m grateful that I can see it…

…and not act on it.

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Protect yourself, and your kids, from people that don’t like themselves enough to be kind to strangers.

Be particularly wary of bullies in positions of power – when I think about the most dangerous priests, teachers and coaches that I’ve known – the bullying was a red flag visible to all.

The secret lives behind the self-loathing, reflected in wanting to bring down strangers, were tougher to see.

We have a choice with who we follow, what we read and what we share.

 

Speaking With My Daughter

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I’ve been teaching my daughter lessons that would have helped me as a young person:

  • Treat others how you want to be treated
  • Use people’s names when you speak to them
  • Ask people questions so that can talk about things that make them happy

As a young man I had a disregard for the opinions of others and viewed manners as a sign of personal weakness. While I enjoyed success despite these weaknesses, it could have done a lot less ‘damage’ if I’d been more considerate.

My daughter is four and has been yelling in my face, daily. I’ve been thinking about how I might help her smooth the rough edges.

The first tactic was to teach the three lessons above.

The second tactic was to acknowledge that we’ve been taking pride in certain elements of her aggressive speech – finding humor in the fear she stokes in other kids and the ease of travelling with a four-foot tall extrovert.

The last tactic was to identify, then improve, my own verbal shortcomings. This was tough for me and I had to ask Monica for tips. She didn’t come up with anything directly so I turned to the ancient texts (links to Buddhist teaching on right speech). Here I found something to work on…

Right Speech

  • …is spoken at the right time
  • …is spoken in truth
  • …is spoken affectionately
  • …is spoken beneficially
  • …is spoken with a mind of good-will

If my children were mind readers then would they be justified in yelling at me?

The question made me smile and I’m working on my “mind of good-will”.

Creating A Peaceful Home

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To change a habit with my wife and kids, I need to change that habit with everyone.

For example, to break a habit of snapping at other people, I need to remove that response from every single aspect of my life. That’s quite challenging!

If you’re a “yeller” then you won’t stop yelling at your kids until you manage to stop yelling at everyone. Also, many of us are yelling at people that can’t, or don’t, defend themselves. To break the cycle of yelling, it helps to drill down to the true source of our anger (often the past or ourselves).

Sometimes I can’t find the source of the yelling, and have to live with it. Here’s an example from last month. I don’t yell at anyone but, for much of March, there was a voice yelling in my head, mainly at my spirited daughter. I’ve managed to train myself not to express what’s going on in my head so there were times when a silent scream would be triggered each time I saw my little girl. Some of the things I “said” in my head were not very nice!

Having one of my kids act as a stress trigger is a tough situation, as I can’t use my typical strategy of avoidance! I’ve been trying to relax my mind by focusing on the temporary nature of the noise I experience with her. Knowing that there is an ending to every interaction helped calm me down.

I looked deeply and realized that being upset with my daughter had become a habit that was independent of her behavior – even when she was great, the internal battle raged in my mind. There were situations where I wanted her to misbehave to give me an opening to vent. It’s a very good thing that the habits of non-violence and harmony pre-date fatherhood! In the end, I removed myself for a few days, to travel to India for a wedding, and that emptied my mind of the noise.

Coming back to my original goal to speak kindly to my spouse and kids – we need to cultivate kindness with all our interactions. “Kindness to all” being the requirement to deliver “thoughtful speech” to our wives and kids. As I mentioned above, I can train myself to appear calm when there is a storm raging in my mind! It’s not a requirement to be peaceful inside to have a peaceful home (but I’m sure it helps).

I’ll share an idea from Gordon Livingston. Focus on treating people that can’t defend themselves better, for example service people. From that habit, extend towards treating everyone better. Under stress, nobody is good at remembering to treat one category of people better than another.

These habits are also a great way to lower blood pressure without the use of medication. I can see how internalized rage would be bad for one’s health.

When I find myself falling short, I remember that I can’t correct the person I was, but I can correct the person I am. My short comings become inspiration to keep trying for incremental progress.

Two Virtues

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Last week a friend sent me an article about preparing heirs and I asked myself, ‘what virtues do I want to pass to my kids?’

Kindness and honesty immediately came to mind.

Why do these stand out and how does my life demonstrate these traits to my kids?

I have very few regrets in my life but those that stand out are due to a lack of kindness at the end of relationships. The other errors that I’ve made had to do with excess drinking.

I can’t teach my kids about how to treat ex-girlfriends nicely anymore. However, I have better avenues for leading by example. How do I treat the most important person in their life, their mother.

The other area, that’s often overlooked, is how I treat people that can be mistreated with little personal downside, service people and strangers. There’s no better prevention for entitlement than working on humility with strangers. This trait has brought goodness, and good business, to my life.

Thursday’s blog will focus on having skin in the game and touches on the decisions that have brought me the most enduring satisfaction. As you can tell from my most recent book, I’ve received psychic benefit from not “taking the money.” This trait runs deeper than finance and has been tested many different ways.

Rather than tell my kids “don’t lie” I’ve been implanting a mantra of “it’s better to tell the truth.”

Cycling gave me an opportunity to explain why and I’m waiting for when they ask me about my own life.

What am I teaching my family by the way I live my life?