...Joan Didion: What is Home? In Joan Didion’s essay “On Going Home” she writes about leading a double life. She feels like one person when she’s with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, and a completely different person when back “home” surrounded by her childhood family in the Central Valley of California. During this particular trip, she begins to reflect on her life in Los Angeles. Didion contemplates the fact that she often feels uneasy around her husband, just like he feels uneasy being around her family. At a crossroad, she must decide not only who she is, and the life she wants, but also the kind of life she wants for her daughter. Her life in Los Angeles has cleansed her from her youth—one that was dusty and full of useless trinkets. She ponders the time her husband wrote the word “D-U-S-T” on those useless trinkets and she remembers her feelings of sadness and indignation. She says, “We live in dusty houses…filled with mementos quite without value to him” (139-40). The dust-covered trinkets signify what is important to her, or what needs to be addressed in her marriage. Yet, these objects just lay there waiting for someone to see them—for someone to dust them off and care for them—not unlike how Didion wishes her husband would see her and nurture her in their marriage. Didion wonders which of her two homes is normal or if they are both flawed. When she and her husband are with her family, he becomes apprehensive about her behavior, “…because once there I fall...
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...Martha Stewart; the home-maker that all of America watched create fabulous recipes; may not be all we crack her up to be. Some of the ingredients that make up her life may shock you; reporters and journalists alike have spoke out against her. Even her own daughter has some things to say about her childhood. Martha Stewart has been shunned for many things, including the ImClone Stock scandal, her love life, and her family life. The ImClone stock scandal is probably one of the most defining moments in Martha’s career. Martha had 4,000 shares of ImClone and sold them based on inside information. Her broker, Bacanovic told her that Waskal, another stockholder, had sold all four million of his stock. He knew that stock was going down and that they...
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...Challenges in life can either enrich you or poison you. You are the one who decides." ― Steve Maraboli I believe that challenges and changes in life are the defining moments for a person. In the past decade I have faced several ones, which now seem as a blur but at the time were the harshest I had ever experienced. I first set foot on Canadian soil on June of 2008 after spending 14 years in my homeland Pakistan. I had moved into an environment surpassingly different than the one I came from and it was my first time something so drastic had happened. It was my mother's decision, a decision my father did not entirely approve of. Due to this reason, barriers arose between them, which only got worse over time. In addition to coping with an array of challenges and learning to accustom myself to the language, culture and customs of a strange land, I now had to confront to the rising tension in my family. In that time I had realized a few things. Despite the fact that I had no control over the changes happening in my life, I had full control over the changes happening inside of me. I could either allow myself to be completely taken over, or face the challenges and let them nourish my mind instead. Through these ordeals, I learned that whatever tension my parents had between them should just stay between them and not affect my relation with them or myself. I learned that despite the fact that I am now living in a place completely alien to me, it is rather an adventure not...
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...Being a manager is hard. Throughout his book, “Defining Moments”, Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. explains the challenges managers face when making decisions on a daily basis and provides a framework for how to tackle those challenges. Early on, Badaracco explains how decisions between right and right (as opposed to right and wrong) are often the most difficult. Decisions like this can be seen as ‘defining moments’ because, according to Badaracco, they reveal, test, and shape a manager’s personal values as well as those of their organization. They also cause managers to come away with ‘dirty hands’, the unfortunate side effect of choosing one ‘right’ option over the other. It is how Badaracco puts these decisions in perspective that sets this book apart from other ethical decision-making books. ‘Defining Moments’ goes on to introduce a few real world cases that exemplify right versus right dilemmas. These examples demonstrate certain challenges that manager’s face, as well as serve to impress upon the reader the idea that there is almost never a clear-cut solution. The first case is that of Steve Lewis, a black analyst asked to represent his company’s diversity at a special presentation. The issue lies in whether he should sacrifice his personal values to satisfy his company’s request. Lewis’ case reveals how conflicts of personal integrity and moral identity shape one’s ultimate decision. A lot of thought must be given to choices that involve a matter of personal values in terms of...
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...What is leadership moment? Moments that defines us. In life and in leadership, we experience moments and events that define who we are - as leaders and human beings. What we do, what we say, and the distinctions we make during these defining moments impact and define who we are and what we value and stand for - in our mind and in the mind of others. Defining moments occur periodically through life and through a leader’s career, often times unrecognizable as being “defining” until sometime later on. What makes certain moments in our leadership career defining? What impact do these moments have on defining who we are as leaders? How do those around us react to how we behave during a defining leadership moment? As a leader, why should I be concerned with a moment or experience in the past? What difference do these defining leadership moments in our past make anyway? Defining leadership moments are also moments or experiences where your words, behaviors or decisions - how you handle yourself in a given situation - creates an impression that helps to define your leadership in the minds of others. How you are distinguished by others as a result of these defining leadership moments contributes to your leadership legacy in action. It is the impact your actions have on others that create the distinctions that contribute to your leadership legacy. Defining Leadership Moment | Leader / Event | Crossing the Delaware River | George Washington | Gettysburg Address | Abraham Lincoln:...
