Richard Galbraith

We have been hearing and seeing a lot of short statements presented as important truths.  As we have thought about them from different angles, none of them have stayed simple.  Together, we have come up with exceptions to many of these “rules”, while they are useful guides, they are not pure truths.  Pure truth requires an understanding that is deeper than mere words can express.  Let us continuously strive to be aware of the complexity of reality.

Once upon a time, there was a small river flowing across Northern Arizona.  Over millions of years, the rainfall near its headwaters eroded a channel that connected it to a lake on the eastern side of the Kaibab, forming the Colorado River.  The additional flow from the lake gave the river enough power to enlarge the river’s valley, creating the Grand Canyon.  The Colorado River has now been tamed by a series of dams, but it continues to slowly erode the solid rock of its bed – a proces...

How are the people you are happy to see arrive different than the ones you are happy to see leave?  Choose which type of reaction your presence creates.  Enjoy and appreciate whoever you are with.

When work is a daily grind, it wears a person down and tires him out.  Having fun is refreshing – rejuvenating the body as well as the mind – that’s why we look forward to vacations.  When you find ways to enjoy your work, you stay young at heart and look forward to every new day.

Very few trips work out exactly as planned.  Weather is only one of the things that are beyond are control.  Blaming external conditions for messing up our plans doesn’t help us get to our destination.  If we don’t think of ourselves as victims of circumstances, we can always find something that we can control to get headed back in the right direction.

Getting even doesn’t work.  The person who receives a blow always thinks it is harder than the one he gave out.  There are only two ways that a cycle of revenge ends.  One is death; the other is for someone to show enough strength to absorb the last blow without responding in kind.  Fighting tends to escalate: the longer a fight lasts, the more pain is inflicted on both sides.  The best time to stop a fight is to refuse to strike back after the first blow.

As I get ready to go out shopping:

There many cool things in the world; whenever I see one of them I want it.  Every year, there is a better computer and a neater car that I would like to buy.  If I had yielded to these temptations I could not have paid off my mortgage, paid for my children’s college and taken an early retirement to enjoy the beaches and four seasons of Cape Cod.  When I think about what is really important to me, I am happy to drive my old car until it is too worn out to ...

After a couple of hours hiking up hill, I was discouraged to see that the summit was still far ahead.  When I paused briefly and looked behind me, the view of how far I had already come was refreshing enough to give me more than enough energy to keep going until I reached the top.  When your current work seems too hard, you might want to think back on how much you know now than you did two years ago.

It is not easy to be comfortable with our doubts.  They remind us that we don’t know everything and that our decisions might go wrong.  But eliminating doubt from our thinking doesn’t not change the fact that we are imperfect, it just blinds us to the possibilities that we could learn from the different views that others may hold.

Doubts shouldn’t stop me from acting.  Thinking through my doubts should let me move forward with confidence that I am prepared to take corrective action if-...