Watching a presentation today I came across the term frantic search. And it brought me back to my years in the financial industry.
Not a frantic search for solutions. But a frantic search by the mind for gratification and happiness. Mostly in the form of a materialistic possession. A new car, a new bag, a fancy dinner, vacation, champagne. Because after all, this is what you deserve.
Nothing wrong with that. But the mind has a way of its own. An instant gratification can never satisfy its immediate hunger for more. The mind is on a constant and sometimes frantic search for more.
The problem with this isn’t just personal dissatisfaction. For leaders, this internal franticness fuels reactive decisions and erodes the very presence needed to connect and inspire. It convinces you that even a happy life or a good life seems to only be possible in the distant future. The mind knows how to convince you that you cannot possibly be happy now. That you cannot possibly do things with ease. Even to live your life with ease.
It wants a plan. It wants a process. And it’s like your mind wants to tell you that things need to be complicated.
Does it sound familiar?
The fact that happiness, clarity, and ease are right here, available now, seems to slip the mind – because accessing them requires not frantic searching, but radical presence. To the frantic mind, this simple presence seems like an impossible fairytale.
The mind spins fairytales of future happiness. Are you still buying them?
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