Sitting down to my weekly calendar this morning, I had a very odd moment. Every single item on my schedule sounded either easy or fun (or both), and my immediate gut reaction was an intensely negative response. Exploring that feeling, I realized it was something along the lines of: “If you don’t work harder than this, you’ll never achieve your vision.” Talk about old programming! When exactly did we decide that we aren’t being productive unless we’re bored or struggling (or both)?

The irony is that I’m creating my own dreams at work every day. Our dreams, by definition, fill us with enthusiasm. So it only makes sense that I would find my work easy and fun, not dull and dreary. It made me realize that one of the greatest hurdles we can face in manifesting our dreams is the programming that says, “If you’re having too much fun, or if it seems too easy, then you’re not getting anywhere.”

Could Martin Luther King, Jr. have achieved the goals of the civil rights movement all by himself? Could Walt Disney have created the Disney empire without anyone else's help? Heck, even Lance Armstrong has a road crew. Take a wider view, and it's worth remembering that none of us could survive in the modern world without a heck of a lot of help. Our entire way of life is a system of profoundly interdependent specialization.

I did not plant or grow or harvest one thing that I ate yesterday. I did not mine or farm or otherwise produce any of the raw materials that make up every tangible thing I own. I did not invent or develop or fabricate even one component part of my computer, my television, my refrigerator, my car, or my central heating and air conditioning system. I did not design or craft or finish even one stick of my furniture. I did not build my home with my own hands.

From this perspective, what has any of us ever accomplished alone? Where would we be without the talents of several billion strangers?

I’m interrupting our regularly scheduled “Castles in the air” series to bring you this photograph, created by Dwayne Melancon and contributed to the Win-Win Scavenger Hunt under the “funny moment” category (just in case that wasn’t immediately obvious). Thanks, Dwayne!

I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight the difference between the kind of humor that unites human beings through the common experience of joy and laughter, and the kind of humor that divides us through ridicule and not-so-subtle persecution. The difference, as with most human experience, lies primarily in our intentions.

So you have a big dream, and you’re not sure how to manifest it into reality. If you read “Castles in the air,” then you know the first step is to keep your eyes on your dream and keep that inspiration flowing. One great way to do this is to create an Inspiration Board.

Designate a place in your workspace for a bulletin board (or an equivalent like a white board or a magnetic board), and use it to post drawings, photographs, sketches, notes, and anything else that will remind you of your dream and keep you inspired in pursuing it. If your dream is to become a Major League baseball player, for example, then you might pin up a photograph like this one, created by Anne Ritchie and contributed to the Win-Win Web Scavenger Hunt.

Big dreams can be a long time in the making, so make sure your Inspiration Board is easy to change. Staring at the same inspiration over and over for months on end can become somewhat less than inspiring, especially if things aren’t moving along as quickly as you’d like. Move the board around as often as you need to in order to hold on to that feeling of enthusiasm.

A good friend of mine recently introduced me to a quote that became an instant favorite: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them.” – Henry David Thoreau

I love this quote because so many of our dreams look like this in our minds,

while their physical reality still looks like…

Yesterday morning, if you had asked me, I would have told you that there was no way for pedestrians to cross local highway 74 in my neighborhood, unless of course you consider sprinting at top speed through a major intersection without the benefit of a crosswalk to be a valid option. Yesterday afternoon, however, I discovered a golf cart tunnel that traverses highway 74 just one block north of my home. It just goes to show you: we don’t always know what we don’t know.

I'll be taking a long weekend off from blogging to get some writing done, but I'll be back on Monday. In the meantime, send in some photos for the Win-Win Web Scavenger Hunt!

Of course, you don't have to send photos in order to suggest a topic for dialog. Win-Win Web is all about connecting with each other in a mutually supportive community. Every voice counts! So let me know what you're interested in, what you're excited about, what you're wondering about, or whatever you're up to. Whether you'd like to leave a comment on the blog or send me an e-mail, I'd love to hear from you.

Thought is a lot like light. The two phenomena are linked even in the way we talk about them. People can have "bright" ideas. To exchange bright ideas is to "shed light on a subject." But perhaps the most profound connection between thought and light is the state of "coherence." It reminds me of an SAT question: COHERENT LIGHT is to LASER, as COHERENT THOUGHT is to...?

I don't have an answer. We don't yet have a word that fits in the blank, but we should.

Anyone who's seen a rainbow knows something about light: that it comes in different wavelengths. The colors of the rainbow are just the wavelengths we can see. The spectrum expands outward in both directions into the realm of the "invisible," but even in the visible spectrum, we don't usually experience light as a panorama of different wavelengths. It takes something special, like mist or a well-cut gem, to show us the true nature of light. Usually it just comes at us all at once in a jumbled mess of "brightness."

Does your corporate attorney make you feel like this?

Rosa Say posted a great article on Talking Story recently that highlights the ever-growing fear of litigation in the work place. I posted a comment to that article, but as an MBA/JD who has lived both sides of this problem, I felt the need to weigh in with a more detailed analysis of the underlying issue. In short: law is taught as the theory of worst-case scenarios rather than the practice of best-case scenarios.

