Gary Mintchell

Author Archive

Advice and Consultants

January 16, 2025

The first time I was hired as a consultant I felt so unfulfilled afterward. My career was management and engineering. The manager of a local non-profit agency hired me to help sort out a problem. I did the research and wrote a report. Then, I walked away. What I did helped him. But I was an implementer by training.

Yes, I’ve had consulting gigs (paid and not-paid) since. I’ve learned the role of researching and providing advice. Sometimes the results are rewarding.

Seth Godin packs a lot of wisdom into his writing. He’s generous giving it away for free. His recent blog post on Good Advice suggests

The cult of consulting suggests that if you simply had better advice from someone who knew more than you, your problems could be solved. Generally, the advice isn’t really the hard part. There’s endless good advice just a click away. The art is in creating the conditions for people to choose to act on the advice. Good advice unheeded is a waste for everyone involved. That’s why expensive consultants can stay in business, and why committing to a process before you’re sure of all the details makes it far more likely that you’ll succeed.

We find in the Book of Proverbs that a wise leader seeks multiple sources of advice.

Advice is only half of the battle. Committing to the process of implementation finishes the work.

Posted in Doing, Leadership, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Seeing People

January 15, 2025

We recently finished a 15-day cruise to Australia and New Zealand. There were about 900 passengers with about 430 crew. We went ashore to visit 8 or 9 cities. We visited two Māori villages participating in an ancient ritual. Saw seals and blue penguins along the coast of New Zealand.

The amazing realization that came to us—1,000 plus personalities and not one jerk. Everywhere and in all the comings and goings people were respectful to each other and the places we visited.

Life need not replicate the hatred, angst, fear, ego found on social media. Indeed, the richer and more arrogant the owners of Meta (Facebook, et. al.) and Xitter become, the less likely I am to use them. After all, I am the product there. And we know what Wisdom literature teaches about ego and pride.

We can simply open our eyes and enjoy meeting and working with a variety of people each delightful in their own special way. We show respect, and others appreciate and reflect it.

I think that is following in the way Jesus treated people. It follows along with the Apostle Paul’s emphasis on mutual submission. We don’t study it to learn it intellectually. We study it in order to practice it.

Posted in Attitude | Leave a Comment »

Compassion

January 14, 2025

Hello, we’ve only just returned from a 17-day holiday to Australia and New Zealand. Not only are our bodies adjusting to the time zone but it is also 11 deg F outside after having been in summertime. It was a wonderful trip. Met many interesting people.

Even though I’m continuing a mental health break from incessant news cycles, I am aware of global events—including the California wildfires.

It’s not surprising, but still sad, to hear about how some people shout out on social media about how the people are wealthy or Democrat or liberal or something and, therefore, not deserving of our sympathy.

Some people emphasize the adjective (liberal, wealthy, black, white, etc.); I prefer to place emphasis on the noun (people).

The Germans have a way of building words to reflect complex ideas. Schadenfreude describes taking pleasure from others’ misfortunes.

Let us consider the Christian virtue of Compassion.

Rather, let us consider people as people. Particular weather conditions over the course of a year set up an ideal environment for sudden and intense fires. With barely enough notice to save themselves, people evacuated with what they could carry. They watched their houses destroyed. More than the belongings were the memories that went up in smoke. Their entire lives reset.

Other parts of our country, and indeed the entire planet, fall victim to natural disasters be it floods or tornadoes or earthquakes. These kill people. They destroy homes and villages. They erase physical memories and keepsakes.

They all deserve our compassion and our help.

Often overlooked are the thousands of people on the ground at these disasters helping others at personal peril and sacrifice. They also deserve compassion and help.

We belong to a United Methodist congregation. The United Methodist Church has a mission arm (UMCOR) that is often among the first on the scene providing assistance. If you belong to a Christian denomination, ask if they have this sort of mission. If yes, donate. If no, ask why not.

In response, pray and do.

Posted in Compassion, Service | Leave a Comment »

Complaining and Whining

January 13, 2025

Whining—constant commentary about things that cannot be changed to people who have no power to change it. It must solve some inner inadequacy. I don’t know. Most people avoid whiners.

Then there is complaining. It can be different.

Seth Godin thinks the best way to complain is to make things better. “Complaining can be a form of intimacy. It’s a useful way to explain our behavior. And best of all, it gives us a way to communicate as we work to create community action. The best sort of complaint requires generosity and courage.”

Sometimes people who complain are those who notice how something could be better. With a small group of change makers, complaining could provide an impetus to make the change that matters.

Godin continues, “Whining is empty commentary where no action is possible, about something we already understand. We all know it’s raining. Let’s walk.”

Yes, let’s walk.

Posted in Attitude | Leave a Comment »

Overthinking and Stressing

January 10, 2025

This statement came from Arnold Schwarzenegger writing to his fitness community. “I wrote the article below in The Pump App because I worry people overthink fitness and want everything to be perfect when it never will be. When you use that much brainpower stressing and beating yourself up, you are wasting the energy you can use to get moving forward.”

We do this in our spiritual life, too. We overthink. We stress. We worry over many things (paraphrase of Jesus once to Martha).

