EMPTY ROOMS IN EMPTY PEOPLE

“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow”

 - T.S. Elliot, The Hollow Men

Empty rooms in empty buildings range from Congressional buildings to churches.

Empty people with empty rooms within total even more:

senators who pass more gas than useful legislation; vain professors of philosophy; burned out mothers whose children run wild like weeds.

Derek Price, who was a British physicist, historian of science, and information scientist, discovered something about his peers in academia.

He noticed that there were always a handful of people who dominated the publications within a subject.

Price found out the following (now called Price’s law):

 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.

In other words:

Only a handful of people are responsible for the majority of the value creation. 

 Academics and intellectual bloggers love to dissect the world from their leather desk chairs, drinking their bottled water.

They love to explain how their perceived world works.

 But we have to live in the real world.

We don’t have the time to study all the 1419 mental models that exist.

We still have to put on our clothes every morning and work, so we can pay the bills.

But on the minefield that is life, it would benefit us to think and walk smarter ...

and if we find empty rooms within ourselves, to fill them with things and thoughts that matter.

If you’re feeling empty, you’re not alone. Many of us feel empty in different ways.

 For instance, you might feel empty because something is missing in your life,

 Or the emptiness might stem from slowly abandoning ourselves,

 not listening to our own hopes and desires.

You might abandon yourself unintentionally or unknowingly because you’re striving for perfection or others’ approval.

WHAT TO DO?

DENIAL IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT

 Don’t beat yourself up for feeling this way. Don’t try to dismiss or change your feelings.

Whatever has happened to hollow you out has happened. A new normal has been established.

Learning to live with it will take time.




DO NOT BE A STRANGER TO YOURSELF

  Instead of trying to fill the void with drugs, alcohol, TV, computer games or anything else, look within and spend time with yourself,

 Carve out time to explore your own desires, fears, hopes and dreams. This helps you create more meaning in your daily life and your future.




BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND

 It’s important to be self-compassionate.

Whether you are experiencing difficult relationships, losses or feeling a lack of purpose or meaning,

you are worthy of living a fulfilling and meaningful life.

Give yourself permission to find a path to it.

 
LOOK UP - CONNECT TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING


Walk into a lunch room, down a street -- sit and observe in a mall.

Everyone is looking down into their cell phone's screens. 

But our spirits are filled when we look into another's eyes and see we matter to them.

No wonder then that our cell phone generation feels so hollow.

We have succeeded in amassing more and more things, but we have less and less joy, less and less empathy.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

And now, for a little laughter: