![]() ![]() ![]() It’s a reminder for me to look for those signs of consolation that God sends to me, especially when the ‘evil spirit’ is biting and saddening me with all sorts of ‘false reasons’ and telling me I can’t go on. I write this on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Even though I almost missed it, later reflection redirected my thoughts. To pull me out of my funk, the ‘good spirit’ sent me a sign via the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I was definitely bitten by the evil spirit that morning, saddened and disquieted with many dark and irrational thoughts. “It is the way of the evil spirit to bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, that one may not go on and it is proper to the good to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing, and putting away all obstacles, that one may go on in well doing.” ( The Spiritual Exercises of St. Rule Two was certainly active that morning: Saint Ignatius wrote the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits, where he talks about these two voices, or spirits, at work in our spiritual life. Listen to the voice that comes from God.” By illuminating her Immaculate Heart, I realized she was illuminating the voice I needed to hear. Missing an obvious sign, I went to work as grumpy as ever.īut later that day, it dawned on me that Mary in her own way was telling me, “Silence that accusing voice in your head. The effect was that her face and robes were grey, but the Immaculate Heart on her chest was white. On that morning the rain had spared parts of her body. It had rained the night before so the path was muddy. The inner voice would begin “How dare they….” and then imagine various passive-aggressive responses. The one captured in the photo doesn’t seem to be fishing, however, but simply taking in all the surroundings and trying to discern what’s beyond the fog. It’s a posture this majestic bird adopts when searching for fish. And one of my retreat initiatives was about to flop, filling me with discouragement. A Great Blue Heron on my neighbor’s dock stands completely still in the morning fog. There was some drama at work weighing me down. I also had a discussion on politics with another, and that didn’t go well. The scrutiny and critique, though necessary, are a little hard on my ego. I was doing ‘role playing’ as part of being certified as a spiritual director. My ego had flared, full nova, for several reasons. As I took my usual walk around the property, the voice inside my head was darkly replaying a litany of affronts. By reviving the art of reflection, leaders can reclaim their time, deploy their fully cognitive powers to the increasingly complex challenges they face and, by inspiring the same behavior in others, liberate employees from the corrosive effects of information overload and incessant reactivity.I was in foul mood that morning. Reflective thinking routines can trickle down the organization with senior executives serving as role models. Among them: schedule unstructured thinking time - whether it is disconnecting for an hour a day or skipping the office one day a week - and generate a list of questions that prompt reflective thought. ![]() Leaders such as these purposefully cultivate the art of reflection into their workdays, and rely on a number of techniques to reclaim and protect their time. ![]() Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg read extensively, safeguard time for personal development projects, and constantly seek new stimulus and perspectives. But some CEOs have managed to resist these tendencies. Executives spend too much time on information processing, reaction, and execution, and not enough on slow, deliberative, reflective thinking. ![]()
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