I consult and provide specialty expertise on making plain the edges & challenges of program management, workforce agility, performance improvement, & cybersecurity. I know, I’m narrowing that list down.
EDGES OF THE RETIREMENT 5 “The unhappiest people of the world are those in the international watering places like the South Coast of France, and Newport, and Palm Springs, and Palm Beach." --Nixon I may not agree with Nixon, but I get his point. I've talked a lot about the kernel of belief. That to work for an organization, to serve any sort of greater purpose -- you must hold fast to a core, kernel belief in what you're doing is right. And where you're doing it is the right place for you to be. You don't stay with an organization, habit, or practice -- for decades on end, unless you believe it's the right thing to do. Unless you believe the majority of what you do, ends up towards an achievement you want to be remembered by. We chase and crave alignment -- belief runs close with alignment. If any part of that kernel of belief cracks or fractures, you have to move. You have to get out. There's another kernel than runs with belief: the kernel of discontent. People, by design, are contextually discontent. We moderate ourselves against the numerator of what we want, over the denominator of what we have. Friends, family, fortunes, futures -- all stem and stemmed by our discontent. I'm still working with this one. Discontent drives action -- but not always driving change or improvement. I know, there's a positive way to spin this as well. Content as being the towards goal, vice discontent being the away goal -- being the thing we run away from. I get Nixon's point -- people in the best, most picturesque of places can become beset by their discontents. But I also think -- Nixon doesn't account for what it takes for those people to get where they are. Moreover, Nixon was always haunted by his own perception of discontent and inadequacy. It caused his own ultimate downfall. Retirement is a new construct. To be "retired" doesn't mean to be done. Far from it -- it means to find a new focus on belief. And a new way to frame our discontents. #military #transition #uscg #coastguard #experience
