Ten is meant to be a symbol of perfection or completeness, according to Pythagorean philosophy.
As I pass through my tenth year in business, I don’t really feel that perfection or completeness. You may know that I am more guided by 80/20 than by perfection. But completeness is a draw to me. Rounding things out, finishing things even when they are painful, making good endings. It’s true that I have made some endings in the past few weeks and months, taken things off the table that would once have been a draw. I am not completing things; I am reducing things. That’s an interesting place for me to be as it is such a different way of being. And it doesn’t match this philosophy of the significance of ten.
I am curious about the mindsets and philosophies that guide us from history that may no longer serve us. I’m not sure how this one served us anyway – maybe if I read more about the philosophy, I might understand. And here’s the thing. How often do we read a headline and think that we understand? Without questioning the other side’s point of view. Especially when algorithms feed us with the same news stories or types of video footage or perspectives.
How might we ask more questions and dig deeper so that we see others’ perspectives? We may still not agree with them. But at least we might understand the basis upon which they are made.
I’ve been having this discussion with one of my friends recently, as we have totally different things coming into our feeds. This means that we see the world differently. And we can both help the other to see things from a different perspective. I’m finding this really useful to get a both/and perspective rather than an either/or. Something more whole rather than splitting into parts.
That’s my own work too, listening to all of my own competing perspectives. One part of me thinks X and another part of me thinks Y. A third part of me thinks Z. How do I bring those together such that they are all acknowledged and heard? So here we are, right back at completeness – or at least wholeness. Not perfection, but wholeness. Are you listening to your own competing yet somehow complementary voices?
