Help – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

Moments to raise your hand

The sixth month is ending and the second half of the year begins. In the blink of an eye, it feels like yesterday we were on the eve of New Year’s, and today we are about to start a new stretch. For anyone living in the present, it is normal for life to fly by. In fact, it is one of the four states Steven Kotler describes so well in his book on flow, the state we experience when we are fully absorbed: timelessness, that sense that time slipped by without our noticing. One question I ask myself constantly is how to make better use of my time. How do I truly get the most out of a resource I know is a natural gift and costs nothing? The big answer, the way to experience that timelessness, turns out to be a life purpose: the inspiring phrase that marks the path, the guide that keeps us standing firm on the way to what we want and what we seek in life.

As long as we follow the course our life purpose sets, odds are we will run into obstacles, whether we like it or not. Take everything that slips out of our control and is simply part of nature or the world around us: hurricanes, a car crash, a landslide or the sudden death of someone we love. How we see obstacles determines whether we reach our goals. Many obstacles look unimaginable or impossible to get past. Yet even the death of a loved one, as hard an obstacle as it may be, can be seen as a chance to realize that one day we will be in those shoes. The Stoics captured it in the phrase memento mori, remember that you will die. The point is to stay clear that death is the one sure event of our lives, and never to live in fear of it.

In this first stretch of the year we may have faced every kind of problem, obstacle or event we never imagined. It is interesting that we are halfway through the year and also nearly halfway through the decade. Many of the objectives we set at the start of the decade may already be done, and many others are on their way. Some may be on hold and others simply dropped. Life has two fundamental levers for moving forward: time and our purpose. Purpose determines how well or poorly we use our time. To the extent that our objectives are aligned with our purpose and we have found the meaning and the compass for everything we do, we are making the most of our time. Perhaps the most important review we can make at this point in the year is how well we have used our time in line with our values, our vision, our mission and our purpose, and above all, how efficiently we have used the resources available to us to deliver on what was entrusted to us.

It is hard to define in advance a measure of success for many of our objectives, and that is why we can always look for help. Today, thanks to technology and the democratization of knowledge, nearly everything we need to know to reach our goals is within reach. The challenge lies in organizing all that information so we can make the best decisions. Often our plate is full, the whole table is full, and we have no idea where to start. That is exactly the best moment to raise your hand and ask for help. I would add that the best move we can make is to lift our heads and accept that sooner or later we will need someone, or several people, to see things from another angle or simply to hear good advice. Asking for help takes vulnerability, and so it means cultivating the virtue of courage.

Could this be a good moment to ask for help?

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. I dedicate this post with all my love to my mom, whose birthday was just this past June 28. May God and the Virgin always bless you, Mom, and may you have 100 more years. Thank you for all the help you have given me throughout my life. Every time I have raised my hand, you have been there.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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