Ok, so what does that mean? Basically, law students are taught to worry. They read case after case of appalling tragedy, neglect, ignorance, incompetence, and downright cruelty. Over and over again they are shown the very worst that can happen, presented without any reference to the vast majority of reasonable human beings who happen to find themselves in conflict from time to time and yet somehow manage to resolve their differences without ever once resorting to fraud, kidnapping, violence, bloodshed, or even calling their attorney.

Win-Win Web is hosting a scavenger hunt, in win-win style!

(Get the photo? Because vultures are scavengers? Ha! Hey, if you can't crack yourself up, who can?)

Now that Win-Win Web has its new look, I need some photos to spruce up my postings. That's where you come in! Instead of doing all the photo finding myself, I'm inviting the Win-Win Web community to make a game out of it. Here's how it works: you find the photos, and I'll create posts to go with those photos. No matter how outlandish the image, I'll come up with a win-win message to match it. Put my creativity to the test! That's half the fun!

I love visiting other people's blogs and connecting with the blogging community. But there are so many wonderfully colorful sites out there that recently I was starting to feel as though Win-Win Web was looking a little... well... drab. (If you missed Dwayne's post on Genuine Curiosity yesterday, go check it out. If that photo isn't eye-popping, I don't know what is.) So I decided to do something about it.

There was a time when I would have looked around for an "artist" to help me, back when I believed that some people are artists and some aren't. (I was convinced that I fell into the "aren't" category.) But being who I am today, I decided to give it a shot on my own first, just for fun. And wow, was it ever worth it. I had no idea what I'd been missing.

EJ's comment on yesterday's post drew an important distinction between joy and happiness, and I think it's a great topic to explore. In considering the difference between the two, it seems to me that the distinction is more than just a matter of degree. Joy is more than happiness multiplied. Joy seems to be happiness... connected.

Think back to your childhood for a moment. Did anyone ever sit you down and talk with you about how to live a joyful and passionate life? Was this a frequent topic of discussion in the classroom, or at the dinner table? If so, then chances are good you came into contact with a significantly advanced soul. Most of our childhood lessons are in fact about being successful, not about being happy. And the one, unfortunately, does not necessarily lead to the other.

I love writing, and I love to use this blog to promote win-win living. But some days I feel a profound need to take a break from writing and go do something. So today will be Win-Win Web's first official Call to Action day.

Call to Action Promise: I promise that at least once today I will offer a genuine compliment to someone I don't know very well. Will you join me?

I figure we'll start off easy. One compliment, one person. If you're feeling shy, then compliment a family member, or a neighbor, or a friend. But try to make it a compliment that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise, or that you wouldn't normally share out loud. Be kind. Be genuine. See what happens.

The authors of Genuine Curiosity, Slacker Manager, and Random Thoughts from a CTO have combined forces to create Never Work Alone, a brand new Google group (and related blog) dedicated to the open discussion of business issues. Anyone can view the site, but you must create a (free) Google account in order to be an active participant. Once you are a member, you can respond to the various issues posted on the site, or you can post a dilemma (or share a triumph) of your own.

A passionate vision sets in place a collaborative approach to work, not just within the organization, but also in the organization's attitude toward the outside world.  (See yesterday's article on the cooperative workplace.) A passionate vision will never focus on the competition. Instead, it will define the company on its own terms.

Human beings are a clannish bunch. Look around you. Our tribes are everywhere. They are the tables of the high school cafeteria, the fraternities of the college campus, the divisions of the corporate organizational chart. Honestly people, can't we all just get along?

Apparently not. Or at least, not without a lot of encouragement.

Once when I was volunteering for a certain non-profit organization, I was assigned the dull but critical task of summarizing all feedback received from the general public. This feedback was funneled through the marketing department, and every month it was my responsibility to generate a report regarding the nature of these comments. In my first month on the job, I discovered that sometimes letters from members came in through the public channel, so of course I offered to run them over to the development office. Instead, the marketing manager told me to throw them away.

[A memory of a moment in Italy, in which my brief encounter with a German woman reminded me of the power, and the ultimate simplicity, of human connection.]

Well, it's late, and I've had a very long day. Rather than expounding on the interconnectedness of all things, I think tonight I'll let someone else do the expounding for me. Or more accurately, several someone elses. (Yes, I know -- "elses" is not a word. Call it a blogger's prerogative. Humor me.)

This past weekend I finally took the time to see the film "What the Bleep Do We Know?" It's marvelous! If you're interested in the connections between physics and philosophy; if you're interested in exploring the nature of emotion; or if you're interested in contemplating the nature of life, the universe, and everything, then you simply must see this movie.

The comment from Kris on Friday's posting (thank you, Kris!) got me thinking over the weekend about predictability. I think we like the idea of predictability because it allows us to switch our minds over to "autopilot." New situations are expected to repeat old situations and can therefore be approached in old, familiar ways. (It makes me think of that song: "I'll be seeing you in all the old, familiar places...")

The problem is that the very idea of predictability is itself an old, familiar (mechanistic) approach to the world that does not in fact stand up against more recent knowledge about the universe.