Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences
When turmoil and discouragement dominate our attention, it is easy to believe that our individual contribution no longer matters. Living life in crescendo invites us to keep growing in usefulness, depth and contribution, trusting that our most important work may still be ahead of us.
At the moment in Trinidad and Tobago, the conversations are loud, circling race, power and partisan rhetoric, leaving many people feeling disenchanted and disempowered.
What can we do?
Talking about it seems futile. Whether intended or not, any naming of an ill or pointing out of a discrepancy can be interpreted as a racist remark. Many people who could perhaps make a valuable contribution refuse to descend into the melee.
I understand that response. There are conversations I have no desire to enter because reasoned exchange seems almost impossible.
The book Everyday Greatness jumped out at me today, so I started reading it again. When a book calls attention to itself on the shelf – I pay attention and wasn’t surprised that this book “came forward” so to speak. I have been thinking about ways I can contribute to change, having written just three days ago, as to whether we had become great at publishing but not so great at practising what we preach.
It was published in 2006, twenty years ago and in the introduction, Dr Stephen R. Covey writes:
In a world where turmoil dominates the evening news and words of discouragement often prevail…
I paused there because it did not sound so different from today.
The scandals may have changed. The political actors and sources of conflict may have changed. We now have social media ensuring that turmoil reaches us throughout the day instead of waiting for the evening news. Yet the prevailing sense of discouragement Covey described twenty years ago remains remarkably familiar.
He went on to say that despite everything dominating the news, his encounters with people around the world convinced him that there was an abundance of good among us.
Covey believed in what he called everyday greatness: the character and contribution of ordinary people whose choices improve the lives of others, even when their names never make the news.
Then I came across his personal motto:
Live life in crescendo.
I realised that this was also the name of his final book, written with his daughter Cynthia Covey Haller and published after his death.
Crescendo is a musical term meaning a gradual increase in loudness, force or intensity. It comes from the Italian word for “growing.” In music, a crescendo does not remain at the same volume. The sound builds progressively, gathering energy as it moves towards its peak.
What would it mean to live like that?
Covey’s premise was that our most important work is always ahead of us. Our lives should continue expanding in growth, learning and contribution. We should not allow our past achievements to become the point from which we gradually retreat, nor should setbacks convince us that the opportunity to do meaningful work has passed.
I am 62 and I have no interest in accepting that the most important work of my life has already been done.
By this stage, we have accumulated experience. We have made mistakes, survived disappointments, recognised patterns and hopefully developed better judgment. We may understand ourselves and the world differently from the way we did twenty or thirty years ago.
Surely all of that must be useful for something.
Living in crescendo asks us to use what life has taught us in service of what still needs to be done.
It asks us to keep learning, growing and finding new ways to contribute, regardless of our age, position or the condition of the society around us.
Perhaps that is one antidote to the helplessness and discouragement of today.
When so much of our attention is being directed towards what is wrong, living in crescendo turns our attention towards what remains possible. It does not require us to ignore the problems around us or absolve our leaders of responsibility. It asks us to decide what contribution is still ours to make.
That contribution may happen through the organisation you lead, the younger person you guide, the standard you refuse to abandon, the business you build, the family member you support or the problem you decide is worth helping to solve.
A life in crescendo does not necessarily mean becoming louder.
It means continuing to grow in usefulness, depth and contribution.
The public conversation may make us feel that shouting, arguing or choosing a side are the only ways to participate in shaping our country. They are not. A society is also shaped through thousands of ordinary decisions made by people who continue to care, build, teach, serve, question and lead.
Covey’s observation in 2006 still feels true today. Turmoil may dominate the news, but it does not represent the full measure of who we are or what remains possible among us.
Our most important work may still be ahead of us.
Perhaps the question is whether we will allow the discouragement of this moment to diminish us, or choose to live—and contribute—in crescendo.
Strategic Reflection Prompt
If you believed that your most important work was still ahead of you, where would you begin increasing your contribution?
About Giselle
Some of the most costly decisions begin with a wrong read of the situation.
I’m Giselle Hudson, The Pre-Fixer™. I am asked to intervene when something important needs to be better understood before a consequential decision is made.
As The Pre-Fixer™, I act as a strategic thinking partner, working with leaders to examine what they are seeing, separate what they know from what they may be assuming, consider what else might explain the situation, and surface what may not yet be visible.
I don’t fix; I pre-fix. My work happens before the solution is chosen, helping leaders build the understanding from which better decisions can be made.
Through my daily Strategic Alignment Journal, I explore leadership, decision-making, business and the patterns that shape organizations, following the questions and observations that help us understand situations more clearly before deciding how to respond.
What are you trying to make sense of right now?
