Make Yourself IRREPLACEABLE

Morning!

I just can’t believe how really insightful the free Daily Dose can be – check out what arrived in my inbox today!

Crow’s Quote of the Day

One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike – and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
 
Albert Einstein
 
Why does Albert feel this way? Is it because he was a physicist and is simply being parochial, valuing what he himself does?
 
I don’t believe so. The question one needs to ask is "What is it in our world that’s  fundamentally unique and irreplaceable (except with itself)?" Religion? Not really. We’ve had hundreds of religions on our planet during the time we’ve been on it, with a huge number being practiced today. There’s certainly no lack  of them and they’ve shown a robust tendency to spring up rather easily. Take Mormonism, for example. It only came into existence a short while back and offers a modification of the belief structures displayed by already existing faiths.  So, although many could argue as to which is "the right one" it seems that there’s enough overlap and reinvention to reduce the "fundamentally unique" aspect.
 
Well then, how about our social structures? Again – no. Democracy has been fiddled with for  thousands of years and other forms (utopias, dictatorships, theocracies, etc) have shown up quite regularly over time. Nothing unique there.
 
Art? Nope. The Athenians were fantastic representational sculptors and painters. Speaking of painters, the neolithic artists did a bang up job decorating their caves with material that’d easily sell in an art gallery today.
 
Science though. Now there’s something different.
 
Mankind has been trying to figure out how the world works for tens of thousands of years and it’s only in the last couple of hundred that we’ve really parted the veil. What we now know is such a leap from our past understandings that it’s almost breathtaking.
 
Here’s another way to think about it. If you took Pericles from ancient Athens and put him into the US Senate he’d have no trouble understanding what was going on. If you transported an ancient Roman priest to a modern church and explained to him what was happening at the front of the congregation he’d nod his head and follow it completely. He wouldn’t necessarily agree but he’d "get it."
 
HOWEVER.

Take the top scientific mind from Alexander’s court and bring him into a modern research lab and he’d be completely confounded. Not a hope of understanding what was going on. Quarks? Hadrons? Dark matter? Electrical impulses traveling to axons? No hope at all. This material is absolutely solid, built upon a structure constructed over the decades, and completely beyond someone without the grounding and training that’s easily available today. Today, mind you, not a decade ago.
 
That’s what is precious about it. This "thing" we call science is the end result of YEARS of constant building and improving and if suddenly wiped from the earth it wouldn’t be recoverable without centuries of toil (and a lot of luck) ….MORE….

 WOW!  Read the above and tell me that’s just not utterly brilliant!

So let’s now take those ideas and apply them to the most important person you could ever imagine…YOU!

Tell me now….are YOU irreplaceable?  Hmmmm?

In the corporate world, it’s been said that NOBODY is irreplaceable.  I do suppose that does make sense – you don’t want your company’s bottom line to be dependent upon one sole individual whose absence would cause sheer financial panic!

But…..what about in your own personal teeny tiny network?  You know what I mean…your family, your friends, your loved ones….do you make yourself so unique and loved that if you were to disappear tomorrow, nobody could even come close to the magnificence you offer today?

I know I do!  Besides being godlike when it comes to raising my kids, turning on a dime with regards to the economy, and always knowing how to create profitable products, I also:

• Go out of my way to help out my friends
• Proactively look out for my colleagues online…and alert them when issues arise about which they need to know
• Constantly show my husband, kids and loved ones just how unique and important they are

You see, your life ISN’T only what HAPPENS to you…it’s also how you CHOOSE to affect others in your network.

So many times, I hear people tell me, yes, I heard that so-and-so came down with a cold/flu/terminal case of death/etc., but you know, business being what it is…I just didn’t have time to drop an email to ask how they’re doing or call or what have you.

Think about it.  It takes less than 2 minutes to send a message that says, Hey!  Someone cares about you!

And looking out for your friends online?  It takes less time than spilling your coffee to set up a Google alert to be notified when someone’s company or business or name/etc. pops up online.  And because Google automatically can send you that information when it happens, voila – you can then simply notify your friends/family what’s currently taking place online.

Making yourself irreplaceable means you don’t ONLY look out for Number One…it also means you ENHANCE your loved one’s life by your presence in it.

And truly….being a stalwart friend or parent or lover really IS what makes the world  go ’round.

It’s something upon which to think, eh?

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about irreplaceable, have you seen these one of a kind: