Today is August 14 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you act as if what you do makes a difference?”
People who navigate the chaos understand what pioneering American psychologist and philosopher William James meant when he noted “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
Unfortunately, as David Brooks said in a New York Times editorial “our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light."
"Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character.” When you build inner character you awaken the spirit that acknowledges your ability to make a difference. “But if you live for external achievement, years pass and the deepest parts of you go unexplored and unstructured."
"You lack a moral vocabulary. It is easy to slip into a self-satisfied moral mediocrity. You grade yourself on a forgiving curve. You figure as long as you are not obviously hurting anybody and people seem to like you, you must be O.K. But you live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys.”
American director and author Tom Shadyac, widely known for writing and directing the comedy films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty, exemplifies someone who witnessed years pass without exploring his inner light.
In 2010, Shadyac departed from comedic work to write, direct, and narrate the documentary film I Am, in which he explores his abandonment of a materialistic lifestyle following a bicycle accident three years earlier.
The film asks two central questions: What’s Wrong With the World? and What Can We Do About it? The film is about "human connectedness, happiness, and the human spirit," and explores Shadyac's personal journey, "the nature of humanity" and the "world's ever-growing addiction to materialism."
Shadyac awakened his inner light and acknowledged his ability to make a difference. Do you?