Passages

Every morning, I get an email from Readwise with a handful of passages I’ve highlighted in books read on Kindle. I love Readwise because it reminds me of what was once surprising—and often still is.

“To spend a few minutes with people is simply not productive. If one wants to get anything across, one has to spend a fairly large minimum quantum of time. The manager who thinks that he can discuss the plans, direction, and performance of one of his subordinates in fifteen minutes—and many managers believe this—is just deceiving himself. If one wants to get to the point of having an impact, one needs probably at least an hour and usually much more. And if one has to establish a human relationship, one needs infinitely more time.”

– Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive

I have my beefs with Peter Drucker (I found The Effective Executive insufferably patriarchal), but this boomeranged back to me today and felt essentially true. Relationships form and bloom with lots of time and water.

“When we separate from the felt sense of our pain, we also separate from the visceral experience of love that allows for true intimacy with others.”

– Tara Brach, True Refuge 

I loved this book by Tara Brach (just like I love her podcast), and this part struck me in particular. The pairing of “something bad” and “something good” reminds me that there are two sides to everything.

“When you know your own values and priorities you will naturally experience every aspect of your life improving steadily. This happens because of the way that knowing and understanding your values reduces your internal conflict and allows all parts of you to cooperate together.”

– Jim Leonard, Your Fondest Dream

This was a pretty wacky book. A lot of it was about a breathwork technique that, as far as I can tell, is rarely if ever taught anymore. Even so, there were a lot of passages I loved, and this was one of them. Values come up all the time in my life (in coaching, in financial planning, in conversation with the people closest to me), but their importance sometimes feels nebulous. This makes it concrete: knowing your values lets all the parts of you work together.