Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
Interpretation
One should not tie their self-worth to their job or status, as loss can lead to significant emotional distress.
Colin Powell's quote emphasizes the importance of separating one's ego from their professional role or achievements. It serves as a reminder that our identity should not be solely defined by our work or status, as overattachment can lead to despair when faced with failures or changes in circumstances. Maintaining a healthy distance between self-worth and external positions allows for resilience in the face of setbacks.
In practice
During a leadership workshop discussing the importance of resilience in business.
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. I am talking about a gung-ho attitude that says 'we can change things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best. 'Spare me the grim litany of the 'realist;' give me the unrealistic aspirations of the optimist any day.
One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be the world's policeman. But guess who gets called when suddenly someone needs a cop.
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it's not evenly distributed.
As I've thought about gay marriage, I don't see any reason not to say that [couples] should be able to get married.
Yes great people are always subject to persecution and always getting into straits.
Paper has more patience than people.
Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don't take anything too seriously, it'll all work out in the end.
Listen closely to your invisible thoughts. What do you hear? What are your words implying? That is their potency. What do you want? Name it and rearrange the structure of your mind to imply you no longer desire it, because you already have it!
The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave.
Hold your Council before Dinner; the full Belly hates Thinking as well as Acting.
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