“The Friendship Factor” was the first book to make me think about the importance of friendship, and that how I had been building them was more careless than careful. Over the years I have come to understand the truth of the statement that, “deep friendship requires cultivation..."
With all we have discussed in this series based on the article from Lead Different titled "The Lost Art of Friendship," now is the time to take action by investing in quality friendships. This episode sets us up to take action. Enjoy building friendships.
William Deresiewicz writing in his essay "The Death of Friendship" says, "We seem terribly fragile now. A friend fulfills her duty, we suppose, by taking our side..." This runs counter to the idea of depth and friendship leaning toward the superficiality of 'leaving each other alone,' instead of 'trying to make each other better.'
In this episode we talk about the 3 qualities we can invest in which increase the depth of our friendships.
William Deresiewicz writing in his essay "The Death of Friendship" makes the observation that modern day friendship is lacking in comparison to the ancients or classical friendship. He writes, "As for the moral content of classical friendship, its commitment to virtue and mutual improvement, that, too, has been lost." This episode is about reclaiming the true meaning of friendship, returning to the quality look and feel the ancients experienced.
This episode discusses the truth ancients believed about friendship, that it requires extraordinary qualities of character. We discuss 3 key qualities in this episode.
This episode discusses the truth that friendship is rare, precious, and hard won. This definition is taking from the ancients based on the essay "The Death of Friendship by William Deresiewicz."
This episode takes as its thesis the idea that "We cannot be friends with everyone otherwise friendship has no meaning." Before you react consider the ideas inside this episode:
This week I saw fear in the face of a young leader. He reminded me of my own fear at a similar age. This lead me to create an article called "Why Are We Afraid To Lead." You can find the article on Lead Different.
This is the 7th episode of our "Lost Art of Friendship" podcast series based on the Lead Different article of the same name which you can find here. This episode begins the breakdown of 7 questions based on reflections from the William Deresiewicz essay "The Death of Friendship."
The question answered in this episode: What is the difference between Friendship and Distraction?
Here is a snippet to give you an idea where we are going in this episode, "A common mistake is to identify relationships as friendships, when the only purpose they serve is to distract us from the uncomfortable, difficult, or painful."
Teenagers are experiencing a punishing loneliness during this pandemic. This experience is chronicled by Ellen McCarthy in “The loneliness of an interrupted adolescence.”
Teens reflect the general erosion of mental health during this pandemic. Everyone is effected in some way. The Lost Art of Friendship was written to highlight the importance of friendship in battling the emotional challenges of this pandemic as well as the general and ongoing need for genuine friendships. The hope is to provide definition to what they are and insight on how to build them. You can read the original article here. You can also find previous episodes of the podcast on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast
"Something I have learned about my life and the lives of the hundreds I have spoken to about their emotional and spiritual lives is that loneliness is experienced more often than admitted."
This quote and episode theme is drawn from "The Lost Art of Friendship," which you can find at Lead Different.
This is a quick reflection on learning. No absolutes. No certainty. Only an awareness that the future belongs to those who learn, and organizations with a learning culture.
"we can then build “learning organizations,” organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together."
The above quote belongs to Peter Senge. It is from his book "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization," a volume I refer to when I notice myself or others in the organizations of which I am a part becoming resistant to learning.
My hope is you will listen and share, and if there is enough interest then I will be writing more about learning on Lead Different.
Emotional Phobias lead us to "suppress and diminish our emotions." After a time, we become emotionally deprived or dehydrated. This emotional deprivation or dehydration leaves us in a state of emotional hunger or thirst at which time we start pursuing...
Real friendship tends to be difficult for men and boys. We are taught early on that our emotions can lead us into the “dark arts of human vulnerability...”
"One of the best ways to receive an emotional education is through friendship. For this to occur these friendships must be built from the inside out, intrinsically not extrinsically."
"We are all in desperate need of an emotional education, the very thing capable of helping us nurture and strengthen the relational aspects of life, and let’s face it, more often than not it isn’t our failure to understand the philosophy of Nietzsche or Einsteinian principles of physics which sink our lives. What sinks us most often is our failure to navigate relationships, the emotional aspects of life, and yet we continue to neglect and diminish the need for an emotional education."
Thanks for taking the time to read and listen to my content and journey. I hope it helps you with yours.
The Lost Art of Friendship is an article of exploration of deeper relationships and can be found at Lead Different. This episode of the podcast is an introduction and is entitled "The Pursuit of Love" because of the following quote from the aforementioned article.
"We all want to know how it feels to be loved. I believe it feels like friendship, but my fear is we as a country and culture, be we secular or religious have lost the art, the considerable understanding and skill necessary to make real friends."
This is the introduction to a series about leading in times of crisis. In this first episode there are three broad topics. Featured prominently in the podcast and companion articles is the concept of empathy. You can read the article Why This Pandemic Requires Empathic Leadership to begin your journey of seeing its importance in the midst of crisis.
The companion articles for this post as well as all of the posts in this series can be found at Lead Different.
This is an audio supplement to the Lead Different Article "The Pursuit of Greatness"
This is another bonus episode for those searching for a Sunday Morning Spiritual Meditation. The theme is "The Power of Change." You as always can find the Russ Off The Cuff Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also check out my writing on leadership and change at Lead Different.
"Only If You Want To Change" is for people who are passionate about personal change, especially personal change can lead to changing the world. This episode takes a deep dive into making the type of choices that will reduce anxiety and stress, turn motion into action, help us choose confidence over control, live lives of boldness instead of timidity, to believe rather than second guess, so we can slow down rather than speed up, because we choose the spiritual rather than humanistic path, all of which can help us be present, living today rather than freaking out about tomorrow.