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...Unanswered In life, there is a set of questions that causes people to question their purpose in the world. These questions were designed to be simply that; questions. They have no answer and once the answer seems to become apparent, it changes into a defining moment, according to Jim Tilley. These defining moments that were once questions are the things that document our lives and how far we have come. Jim Tilley wrote the poem The Big Questions to talk about and parallel these things with everyday life. “The big questions are big only/ because they have never been answered (line 1/2).” Jim Tilley begins his poem The Big Questions, by posing a philosophical statement in which the audience begins to ponder what these questions might be. A typical big question that people face is what is my purpose here? Before reading the poem, I expected an answer to this question or at least another philosophical statement for afterthought. However, Tilley uses philosophy as well as humor to convey that there is not a concrete answer to these “big questions”. These “big questions” are only circumstantially large and will in time become unimportant. These big questions often have more depth to them than their philosophical nature. They can in turn be used to determine survival instincts and maturity. The example he uses is encountering a grizzly bear in the woods while hiking a trail. In most cases, when someone encounters a bear they have three options. The first and foremost being to run...
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... no color, no regrets, no anger, no disagreements, no pain, no shame and lots of hope. I never thought that “one million plus” strong black men could dare to come together from all over the United States with one purpose and one passion; atonement and reconciliation. Black October, The Missing Moment occurred in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995. This was a mission called Million Man March; led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam; on the National Mall. WE (Black Men) were all equal leaders that day of the original Million Man March. It was a significant moment in African American history, a “Missing Moment.” History has shown us time and time again that true change engages momentum when we experience a “defining moment.” As we continue to embrace the “defining moment” changes are destined to occur without much additional effort and progress will be realized. It is at this time we can look back and call the change that occurred as a defining moment, a pivotal moment, “Black October - The Missing Moment”...
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...When thinking about the most defining moments of history from 1920-1990, there are so many events that come to mind. Although I was not born until a few years after, we are all living in the effects of those times. To be honest, that period was really one that defined America as we are today. From events such as the civil rights movement to something seeming as simple as our technological advances, that was a pivotal period in time. The first of many defining moments in United States history was that of The Great Depression. In 1929, America experienced one of the greatest financial hardships that lasted for ten years. Some like to credit the start of this sad period to October 24, 1929 better known as “Black Thursday.” On this day, 12.9 million...
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...maximize happiness of maximized number. But when I tried to make decisions based on this theory, I met some problems. First, sometimes it’s impossible to transfer all the values into numbers to make comparison. Second, to achieve the maximized overall pleasure, I had to sacrifice the minority’s interests, which was unfair to them. As I was exposed to “Liberalism”, I found my answers. Every individual in the society deserves respect. Everyone has the right to choose freely, to live our life in the way we like, and to respect others for doing the same things. This part of Liberalism goes along with Confucianism; therefore I set my moral compass as “to respect every individual”. II. Moral Vision, Code and Fitness If I was asked to portray a picture to symbolize my moral vision, I would come up with a flying bird. A bird flying represents liberty. It can fly to wherever it wants, and no other birds can stop it. It cannot get into other birds’ way to stop others either. I would like to live a life as the bird. I can...
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...happiness mean to you? Defining happiness Defining happiness can seem as elusive as achieving it. We want to be happy, and we can say whether we are or not, but can it really be defined, studied and measured? And can we use this learning to become happier? Psychologists say yes, and that there are good reasons for doing so. Positive psychology is “the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.” These researchers’ work includes studying strengths, positive emotions, resilience, and happiness. Their argument is that only studying psychological disorders gives us just part of the picture of mental health. We will learn more about well-being by studying our strengths and what makes us happy. The hope is that by better understanding human strengths, we can learn new ways to recover from or prevent disorders, and may even learn to become happier. So how do these researchers define happiness? Psychologist Ed Diener, author of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth, describes what psychologists call “subjective well-being” as a combination of life satisfaction and having more positive emotions than negative emotions. Martin Seligman, one of the leading researchers in positive psychology and author of Authentic Happiness, describes happiness as having three parts: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Pleasure is the “feel good” part of happiness. Engagement refers to living a “good life” of work, family, friends...
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...Most Defining Moments in My Life Most people had at least one defining moment in their life, whenever it is getting their first pair of glasses to graduating elementary school or getting their first pet. Those moments are the ones who define us and help to shape our personalities and decisions. We all had pleasant events happen to us at some point in our lives, however we also had unpleasant and regretful events happening to us, whenever it was our fault or not. We all have a moment in your lives that we can surely say it changed our lives. So far, my life have been defined by my decisions and occurrences which helped me shape me into the person I am now. My life has been defined by unpleasant events which happened around my surroundings, the decisions I have made over the course of my life and the effect of others decisions over me....
