The Direction of Intention

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Here’s an interesting phrase that came up twice today: soul searching. This is not a new phrase. In fact, I’ve heard it a lot. I use it myself sometimes. I heard it anew today because I had two conversations and the phrase was used in two remarkably different ways (I have permission to share this with you):

• “I have a soul and I am searching within myself for my truth.”

• “I have lost my soul and I’m looking for it.”

The first usage is healthy. The second is tragic. What is it to feel as if you’ve lost your soul? I am not asking a religious question. I am asking something fundamental and practical that applies to us all.

Here is the context from the person who feels as if they have lost their soul (I’m generalizing a much bigger conversation): In business (and government) there is often an invisible scale – like the scale of justice – in one tray is the word “values” and in the other tray is the word “interests.” How often have you heard someone in a position of authority say, “We had to weigh our interests against our values,” as a way of justifying the action that betrayed the stated values? My conversation was with a man in authority who recognized that he makes that statement a lot. Today is the day he realized what he was really saying. He said it this way: “I have no values that matter. The bottom line, what we’ve been calling interests are in practice, in truth, what we really value; interests trump values every time. I’ve been making excuses, pretending that I’m serving a set of values. I’m not. It’s a lie.” Strong words! That’s when he used the phrase “soul searching.” Today, he is my hero. I do not underestimate the power of his revelation and the bind that he now faces.

I think his dilemma is the dilemma of our times. There is not greater expression of values lost in service to interests (there was no weighing) than a government that collaborated with its financial institutions to rape its people and bring down the world economy. And the people (that’s us) are not innocent either: shoppers stampeding and pepper spraying each other to get a bargain are certainly in service to their interests and completely void of any greater value set.

The question posed by my hero-of-the-day is this: aren’t our interests supposed to be in service to our values and not the other way around? We could all use a bit of soul searching.

Filed under: Perspective, Truly Powerful People |