Collateral Damage of the Trump-Musk Wrecking Company

 I felt powerless. The Trump administration is taking a wrecking ball to the federal government, and there is nothing I could do to stop it.

"Of course not," I reminded myself. "I am but one voter among many. Over 155 million votes were cast in the presidential election."

I take voting as a moral obligation, but when I consider that mine is but one in 155 million, I do ask myself, "Why bother?"

I found myself wanting to squelch that internal voice of despair. So I poured myself another glass of wine. And another. And another.

I could tell pretty quickly that this wasn't a healthy way to manage my anxiety over political issues in Washington, DC. I imagined that there must be other ways to channel my energy besides dissipating it in a drunken stupor. So I reached out to the handful of people that I trust the most: my wife, my four adult daughters, and a son-in-law.

I sent them an email expressing my frustration at feeling like there wasn't anything I could do to effect the situation. I hoped that they would respond with suggestions for me to have a positive impact.

They did not disappoint.

My eldest daughter reponded first, pointing me to a blog post that summarized Stephen Covey's first habit of highly effective people: "Assume responsibility and focus on the things that can be influenced rather than what can’t."[1]

By being distracted by things that I can't influence, I'm wasting my attention and emotional energy. It's like watch a train wreck in slow motion. It's hard not to look.

I might not be able to stop the train wreck, but I can help people avoid some of its collateral damage and administer first aid to those that are injured by it.

I'm reminded of the Serenity Prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."[2]

I use to subscribe to The Daily Stoic Podcast, hosted by Ryan Holiday. (I might subscribe to it again.)

Stoics, Holiday points out, don't just accept things as they are. They identify things that they can actually change and take reasonable steps to effect that change.

Stephanie, my wife of 38 years, has long practiced this tenet of stoicism. When something can't be changed with reasonable effort, she says, "It is what it is." But if it's something that she can fix, she jumps right in and fixes it.

(She also points out when I'm trying to improve a given situation, but it's not actually broken. "It's not broken, Brian. Don't fix it." When I try to fix it anyway, I sometimes end up breaking it.)

So, what can I do to improve matters while Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the U.S. government?

I can look for people who are injured by the destruction and see what I can do to help heal the injury.

I've provided career coaching while I was working at Google. Perhaps I can help former government employees re-brand themselves to find new opportunities.

I've consulted with teams that needed to find their north star, their guiding purpose, and helped them frame that in a way that guides their decision-making. 

And I've helped teams frame their operations within Google as a business-within-a-business using the Business Model Canvas. This technique works for individuals, too, modeling oneself as a business of one.[3]

Who else might be injured in the collateral damage of the Trump-Musk Wrecking Company?

I continue to look.

*  *  *

To be complete, I also received good advice from my #2 daughter and her husband. I'll share their perspectives in a future post.

*  *  *

Notes:

1: From https://www.franklincovey.com/courses/the-7-habits/

2: https://www.archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/prayer/catholic-prayers/the-serenity-prayer/

3: This is well-described by Tim Clarke in his book, Business Model You.

Image credit: Wannapik.com

Comments