Lynx Thoughts

Two stonemasons are hard at work.

The first, when asked what they are doing, says, “I am chipping away at this stone.”

The second, when asked, excitedly says, “I am building a cathedral!”

Both are engaged in the same task.  They’re literally doing the same thing.  Yet they are having a vastly different experience of life.  While the first works in the context of a job, a task, a simple means to an end*, the second is works within a context that brings grandeur and fulfillment and creativity and pulls for their pride and self-expression.

Same circumstances, yet to each the stone looks different, the chisel looks different, the process feels different, and through all those they each, very likely, produce vastly different results in terms of speed, quality, and overall excellence in their work.  Not to mention which one goes home ready to zone out and which one is still energized at the end of the day…

Same task, but different worlds.  Not by luck or anything inherent but brought into being through invention.  Their individual invention.**

Tasks are tasks.  We get to create how we relate to them, who we will be, and ultimately influence how our day will go and feel.

*  That’s actually hidden within a subcontext, that itself is and contains an “in order to”

** And if they/we don’t do it consciously, then they’ll simply invent what they already know, what’s already around them and copy their inherited contexts, whether they are empowering or not.