It is commonly known that when a polarity is projected in one end, it is also projected in the other; when a new challenge is surpassed, in fact, this is the moment when the challenge really arises. People’s lives may follow a new path. We are agents, good or bad guys simultaneously in synergy, we are all in the same boat, every one anxious to make a difference.

Our corporate routine, with the day to day globalization we live in, we follow complying with a portion of our history, the portion we can deal with, under the control of the portion we are not aware of. Many question everything and everybody. Others don’t allow themselves to question, and further, many don’t want or have no idea about the reason for questioning.

We don’t know which one of them is right, but it is not the issue. The questioning may arise from a wish, a frustration, a doubt, an irony, or from a combination of them all - the fact is we are questioners by nature, from birth and as we grow up, arguing about the polarities or digressions of thinking: 

• How to deal with the excess of information and scarcity of knowledge?
• How to deal with the financial abundance and scarcity of resources? 
• How to deal with the abundance of managers and scarcity of leaders?
• How to deal with the abundance of offers and scarcity of commitments?
• How to deal with the abundance of marriages and scarcity of families?

It is not necessary to go further or even search for such answers. We may even “ask Freud”, but you can be sure he will not answer. Do you believe that questioning leads anywhere? In fact, there is a large group of people who open space to reflect and operate within its possibilities, while another large group of people do not pay attention, but still operate within the posssibilities of our society. The result of these two groups are different, maybe better, maybe worse, however always different. Definitely, the truths were disturbed, the forecasts were not accomplished, and the analysis had not been proven. How is it to live in a whole new world, in a new system governing the world, where at the same speed the glaciers melt in the poles, our banks’ poles melt as well? The abundance of the natural disasters discloses the inexorable weakness of our existence. And, everything in abundance.

Sometimes, we may be enchanted, dazzled or even frightened with the volume of occurrences and great manifestations we are facing. Maybe we are even privileged by the capacity to see and process so many things together that have never occurred before. There is a question that helps to bring that perception very close to our center - What should we do to be happy? Or even better, how to be happy while bringing no misfortune to others?

The individuality in which we live draws the attention to the main slogan, “The important approach now is everyone taking care of themselves”.  It is required for you to decide what you want to be, what you want to have, what may be better for you and for that “other”, who, in the majority of times, is seated besides you, at work or at your dinner table.

People easily accept this new nearsighted wave, taking care of themselves only - as if they use to take care of others in the past. Who did you used to take care of? The selfish human nature, since the beginning, revels to us that we take care of others, in the extent that it brings us benefits as well; we celebrate the birth of our children, predestining them to accomplish our purposes and deepest supplications, without noticing any of that. “Ah... It was not my intention!” It’s too late for that.

An unconditional love is mentioned, but the level of human sensibility was taken to the maximum consciousness where “the means justify the ends”.

Abundance of ideas and scarceness of values produces a lack of meaning in the manner of how to act and exist. 

The celebration of the goal reached is quickly controlled by the new goal listed, imposing an endless insanity to mankind. To analyze all those questions reminds me of the story about the advice of the Chinese gardener to his boss. When the owner asked: “When is the best time to plant an oak tree?”, the gardener answered, “One hundred years ago, but the second best time is today”.

For the deep redemption of the humanitarian values and universal virtue, maybe the best time is one hundred years ago, but the second best time is today. It is an abundance of prudence!
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**Adriana Prates is President of Dasein and Master Coach, she supports leaders to be transforming agents of their own history. E-mail:adriana@dasein.com.br.