Default Report
Issue 6
Default Report is a monthly newsletter brought to you by a community of positive leaders focused on serving you the best articles on conceptual thinking. Every month we publish positive articles loosely based on the 6 senses (Design-Symphony-Story-Empathy-Play-Meaning) by Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind”.
Vision: To create a positive community built on leadership through conceptual thinking.
Hey you,
It’s always scary launching something new out into the world wide web. Not knowing what people will think. Fear of being misunderstood. Fear of failing. I believe I was put on this world to be a connection point for others, and to create positive communities built on leadership.
This bridge I’m beginning to build is Default, an online magazine designed with the intention of creating a positive community to cultivate the next wave of leaders.
If only we acted more like bridges and less like islands this world would be a more positive place to live.
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to let you know that you are now a founding member of Default. Congrats! As founding members, you are also co-conspirators in this endeavor, where what you say matters, and I only ask one small favor in return.
Share our vision on your own digital worlds. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.
Please feel free to connect with the Default writers by commenting on their article and sharing your thoughts. They have worked very hard at researching, writing, re-writing, and proofing their articles and would love to hear from you.
Also, tell us what you like or don’t like. Constructive feedback is super helpful and necessary for growth.
I am proud to announce Default has its own website where all articles and leadership interviews will be kept. I want to also give a shout out to Stacy, the newest writer to join the Default community. She has been a long time friend who I met in Fairbanks, Alaska, and is about to launch her own business around health and wellness as a certified personal trainer. You will find her debut article below under Story.
The interview for this month is me interviewing myself about Default. I promise it’s not as lame or pretentious as it sounds. I talk about the creation of Default, clearing up ambiguity around the online magazine, providing clarity on our why, and shedding light on a few unanswered questions from the responses I have received from members.
Lastly, I added a new section to the newsletter titled Leadership Quotes, where I ask the question of the month to a handful of anonymous members. This month’s question was “What does leadership mean to you?”
Thanks for being here and enjoy July’s Default Report.
stay positive,
Don
In this month’s report
Leadership Quotes collected and curated by Don Derosier
How Empathy Can Guarantee More Happiness
by Don Derosier
Empathy is a word that many people don’t use in everyday language. More often people use sympathy when describing their feelings toward someone else. Empathy is not the act of feeling FOR someone, but the act of feeling WITH them.
What people don’t understand about empathy is that the more empathy you have the more happiness you have. Think about it. (to continue reading . . . )
Writing A Story Worth Telling
by Stacy Collier
Our lives are shaped through story. Each of us is a Universe. From the moment we are born our story is being written. Core beliefs about ourselves and the world around us are shaped by our experiences and collisions with other Universes.
We each perceive data through our own lenses, structured by the time and place we came to be. It is startling to realize that multiple realities can and do coexist in the same dimension. Rarely is reality black or white, right or wrong. What is base or vulgar for one may be of the highest spiritual significance for another. (to continue reading . . . )
Disabling Internalised Ableism
by M. H. Lois Jennel
Part 1: Exploring Empathy
Being confronted with my own disability is what opened my mind to my internalized ableism. For a long time, I believed I was a conscientious person, having gone to a preschool in a Special Education Unit, being exposed personally with family members with various disabilities, and having previously worked in Disability support.
Further having had received affirmation from past colleagues, educators, friends, and family regarding my empathetic nature. It was only up until recently, one Psychologist highlighted that I should get assessed for Autism. That was when the scales fell from my eyes, and the journey of looking within began. (to continue reading . . . )
How To Live A Good Story
by Logan Lee
“And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time…”
Author Donald Miller utters these words in his seminal book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It was this phrase that inspired me to seek out experiences that would allow me to live a life that would make a good story — Not just getting by; but truly and purposely living a life of adventure, realism, and truth. (to continue reading . . . )
Interview: Default Explained
by Don Derosier
When I studied journalism back in college, I remember what my professor had said about how to write a good article. To tell the full story, an article must answer the 5 Ws and the H – who, what, when, where, why, and how. I want to reiterate these questions in Default explained.
What is Default? And how does the newsletter play into the publication?
Default began as a writing experiment among a few friends, centered around the six senses from Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind.” Pink warns us that automation, AI, and abundance has taken over our world pushing us into a new ‘Conceptual Age’ where high touch, high key senses are necessary to survive and to thrive in the 21st century. These high-touch, high-key senses are the 6 senses (Design, Story, Symphony, Play, Empathy, and Meaning), that we are framing our articles around.
Default now has blossomed into a full-fledged online magazine where we are building a positive community built on leadership through these key concepts. (to continue reading . . . )
What Does Leadership Mean To You?
“Leader is someone who helps direct people toward a common goal. They inspire and encourage people, take control of a situation without hesitation. They do it for the greater benefit of the group, not for themselves”.
“I think a leader is a person who cares for their people, who casts a vision and who helps their people get there. To me leaders are visionary, inspiring, encouraging, empowering figures. They support, encourage, mentor, and guide. Most of all - and this I think is most important - a leader has to believe in what they are doing and care about it more than anyone else they are leading. As soon as the leader stops caring/believing they cannot be a good leader. They can manage, direct, delegate but they do the hard and beautiful work of leading - to lead you have to have vision and cast that vision to others constantly”.
“Leadership is working for your people you are there to make sure they are successful and taken care of”.
“So many things. But probably the most important thing is leading by example. If I can’t do it I can’t lead it”.
“To me… it means believing in the mission that you will die to see it through. Others will see the value and follow the ideal. Others will want to join but the leader must always do the hard work, leading from the front, and not from the back”.
“I see leadership as a developed skill necessary for scaling the impact of my purpose and moving forward in life”.
“Being a leader to me means more than just changing lives.. but to put yourself out there to support others during trying times. It’s about leaving that legacy for the next generation to teach & learn from”!
“What I look for in a leader is someone willing to do what's right even when it's not popular. I also prefer more focus on positive goals they have over negative attributes of the opposition. Lastly, I want leaders who use their power to look after the most powerless.”
Thank you to everyone you participated to this month’s leadership question.
If you like to read our past articles you can find them on our new website here.
Don Derosier, Harzl ljf Anderson, Logan Lee, and Stacy Collier contributed to Issue 6 of Default. Do you like to write? If you would like to join in on the fun you can reach us at dfltfailure@gmail.com