Heart

The Heart. Appropriately located right next to Attitude. The difference between the Heart and the Attitude is that, your Attitude is what can help you survive a plane crash in the woods. Your Heart is what drives you to instantly help others escape the wreckage. (You’re not the guy “going live” on TikTok with “epic footage” of traumatized people spilling out of a burning plane.

It’s easy to find MAHI people. They’re the ones everyone else is recording after the crash. The first responders…they get it.

Service members pilots, flight attendants, police, fire, nurses, doctors, lifeguards, school teachers all find how they can help immediately during a plane crash or critical event.

The “heart” in western American Christian culture is a delicate and fragile part of the human and social purpose that is a mechanism of the brain’s response to “good” and “bad.” It balances selfish/selfless existence. It is the tool that says, “this is bigger than me.” But also the alarm that says, I need help.

The heart-brain, can feel sadness, and frustration. Deception and lies. But it can feel love and trust. Transparency and values.

The MAHI heart (the H in MAHI) as much as possible is aware. Aware of the needs and requirements of others. Measured on the Maslow scale of importance. Physical, safety, social, egoistic, self fulfillment.

The MAHI heart, on its way to lunch, sees the hungry man and maybe orders a side, a meal and a drink to go for them before they close their bill. It doesn’t have to be a steak, and if it comes with, “you doing ok?” All the better.

The heart can become hardened by experiences. And that’s where the attitude comes in to force it to be kind. Being kind in hard times defends against synicism. Kindness is weapon against jaded, demoralized, discriminated, abused. Kindness is the medicine for challenges. It’s been said that the best way to pull yourself out of a ditch is to push others up first. If among like minded people, they will drop a ladder down for you to climb.

Heartfelt things can be as simple as writing a kind note of recognition to your coworkers boss, saying how great they are. Sending a donation to a recognized cause.

It may or may not come back to you. But we don’t give in the expectation of receiving. Unless it’s at work.

That being said, if you find your work not being appreciated, dig deep. Do your best. If it’s still not good enough, take some classes to get better. Accept criticism and ask for training.

If you did your training and you know you’re up to standard, it’s time to protect your heart.

You can do it two ways. Seek a higher authority or seek legal counsel. If that fails, time to take your skills somewhere else.

The best way to nurture the heart is to find some small way you can help someone else. Can you do one tiny thing for millions? Or can you do a larger thing for just a few?

I used to go through life with a “monster” premise. If I didn’t push harder, some random thing; a car accident, a plane crash, some fatal threat would hurt me. Or worse, my family. Malaise was one monster, lack of knowledge, lack of practice or proficiency.

It was a constant battle with an unknown force called failure. Failure changed its definition every day for me. This went on for most of my adult life.

TBC