Practice on these things.

Be still, and know that I am God.

My yoke is easy, and my burden light.

Fear not!

Posted in Attitude, Peace | Leave a Comment »

Open Our Eyes, Lord

January 9, 2025

I got this story recently from Dan Millman’s Peaceful Warrior newsletter, but I’ve seen it before somewhere. Like a parable of Jesus, this should make us think.

Imagine walking along a sidewalk with your arms full of groceries and someone roughly bumps into you so that you fall and your groceries are strewn over the ground. As you rise up from the puddle of broken eggs and tomato juice, you are ready to shout out, “You idiot! What’s wrong with you? Are you blind?” But just before you can catch your breath to speak, you see that the person who bumped into you actually is blind. He, too, is sprawled in the spilled groceries, and your anger vanishes in an instant, to be replaced by sympathetic concern: “Are you hurt? Can I help you up?” Our situation is like that — when we realize that our own ignorance is the source of disharmony and misery, we open the door to wisdom and compassion. -B. Alan Wallace

Posted in Attention, Awareness, Compassion | Leave a Comment »

The Power of Example

January 8, 2025

In influencing others, example is not the main thing; it’s the only thing. -Albert Schweitzer

A teacher from my high school years impressed a lasting image on my mind. She taught nutrition as one piece of her curriculum. She was eating a lunch that could hardly be called nutritious. When a student pointed out the inconsistency (as high school students will), she replied, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

How can one be an obnoxious jerk preaching love fail to understand why the message falls on deaf ears?

How can one preach values and fail to live up to commitments?

How can a group market themselves as welcoming, and yet they fail to make room at the table for a newcomer?

The inverse of what that teacher said is the real truth—what you do speaks louder than what you say.

Make it a practice to observe actions.

Posted in Witness | Leave a Comment »

It’s The Simple Things That Work

January 7, 2025

Among the subjects I study (and practice) are fitness and nutrition. From a newsletter I receive:

We’ve all seen diets come and go, but the truth about weight loss is simple: it’s not about finding the “perfect” plan; it’s about making small changes you can keep — and eating foods that keep you fuller for longer.

They found that increasing protein and fiber led to the most weight loss — and eating more of those foods ensured that you were shedding fat and maintaining more muscle.—Arnold Schwarzenegger

I find that if you shed social media gorging focusing on reading that provides the equivalent of protein and fiber, in other words, spiritual writing and wisdom literature that has stood the test of time, will reduce your spiritual, emotional, and mental fat maintaining or even growing your muscles in those areas.

Posted in Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Pleasure or Enjoyment

January 6, 2025

I have written about happiness guru Arthur Brooks before. He wrote a bestseller with Oprah.

From his recent newsletter:

In his 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that enjoyment gives you a sense of effort, forward movement, and accomplishment. Or, as two psychologists wrote in 2021, during enjoyment, one “commits oneself to savoring the situation and engaging in the task to have positive feelings of joy and fun.”

Enjoyment is better than pleasure because it is more conscious and permanent. As Csikszentmihalyi points out, everyone gets pleasure from eating when they’re hungry, but it takes some knowledge and cultivation to enjoy food. After you finish lunch, the pleasure is gone, and in fact, the idea of eating is no longer appealing because your physical need has been satisfied. Meanwhile, the memory of a meal enjoyed with friends transcends the immediate experience and can bring good feelings long after it is over.

Or consider—did you just gulp a beer or savor a glass of fine wine?

Advertisements for 60 years and then social media influencers on steroids have pushed the idea of momentary pleasure at us. Have we the strength to push back?

Consider spiritual discipline. Do we partake of a burst of pleasure at putting down someone of a different faith practice on social media? Or do we obtain the pleasure of perhaps a half-hour reading a spiritual text with contemplation?

Posted in Attitude, Spirituality | Leave a Comment »

Culture Continually Changes

January 3, 2025

I’m at an age of reflecting over a long career. Many writers in the variety of media prefer to consider how bad things have gotten. I reflect on the many improvements I’ve seen.

I’ve completed a few trips in the past month. Several things struck me.

Drinking—Maybe I’m just not invited, but I don’t see the amount of extravagant alcoholic consumption of most of my career. I saw a survey noting that the share of companies hosting the “traditional” alcoholic party declined from 90% to 64% 2007 to 2024.

Once my eyes were opened to nuances of human interaction, I began to notice the number of pick up dances. Not that I was hit on much—women instinctively know a geek when they see one. But for a time I traveled with a guy who looked a lot like Harrison Ford. I lost count of women who came up to me when he left for the restroom and asked if it was true…

On a recent trip I noticed a number of men and women at the hotel bar. Not a single attempt. Although at another trip I saw a guy who tried butting in to a girls’ night out group. He wasn’t getting anywhere.

These are but a few examples of change attitudes. I see others of people who have changed for the better over the years. Losing the edge and obnoxiousness of someone trying to achieve acceptance or notoriety; becoming more at ease in who they are.

Sure…I’m a long-term optimist. How could I be a Jesus-follower and be otherwise?

Posted in Attitude, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

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