When Thoughts Collide
Lately I have been stuck in thoughts. I spend far too much time thinking. I am a fantastic overthinker. In any given day I can imagine my way in and out of all sorts of situations, adventures, problems and fantasies. Ideas pop into and out of my mind like clouds in the sky. Many of my thoughts are creative, sometimes they are pragmatic but mostly they are reflective. Throughout my life I have contemplated my personality, my character, and my habits. As I let the barage of thoughts dance around I can’t help but focus on the notion that I am incongruent. I eat meat but I keep animals as pets. I love freedom but am the ultimate planner. I am an introvert but I parade around with goats like a champion extrovert.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function," I once worried about these dualities of thought. In psychology they refer to cognitive dissonance as how humans strive for internal consistency. When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals are motivated to attempt to reduce this dissonance, as well as actively avoid situations and information which are likely to increase it. However, one of the world’s leading management thinkers, Roger Martin, says that leaders who are open to holding two opposing thoughts at once have an ability to resolve the conflict between the two by generating an entirely new idea which is superior to both.
Working with animals has really taught me to make peace with my dissonance. My furry and feathered friends taught me that I can love that which I also dislike; that I can find inner peace when everything else is chaos.; that I can enjoy my neighbor yet not agree with them; that holding two truths in my heart is not the end of the world and that exploratory thinking leads me to new places. I use the holding of two truths on a daily basis. For instance goats will destroy most of what you put in front of them, but they entertain for hours and are loyal companions. My wild mustang forces me to handle her with kindness and compassion despite her strong and unruly behavior. My donkeys turn tail on me all the time but they also protect and defend. You can choose to ponder and embrace that which seems oppositional so that you may learn to accept or perhaps even enjoy them, or you can battle with yourself and others in the quest for perfect congruence.
My advice in the pursuit of happiness is to embrace the duality that is life. There is a gray zone. Everything is not black and white (except our directions, those are in black and white so please be sure to read them :). Most of the best I have experienced in life was found in a gray zone. Integrative thinking is one secret to success and I believe it also provides hope for a brighter future. Now off I go to do some serious thinking about how to make a visit to Not By Luck Ranch as magical as possible in this otherwise ordinary world.
