3 reasons why we should “revisit” our core beliefs, from time to time

poetry

We could call our core beliefs our “operating system” in this world. The system of values formed from our early childhood, adolescence and later through out the life. Our values are mostly influenced by our family, educational system, but also by our surroundings. Going though life we experience each and every event which we “catalogize” somewhere in our memory as a good or bad and when something similar happens we tend to compare and label each event. Usually this is framed by societal norms that act like boundaries within we want to fall: we strive for success, but in terms that society implies…and it happens that we get lost; that our value system evolves and demands something else from us.

Or we are so wrapped in the societal way of thinking that unless something like illness or other form of trauma happens, we are not able to recognize the signs and life demands our attention – wanting to tell us that something is not right.  Then it’s the time for a different approach.

One thing important here is that we are in complete control over our beliefs and our emotions. We are creators of our experiences and only we can call them “good” or “bad”. Remember the famous experiment in quantum physics where it is proved that observer affects and perceives reality from his own point of view?

In a study reported in Nature (Vol. 391, pp. 871-874), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have conducted a highly controlled experiment demonstrating how a beam of electrons is affected by the act of being observed. The experiment revealed that the greater the amount of “watching,” the greater the observer’s influence on what actually takes place. When a quantum “observer” is watching Quantum mechanics states that particles can also behave as waves. This can be true for electrons at the submicron level, i.e., at distances measuring less than one micron, or one thousandth of a millimeter. When behaving as waves, they can simultaneously pass through several openings in a barrier and then meet again at the other side of the barrier. This “meeting” is known as interference.

Strange as it may sound, interference can only occur when no one is watching. Once an observer begins to watch the particles going through the openings, the picture changes dramatically: if a particle can be seen going through one opening, then it’s clear it didn’t go through another. In other words, when under observation, electrons are being “forced” to behave like particles and not like waves. Thus the mere act of observation affects the experimental findings.

Source Sciencedaily.com

We are creators of our reality, and values we follow. I think that from time to time we should reevaluate our core beliefs, because we change; it evolves with us and there 3 crucial reasons for that:

1.What stands as a truth for us, might not be the same for somebody else.

Some beliefs have roots in the experiences of our parents or have the origin in the collective subconsciousness. We should honestly ask ourselves: “Is this what I truly believe? Is this what I want?” Your definition of success is only yours. The same it comes with the notion of failure.

2.Our needs and desires change.

When I was 18, 19 the world looked completely different. I had different expectations of myself. What I wanted to do then is not in alignment with who I am today. My purpose changed as much as my ambition, which influences my further choices and decision making.

3.Each experience is an opportunity for growth.

I don’t dwell that much on the bad stuff. Yeah, it happened, but I don’t want to be stuck in the past. It has no power unless as a learning lesson; something I wouldn’t like to happen again and that’s it. While letting go we are able to move forward, like removing heavy chains off our feet. And than you are prepared for new experiences.

Engaging in the poetic process can accelerate our quest in search for meaning, value and purpose. Claire Morgan in her book “What Poetry brings to Business” further notes:

The development of ethical sensibility is a mind changing process. The changing of mind is partly dependent on a reframing of viewpoint in which the transformative potential of art can be a major motor. The absence of a simple, singular message in the artwork is a part of its value in developing an ethical sensibility.

Poetry is a pathway to new experiences: unlived, missed, desired. Either way eventually,  it can be our guidance in which way to turn our life and to what kind of reality we strive for.

They Were Welcome To Their Belief -by Robert Frost

Grief may have thought it was grief.
Care may have thought it was care.
They were welcome to their belief,
The overimportant pair.

No, it took all the snows that clung
To the low roof over his bed,
Beginning when he was young,
To induce the one snow on his head.

But whenever the roof camme white
The head in the dark below
Was a shade less the color of night,
A shade more the color of snow.

Grief may have thought it was grief.
Care may have thought it was care.
But neither one was the thief
Of his raven color of hair. 

How important is tacit knowledge for your creativity and one simple way to get more of it

polanyi

We could say that tacit knowledge represents everything undefined, inexplicable, unknown yet perceived knowledge by one person – usually rooted deeply in the subconsciousness and its largely based on his or her emotions, experiences, intuition, observations, any internalized information. It is the knowledge we all have, we all use – it influences our judgment, decisions and it’s kind of a framework that makes explicit knowledge viable. For first time, it was conveyed by the Hungarian philosopher-chemist Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) in his 1966 book ‘The Tacit Dimension.’

Innovations and innovative thinking are mostly related to science, to factual representation of knowledge. It’s a knowledge completely rationalized and most importantly verified – verified by accepted methods and methodologies. Yet for any innovative thought to be brought to surface, it has to have some sort of ignition point: unease, desire, need, unconformity that propels us in searching for new solutions and expressions – being that technology, art or science. That ignition point is our tacit knowledge.

In a research paper ‘Bicycling on the Moon: Collective Tacit Knowledge and Somatic-limit Tacit Knowledge’ author Collins H., argues that:

This knowledge has to be known tacitly, because it is located in human collectivities and, therefore can never be the property of any one individual. The simplest way to see this is to note the changes in content of the knowledge belonging to communities is beyond the control of the individuals within the communities.

In any entrepreneurial pursuit, or development of organizational knowledge accessing individual tacit knowledge is the center of creation and finding channels for verbalizing, sharing and expressing this knowledge is of vital importance.

We are not always able to recognize our tacit knowledge, but it is who we are; sometimes it turns out of nowhere as an intuition, or an attitude. It can be a surge of unorganized impulses and discomforts. One form of this outlet can be directed through poetry.

In the paper ‘Personal Performatives: Collecting Poetical Definitions of Management’ author Kostera M., firmly believes that:

Poems are also therefore an act of discovery, and require a degree of effort to write and to be understood. Poetry can cut through superficiality and help us to see the world differently. Poetry, as an approach is well suited for expressing the ambivalence and volatility of the managerial experience.

I. A. Richards, literary critique liked to call that

a pseudo-statement of words which is justified entirely by its effect in releasing or organizing our impulses and attitudes.

We can think of writing a poetry as a sort of revelation, an imaginative “living of the situation”  and we emerge from that experience like it really happened. It reframes our values, our goals, needs and it dictates the further factual exploring we strive to. Poetry is a lens through which we can see real truth and it’s no strange that some philosophers like Aristotle were afraid of poetry, that it can destabilize well run state.

Tacit knowledge is a particular challenge for knowledge management. Companies would like to prevent knowledge loss due to employee migration. Long gone are the days when employee would stay in one company for twenty + years. Now it’s usual that people change jobs more frequently – even every 2-3 years. In my 15 years of professional experience I’m in my fifth different (entrepreneurial) engagement. However, tacit knowledge almost always goes with the employee.

Tacit knowledge is essential to competitive advantage because it is that special ingredient that nobody can copy. Individuality and originality. Forms of tacit knowledge may include emotional intelligence, leadership skills, humor, sense for music, aesthetics, rhythm, cultural inheritance – practically all hidden talents.

It’s the reason some companies pump out innovation after innovation while other experience saturation.

Mapping your subconscious mind through poetry can be a key to your creativity. As a poet Wallace Stevens said:

Is the poem both peculiar and general?

There’s a meditation there, in which there seems

To be an evasion, a thing not apprehended or

not apprehended well.

Does the poet evade us as a senseless element

Evade, this hot depended orator

The spokesman at our bluntest barriers

Exponent by a form of speech, the speaker

Of a speech only a little of the tongue?