Why are we so angry?Quick note: apologies if last week's preamble was a bit cryptic. I did not have a lot of time to formulate my thoughts around some discord I was experiencing in the workplace around the appropriate way to signal corporate support during Pride Month. The bottom line: companies may think they can take a simple path of showing support and signaling that they are inclusive by temporarily changing the look and feel of their logo on social media. But doing so without fully understanding how their customers and employees will react , even if intentions are good, can make things sticky. We cannot forget that logos are symbols -- and, perhaps now more than ever, symbols are meant to evoke strong, intense feelings from people. If the corporate culture is not properly aligned with changes to that symbol, it can have an opposite effect of what was intended. Proceed with caution -- knowing you will likely create ripples no matter what action to you take.Along these lines....why are we all so angry?Of course, we had quite a run with COVID, then a super politically charged and divisive election, then supply chain issues, then war in Ukraine, then inflation and historically high gas prices. Any one of those would agitate people.And these feelings linger and continue to fester....to the point where they just become a normal part of how we operate....Anger is obviously a sign of being exposed to prolonged stress and anxiety, driven by a number of factors that include uncertainty, fear, change, oppression, not getting your way, a hyper focus on how things "should" be....you name it.But what I think most people don't get is that allowing ourselves to be angry is a choice. When we feel ourselves getting angry, it is usually in reaction to something else -- and we allow our anger to take over. So the key to avoiding prolonged anger is to identify and understand what is triggering it in the first place and then managing ourselves accordingly. In fact, this is more or less the point of the interesting Last Word article below on being a man and a father in the modern world. Here's the thing I keep coming back to -- why be angry? What does it constructively do for us if we allow ourselves to be angry at a person, a group of people, a cause, etc. for an extended period of time? All that anger ends up being is just a burden. Stop the doom scrolling. Stop watching CNN/Fox News. Stop reacting to news everyday about things over which you have no control. Accept that there are scary things out there. The world is changing, our place in it is changing. Keep an open mind and learn about what is driving these changes so it doesn't seem so scary. And then let it go. Put the anger behind you. Find something that makes you grateful (big or small) in the moment and choose to focus on that. I think it is about time we collectively choose not to be angry.....And to all of the Dad's out there -- Happy Father's Day. Enjoy some down time with your family. You deserve it!XOXODave
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Friends of Dave #287: why is Dad so mad?
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Why are we so angry?Quick note: apologies if last week's preamble was a bit cryptic. I did not have a lot of time to formulate my thoughts around some discord I was experiencing in the workplace around the appropriate way to signal corporate support during Pride Month. The bottom line: companies may think they can take a simple path of showing support and signaling that they are inclusive by temporarily changing the look and feel of their logo on social media. But doing so without fully understanding how their customers and employees will react , even if intentions are good, can make things sticky. We cannot forget that logos are symbols -- and, perhaps now more than ever, symbols are meant to evoke strong, intense feelings from people. If the corporate culture is not properly aligned with changes to that symbol, it can have an opposite effect of what was intended. Proceed with caution -- knowing you will likely create ripples no matter what action to you take.Along these lines....why are we all so angry?Of course, we had quite a run with COVID, then a super politically charged and divisive election, then supply chain issues, then war in Ukraine, then inflation and historically high gas prices. Any one of those would agitate people.And these feelings linger and continue to fester....to the point where they just become a normal part of how we operate....Anger is obviously a sign of being exposed to prolonged stress and anxiety, driven by a number of factors that include uncertainty, fear, change, oppression, not getting your way, a hyper focus on how things "should" be....you name it.But what I think most people don't get is that allowing ourselves to be angry is a choice. When we feel ourselves getting angry, it is usually in reaction to something else -- and we allow our anger to take over. So the key to avoiding prolonged anger is to identify and understand what is triggering it in the first place and then managing ourselves accordingly. In fact, this is more or less the point of the interesting Last Word article below on being a man and a father in the modern world. Here's the thing I keep coming back to -- why be angry? What does it constructively do for us if we allow ourselves to be angry at a person, a group of people, a cause, etc. for an extended period of time? All that anger ends up being is just a burden. Stop the doom scrolling. Stop watching CNN/Fox News. Stop reacting to news everyday about things over which you have no control. Accept that there are scary things out there. The world is changing, our place in it is changing. Keep an open mind and learn about what is driving these changes so it doesn't seem so scary. And then let it go. Put the anger behind you. Find something that makes you grateful (big or small) in the moment and choose to focus on that. I think it is about time we collectively choose not to be angry.....And to all of the Dad's out there -- Happy Father's Day. Enjoy some down time with your family. You deserve it!XOXODave