‘The un-examined life’, a philosophical, Socratic concept that I have referred to before, is a good prompt for the end-of-year ritual of reflection, compilations of The Best and The Worse, and any other sort of mental wrap up. Examinations have different forms of existance.
The concept of quieter time and reflection time, often attributed to this end of the year, clashes with the noise in streets and shops, the neon Christmas that, if anything, takes you further away from that reflection and from ’taking stock’. For many, the closest thing to stock will be the Christmas stocking that needs to be filled with those small things that our little kids care so much about.
These Daily Thoughts will be back on the 5th of January. Back again to continue a long conversation about people and organizations. Work could be remarkable, the subtitle of my new book announces. Never before have human beings had a better chance of reinventing work, collaboration, the enterprise, the building of remarkable organizations. Daily Thoughts want to be in the front row, the stage or the backstage, depending on the day…
Have a great, great Christmas. May you have the skills, the wisdom and the energy to mix well and balance stock and stocking, neon and quietness, noise and silence, enjoyment with your loved ones and little windows of memory for the ones who can’t enjoy this time.
‘The un-examined life is not worth living’ – Socrates said. May the end of 2014 be a time of joyful examination. May 2015 be the year of possibilities for all of us