Pride

Feeling vs. Thinking

We humans are beings who both feel and think. While thinking is respected in many circles, emotions are what entertainers, marketing, sales professionals, politicos, the media and so many others often target.

We have both emotion and reason, because we should use both.

Successful professionals learn to manage both emotions and sound reason.

Here are some thoughts on the subject.

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity."

– Dale Carnagie

 

"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance."

– Laurence J. Peter

Sometimes-in-life-one-experiences-an-emotion-which-is-so-strong-difficult-to-think-or-to-reason-eric-cantona-(c)2014-MHProNews-com

 

"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry."

– Maria Montessori

 

"I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few."

– Adolf Hitler

 

"Sometimes in life one experiences an emotion which is so strong that it is difficult to think, or to reason."

– Eric Cantona

 

 

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so."

– Will Rogers

 

 

"Emotions have taught mankind to reason."

– Luc de Clapiers

(Image Credit:WikiCommons, MHProNews.com)

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Submitted by
L. A. "Tony" Kovach

Pride and the Rose Less Traveled

To oversimplify, one can speak of two types of pride.  Healthy pride and unhealthy pride.

An example of healthy pride is to feel good about one’s work and accomplishments.  An example of unhealthy pride may seem similar at first: to feel good about one’s work, accomplishments and self, but to do so to the point that one looks down upon others.

The antidote to the second sort of pride is humility.

Roses and fountain - Chicago Botanic Gardens
Roses and fountain - Chicago Botanic Gardens

Humility comes from the word humus, of the earth.  When one realizes that we are ‘of the earth,’ made of the same chemicals found in the natural world around us, this can bring us back to reality.

One may realize that none of us is an island.   None of us is a truly “self made” man or woman, we all have had – and still have – need of others.  From parents and family, to friends and colleagues, we need others to become our best.

Rich soil – dirt – humus – this is where nature properly cultivated can flower.
Humility is not to think of oneself as dirt. True humility is nothing more or less than a recognition of the objective truth.

So there is a healthy balance needed between self respect and respect for others.

In younger days (not that I’m old, mind you! ; -) it is easy to recall how one once thought that one ‘knew it all.’

Then slowly, over time, the reality of the importance of others comes into play.

 

In strolling through the glory of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s this evening with my wife and son, it was easy to get carried away in the beauty of the place.  To see the wonder of nature.  To realize that nature’s wonder has been cultivated by people in a fashion that makes the natural, super natural!

Team work is a little like cultivating nature.

Establishing team work is to take what is already good in others.  To be open to and receptive oneself, to be willing to share in a fashion that allows another to flower.  This type of process makes the good ever more beautiful.

Such a process makes what is good even better.

Team work can be misunderstood, just as pride and humility can be misunderstood.  Not everyone ‘gets it.’  But once a team comes together, works and stays together, the results can be amazing, truly humbling, and beautiful to behold.

The Rose Less Traveled
The Rose Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

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Post written by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

 

 

 

 

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