AtQ – What Else do You Need to Consider?

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In this week’s Talking Note, I looked at frameworks around the interaction between what we say we believe, what we do, and what other people think. That last bit is different. I would normally talk about who we want to become as the final part of the trifecta. That is after all the tangible output of the interaction between what we believe and what we do. In this case, however, the actor Alan Ritchson, a few people who don’t like what he is doing, and the Acton Institute all had things to say about each other, which brings to light this reality: everything we do happens in the context of relationship.

We relate to money, environment, colleagues, friends, family, even ourselves. It is how we understand how two different things interact – that is in some kind of relationship. With any endeavor then there are relationships to consider. It is not to say that the relationships somehow run our lives, but rather to honor the profound connection we have with the world around us.

In considering a particular pursuit, one way to bring this to the front is with this question:

What else do you need to consider?

Our considerations are the relationships that we bring to mind, that we attend to, and that we aim to do our part in. It is our considerations that we bring to mind as we think about what pursuing a certain direction might mean. What exactly am I saying yes to? What exactly am I saying no to? Even more pointedly, who am I saying yes or no to?

Let’s see how this plays out.