Opening Insights
I Think, Therefore I Am
For many of us, we learned how to find and provide the right answers. This solution became the cornerstone to our communication. We learned how to write and speak the right words… the words that paint us as intelligent, competent, and secure. However, many of us never learned how to think. We never learned the relationship of cause and effect. We never learned the significance of positioning and timing. When it comes to positioning and timing, which comes first? Unlike the chicken and the egg, there is a clear distinction. Let’s explore this topic by way of the metaphor Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Our positioning in life can be compared to the rock, paper or scissors. We find that we must position ourselves as the object that will “win” over the others. How do we know which to choose? How do we know “who” to be?
- Rock breaks scissors
- Scissors cuts paper
- Paper covers rock
Informational Insights
Similar to the position we take in life (rock, paper, scissors), we also seek to provide the right answers. We seek out and analyze to determine which will better serve us, when in reality all it serves is a surface level of life. What does this mean?
When our focus is on being right, being powerful, being the rock to break the scissors, falsity ensues. We often pretend who we are (and what we are capable of), and therefore others will determine who we are (and what we are capable of). In both cases, truth is missing.
Learning how to give the right answer and learning how to think are at opposite sides of the communication spectrum. Giving the right answer is armor we wear to protect our identity. Learning how to think is an adventure leading to deep exploration, where our focus isn’t on protecting our identity but rather uncovering and discovering its continuum. It is the basis and foundation of research…. of discovery itself. Learning how to think is the gift of consciousness.
The Value Quotient
The ability to value is both a skill and an intelligence we are born with, yet one that is seldom taught within our culture. The ability to acknowledge value in the people, places and things around us is critical to our emotional, mental and spiritual development and our relationships with ourselves, others and life itself. Yet in order to fully value, we need to not only find value for ourselves, but value for and in life itself – intrinsic value.
Many of us experience the principle of value throughout our daily life. We find value in the people, places and things around us. We may find value in the compassion we get from our spouse, the smile on our children’s face, home cooking, a fulfilling career, an intelligent conversation, a rose garden, a warm cup of tea, a challenge and even an illness or disease.
Big, small and everything in between… value can be found in all things, at all times. There is however, a common thread to much of what we value. That being said, it’s usually about us. What we value — the people, places and things, relate to us in some way, and therefore we directly experience the importance of it in our life.
Intrinsic value, on the other hand, dives deeper into our consciousness of life around us.
“Intrinsic value is an ethical and philosophic property. It is the ethical or philosophic value that an object has “in itself” or “for its own sake”, as an intrinsic property. Intrinsic value challenges us to seek the value not only subjectively but objectively.”
Source: Ivo de Gennaro, Value: Sources and Readings on a Key Concept of the Globalized World, BRILL, 2012, p. 138.
It’s far easier, thanks to human conditioning and societal self-centeredness, for us to think of ourselves when it comes to value. After all, value is key to gaining clarity and conviction in who we are and who we are not. Value helps us set goals in life and discover our identity. However, value doesn’t begin and end with us. Having intrinsic values is about always leaving room for the unknown, stretching our minds and consciousness and remembering there is always more to be discovered.
Intrinsic value is the ability to appreciate the depth and breadth of value itself and all it encompasses. It is to be aware, in awe, inspired, amazed, and surprised…. to find a value that we never thought existed, that we never noticed was there. To see a beautiful rose and have value for it. Then, to smell its beautiful fragrance and have a deeper, richer level of value emerge.
Why is Intrinsic Value Hard To Have?
Intrinsic value doesn’t come easy, why is this? Many of us never learned how to find intrinsic value, we only learned to focus on the value to us.
The question is, how can we identify the intrinsic value of things? Perhaps we can return to the metaphor of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Which of these three are more important? Which is more powerful? Which has more intrinsic value? The answer is, they are all equally important.
They are all equal in their intrinsic value. Each piece when positioned has its own strength. The strength of paper is that it can cover rock. However, it is not a matter of positioning…. It is not whether we are the rock, the paper or the scissors.
The real lesson comes in the timing. Intrinsic value is not measured. There is no one thing that is intrinsically valued as better than another. It’s not the position the object takes (I am the rock and therefore have value because I can cover the paper and smash the scissors). Rather, it’s the intrinsic value applied in the time it is experienced.
This is critical in learning how to think. We begin to mindfully explore the depth of value in all things, and appreciate the many ways to communicate that value in the appropriate timings in life. When we think outside ourselves we get too spend more time relishing in the value of other things. We get to explore how the cause and effect of life shapes us, how positioning and timing both play a significant role. This is the story of the Tao… the way one understands the other.
Learning what to think has served its purpose. Learning how to think will pave the way…
Possibilities for Consideration
Take a moment and examine…
- As you reviewed the material above, what stood out to you?
- What is the potential impact, economically and/or socially?
- What action is needed to stop or support this idea?
- You may want to consider whether you:
- want to be aware of,
- should become supportive of,
- would want to be active in this topic?
Add Your Insight
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; we must do.
LEONARDO DA VINCI