Passion, Prudence and Diligence

Hadn’t gotten to writing my New Years note for a while now and thought I’d bring it back via social media. The yearly note made for good reflexion then and will make for good reflection going forward as I reconnect with my curiosity for human behavior/wellbeing and my oppressed love for writing!

As I reflected on a reply to a post by @sethakaufman this week, I felt truly convinced that these words are words we need more of as professionals and individuals in this new world of disruption and oversharing. Thanks Seth for unintentionally inspiring me to write more!.

Here goes post 1 of many more to come:

The 3 words in the title define to a great extent are what the last couple of years have been about for me. Why? I've learned that...

Passion (strong and barely uncontrollable emotion) is what drives us to do much greater things "for love of” rather than “for fear of".

We’re all passionate about something, everyone is! – even if we try to suppress it out of fear of not staying impartial to a particular issue. Imagine the effort it takes to suppress something you feel so strongly about and how it impacts your authenticity – something deeply missed in today’s world of insta-filters and hashtags. Ask yourself if it’s worth all that effort you go through to live restricted of a point of view or your own authenticity.

I credit my mentors (@LuisMontoya @TonyPatao @ RicardoArias @BarbaraGomez @JuanFiguereo @RosaCabreja @RamonOrtega for providing me with a platform to pursue my passions without compromise.

Prudence (ability to judge correctly what is right and what is wrong) is one of four cardinal virtues as defined by Platon + Aristotle (justice, courage and temperance are the others if you want to read more about them). St. Thomas Aquinas considered Prudence the 1st virtue because of its concern with intellect. The cardinal virtues harness Passion; Prudence ensures we seek counsel of others – specially those we recognize as having strong morals. Prudence is in steep decline (https://goo.gl/hhLzBG) which is not doubt why the issues / opinions shared today are so polarizing.

I credit my father-in-law for reinforcing the importance of this virtue.

Diligence (careful and persistent work or effort) is what keeps us focused and grounded on the achievement of goals. Without diligence we will lack success, rigor of understanding of both the true issues as well as the real reasons why things are, but perhaps more importantly it leaves us without truly understanding the implications of leaving things as-is and without resolve or sustainable improvement. Diligence is critical to moving forward with positive resolve.

I credit my mother for showing me the value of this trait.

On the basis of these 3 words – I hope that you too can reflect on these 3 (or any other 3 that you feel define you) as you assess how and why you engage in 2018. Ask yourself as you are about to “share”, whether if what you are sharing is 1) truly Prudent in light of how it may influence others (regardless of how the perception of others changes by your tweet, pic or share); 2) demonstrating true Passion for what you care about and is not diluting what you are passionate about with noise of other things that make it difficult to understand what it truly is that you are trying to accomplish; 3) demonstrating Diligence in execution of those goals you are about to set out to accomplish tomorrow for the new year.

I hope to periodically share some thoughts in 2018 about my own passions like my Love for Reading/Writing + Enabling Others to #LiveBetter!

Happy New Year!!

Enrique