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...An Infinite Love Blue bonnets and pacifiers. Dirty diapers and car seats. So not my cup of tea. I was just starting my life and had just moved away from home to start college. This was my time to have fun, to find myself; this was my time to shine. Life, though, seems to have its own set of plans laid out for us; it’s just not what we expect, and when that curve ball gets thrown, well it’s usually a doozy. Life sure laid one on me that January day when everything changed and not in the best possible way. So I was going to be a mom. That word just didn’t fit right; I wasn’t supposed to have kids, plus, I didn’t even want kids. In “Alone on the Hilltop”, John (Fire) Lame Deer, tells us of his rite of passage. He is a sixteen year old Sioux Indian boy confined to a sacred hole dug into the side of a hilltop called a vision pit. He is left alone and scared for four days and nights, with no food or water and only a few small tokens left with him for strength and guidance. Lame Deer has a brightly colored star quilt that his grandmother made, and forty pieces of her own flesh to help him be strong. He also has with him a ceremonial pipe to help ease his fears and communicate with the Waken Tanka or “Great Spirit” in the spirit world. Being alone with only his small tokens, the earth and night sky are all part of the path he must take to find his “calling”, to become a medicine man like his grandfather before him. This is his path to becoming a man. Rites of passage are different...
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...Every mother has a moment in her life where she remembers every detail. She remembers the date, time, and place for the rest of her life multiplied by how many children she has. It is the moment when she gave birth to her child. At that moment, she makes a promise to herself and her child that she would be a good mother. A good mother has many defining traits, unconditional love, support, and being a good role model. A good mother has a never-ending supply of unconditional love. A child could destroy her most prized possession, but she will still have a smile on her face because her child is safe. Often, when a child gets upset one says and does hurtful things, and yet a mother forgives and forgets. A mother's child grows and becomes an adult, and one might make decisions she might not agree with, but she will still love her child and be there when needed. No matter what, a good mother will always have unconditional love for her child. A child needs support in a variety of ways, and a good mother is there to offer all of the support needed. Of course, a mother is there to support her child financially as best she can; she will always provide for her child to the best of her ability. A mother also provides the emotional support that her child needs; she is always there when her child may need a kiss on an injury, or simply an extra hug as they get off the bus. In addition, it is important for a mother to support her child's interest in extracurricular activities; sometimes...
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...What is your understanding of a moral compass as a foundation for personal integrity and social conscience? From which Wisdom Tradition(s) do you draw in constructing your moral compass? What do you value and question about this Wisdom Tradition? * MORAL VISION: What is your vision of a good life? What values anchor your moral vision? What symbol, song, image, or story motivates and inspires your moral vision? How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral vision? * MORAL CODE: What are the rules or principles of your moral code? How does your moral code align with your moral vision? How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral code? * MORAL FITNESS: What practices constitute your moral fitness regimen? How do you use these practices to cultivate personal character and integrity? How do these practices align with and reinforce your moral vision and code. How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral code? * DEFINING MOMENT: What moral challenge has been a key defining moment for you? How has this challenge tested, clarified, and defined your character and values. If you could, how would you rewrite the script for this event in your life? Why? How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral understanding of this challenge? YOUR FUTURE AS A BUSINESS LEADER: Drawing from the wisdom of your moral compass, how do you envision the role of human values in your future as a business leader? * SOCIAL CONSCIENCE: What challenges...
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...ESSAY YOUR PERSONAL INTEGRITY: What is your understanding of a moral compass as a foundation for personal integrity? From which Wisdom Tradition(s) do you draw in constructing your moral compass? What do you value and question about this Wisdom Tradition? • MORAL VISION: What is your vision of a good life? What values anchor your moral vision? What symbol, song, image, or story motivates and inspires your moral vision? How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral vision? • MORAL CODE: What are the rules or principles of your moral code? How does your moral code align with your moral vision? How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral code? • MORAL FITNESS: What practices constitute your moral fitness regimen? How do you use these practices to cultivate personal character and integrity? How do these practices align with and reinforce your moral vision and code. How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral code? • DEFINING MOMENT: What moral challenge has been a key defining moment for you? How has this challenge tested, clarified, and defined your character and values. If you could, how would you rewrite the script for this event in your life? Why? How does your Wisdom Tradition influence your moral understanding of this challenge? YOUR FUTURE AS A BUSINESS LEADER: Drawing from the precepts and insights of your moral compass, how do you envision your future as a business leader? • CONSCIENTIOUS LEADERSHIP: What challenges and opportunities...
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