Where does insight come from?

We must pay attention to our experiences, for these can trigger questions for reflections.

The formation of insight indeed happens inside us, not outside us. When we gain information from others, it is simply a transfer of knowledge. But when the information or experience resonates with us, we allow insights to form.

In a way, the term “extract insight” or “extract meaning” seem to be misrepresentations of the authentic insight experience. We can be provoked, triggered, or inspired by external entities, but it is us who must keep an open mind and heart.

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Mark 12:35-37. The Holy Spirit inspired David to say: ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here on my right until I put your enemies under your feet.’

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-160: JUNE 9, 2023]

Living with

Having a family of my own while also being part of a bigger family (and community) punctuates how essential it is to live with others. Even as an introvert, I find that there is strength and inspiration in being able to live with people we love.

Indeed, as we truly live with each other, we can approximate what it means to have a great spirit emerge out of our genuine love towards one another.

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Mark 12:18-27. He is the God of the living, not of the dead.

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-158: JUNE 7, 2023]

Subtle greed is insidious

When I was an undergraduate student, during my frosh year, I was guilty of an insidious mindset. I thought that the best way was to have the least amount of effort for the highest amount of grade. Positively, this could be framed as “working smart”. But negatively, with hindsight, I’d frame this mindset as “subtle greed”.

This mindset is insidious because it breeds entitlement and predisposes a person to game the numbers. It can put authentic learning on the sidelines. This mindset initially made me view grade consultations as a game of haggling, bargaining, and negotiating with my professors. Now, I realize that this mindset made me an inauthentic student during my early college years.

Looking at my journey in college, I recall meaningfully the courses that I barely passed or those courses where I put a lot of effort but was very satisfied with a 2.5 grade (in the DLSU system, 0.0 is fail, 1.0 is pass, 4.0 is exemplary). Now, as a teacher, I lament instances where students would bargain not to pass a course, but to turn a 3.5 into 4.0 under the pretense of being a Latin honors candidate.

Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of myself in my latter years as an undergraduate and carried a respectable work ethic in my masteral and doctoral journey. Indeed, the best way is a reasonable amount of effort for the highest amount of learning – that time, I knew my weaknesses, what I was willing to sacrifice, and what I needed to preserve to maintain my mental health. And this mindset, I’d like to believe, put me in a space where I can better thrive as a whole person.

The tricky thing with “subtle greed” is it’s hard to notice and easy to justify. It takes a very sober understanding of our weaknesses to stare at ourselves in the mirror and say: “This is not good enough, this is not who I am, and this is not who I am meant to be.”

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Mark 12:1-12. But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Come on, let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-156: JUNE 5, 2023]

When we pretend that we don’t know

More than a decade in the university (counting my years since being a student) made me realize that academic performance is less about IQ or intellectual intelligence but more about stamina. Though working smart and having booksmarts would help a lot, the capstone projects (final internship, thesis, dissertation) is more about the attitude, discipline, and the stamina to grit through constructive critiques.

As a teacher, it is easy to extend extra effort for those who have demonstrated commitment and proactiveness. It is most difficult to be nurturing when sometimes, we sense that students would feign ignorance and pretend that they don’t know the right thing to do because knowing the right thing often means knowing that doing the right thing is hard and filled with effort.

What stunts our growth the most are the times when we feign ignorance to avoid doing hard work. A tricky path to traverse is when students do the bare minimum for the highest grade instead of going above and beyond for the sake of pursuing insights and deep understanding.

Being better (or even the best) is indeed about authenticity too – knowing our weakness, daring to improve, and drawing from our well of stamina to go over the other side, where a better version of us is always waiting.

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Mark 11:27-33. So their answer to Jesus was, “We don’t know.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-154: JUNE 3, 2023]