Five Wisdom Biscuits

tasty, bite-sized, easily digestible bits of insight

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1. Humility, Always.
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We need to be humble when we are wrong.
And
We need to be humble when we are right.

“When I am wrong, make
me willing to change.
When I am right, make
me easy to live with.”
—John C. Maxwell

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2. LOFTY GOALS
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A quote by my BFF Larry Keene:

“Our standards
are beyond us for a
reason.”

If my standards are beyond me—which, of course, they are—I’m going to fail from time to time.

And, expecting that I will fall short sometimes—because my standards are beyond me—I should proverbially foam the runway with kindness, compassion, and love.

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3. The 70% Rule
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If Jane is telling a story about an event, and, in the telling, mentions it was a Tuesday, and I know for certain that it was a Thursday, I need to ask myself if the story is more than 70% accurate.

There are things that need to be 99.9% accurate.
And, there are things that don’t matter.

The 70% Rule means I don’t interrupt Jane and say, “Um, well, actually, it was a Thursday.”

Sometimes good enough is good enough.

When possible, let’s try not to nitpick.

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4. As They Are
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“Do not dismiss people
just because you can find
something about them that
is not perfect or you do not
Like.”
—Timothy Snyder

Surely not everything about the people with whom we disagree falls below the threshold of acceptability.
We would do well to find common ground.

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5. Not smiling
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Last week, while biking to the gym, I realized, “These days, though I laugh, I hardly ever smile.”

I think it breaks down like this:

• Laughter is often a reaction to something incongruous.
• Smiling tends to signal joy and contentment.

So, it makes sense—these days it’s hard to feel deep satisfaction.

Here’s to hoping we can be kind (to ourselves and others) as we weather the difficulties of this world.