The Good Part of Guilt

"Guilt is to our spirit what pain is to our body—a warning of danger and a protection from additional damage." - D.A. Bednar

Most of the time - Pain is useful.  What happens when people can't feel pain?
Example: What happens when diabetics lose feeling in their feet?  Why do they break bones, and lose toes, and have amputations? Aren't they wearing shoes, and washing their feet, and caring for them just like the rest of us do?

Yes, and no.  They're doing all those things - but they can't feel pain.  The rest of us hardly even notice the tiny pain signals our body sends us when we've been standing on one part of our foot too long.  We just shift.  We transfer our weight to the other leg, we lean back, we do SOMETHING without even knowing why.  But when you can't feel pain - you don't do those little things.  You stay standing the same way, on the same spot, because there is no reason to change. That is when you damage cells and break blood vessels and get pressure sores and stress fractures and all the things that lead to amputated feet.

Lesson: WE NEED PAIN.

Can pain become useless and overbearing and stifling?  Yes.  We can experience pain that debilitates us when what would heal us is movement.  We can even feel phantom pain for an injury that doesn't exist anymore.


The same is true with guilt.  Most of the time - guilt is good.  It is a warning.  It helps us make the little adjustments every day that keep us from getting injured.  When we get a big injury - guilt guides us down the path to healing and recovery.

Guilt is good, just like pain.  No one likes it.  No one enjoys it.  But those who want to grow and progress understand why it is there, and that without it - we would be even worse off.

Book Review: The One Minute Manager

The books we find most insightful are usually the ones that remind us of things we’ve simply forgotten. They don’t teach us something new, they simply remind us in a unique and powerful way of something we already knew.

That is exactly how I’d describe “The One Minute Manager.” The authors wrote a simple book full of common sense – and thus the book makes total sense.

This book sold 13 million copies! It’s only 106 pages, with about 200 words per page. Why would we pay 12 dollars for such a short book?

Because it speaks to us – it reminds us to be people – and that we can succeed and make money and make friends better if we do.

Great Lessons:
1.“People who feel good about themselves produce good results.”
2.If you don’t like the way things are, but you don’t know what you want changed – then you don’t have a problem, you’re just complaining. Once you know what you want changed – then you have a problem and can work toward a solution.
3.People are motivated by praise more than scolding.
4.When there are problems, attack the behavior, not the person doing it.
5.“I’ve never seen an unmotivated person after work.” (People get excited and motivated when they are looking forward to something – like what they get to do after work. So figure out how to get them excited about work)
6.Take a minute – see if your behavior matches your goals.
7.“The key to training someone to do a new task is, in the beginning, to catch them doing something approximately right until they can eventually learn to do it exactly right.”
8.Most employees aren’t trying to produce or accomplish anything anymore other than they’re trying to get paid without getting in trouble.
9.Manipulation is getting people to do something they are either unaware of or don’t agree to.
10.“Goals begin behaviors. Consequences maintain behaviors.”