You may think Rough & Tumble would describe the world better right now. You would be right. This Daily Paradox is not another frightener to create sleepless nights and dreaded days. We already have more than enough of those. Their depressive effect on many – in particular, it seems, those in the mid years of 40 to 60 – can be almost overwhelming. The symptoms include distraction from the most important matters, muddled meetings, dependence on wordy AI report drafts, wasteful multi-tasking, fuddled brain and sickening loss of self-confidence. These are not mental illnesses. They are still distressing and demotivating.
Tough & Rumble is how we handle Rough & Tumble.
Doing so will alter some of our behaviour. We will not let it change our fundamental beliefs. It will compromise a few of our standards. We won’t abandon those principles that allow us to smile with modest satisfaction when we look in a mirror. You are the arbiter of what you want to be. You are the judge of who you are. Recognising that may be a life-long learning. Will we ensure that it progresses forward, sometimes slowly, always positively?
We lean more forcefully against a hurricane wind than to resist a gentle breeze. Today’s world is something of a cyclone, a whirlwind of technological advance, a typhoon of blowing out established norms, a tornado of destructive power. Underestimate it at your peril. Regard it as a problem only for other cultures and you will be washed aside. Globalised or deglobalised the planet is increasingly and irrevocably one culture.
Four rules dominate Tough & Rumble: Observe, Analyse, Determine, Commit.
Read people – observe – before you read situations. People are the personification of actions. Reading people is already the most important skill in human relationships. It is in the process of becoming even more critical. Observe the situation in more detail than you have ever done before. Every twitch, every glitch is a clue. You cannot afford to be clueless.
Analysis is too fast and transient now. Great thinkers ponder. The mind doesn’t sleep, it simmers, in the best possible way. Sometimes it is getting rid of garbage – nightmares. Mostly is it marshalling your thoughts as troops preparing for the battle of wits an issue presents. Let your mind work. Doing so you will achieve a clarity of thought as pure as the notes Chloe Chua plays on her violin. Your mind music will harmonize. That is analysis at its crystal best.
Conclusions of your analysis are actioned by determination. Every human era has its own needs for determination. Every invention is a birth of effort. We have suborned our time to competitive clashes with results of weaponry and war. Our determination must rightly include some competition but it must be balanced with cooperation.
‘Together’ is not a politician’s password, it is an engineer’s enabler.
Commitment may seem a duplication of determination. It is actually the other half of it. Determination is a starter; commitment, a concluder. We must know how and when we conclude. It is the sum of our Tough & Rumble. Not the end of life nor even necessarily of a project. Determination is when the sun is setting. Commitment is evidence of it rising, for every ending must be a beginning.
That is what brings fulfillment to the achiever.
That is what enables us to Tough & Rumble.
Good morning
John Bittleston
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19 Feb 2025
