Daily Inspiration 9-12-11

"I never came upon any of my discoveries

through the process of rational thinking."

-- Albert Einstein

I think this statement by Albert Einstein, one of the world's smartest people, is fascinating and can have great application in any of our lives. When these things strike me as they sometimes do, I often look them up in the dictionary and/or thesaurus. Not because I need to know what it means, but sometimes there is insight there that I hadn't thought of. So here is the dictionary.com and thesaurus.com rendition:

ra·tion·al

adjective

1. agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible: a rational plan for economic development.

2. having or exercising reason, sound judgment, or good sense: a calm and rational negotiator.

3. being in or characterized by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid: The patient appeared perfectly rational.

4. endowed with the faculty of reason: rational beings.

5. of, pertaining to, or constituting reasoning powers: the rational faculty.

Thesaurus:

Main Entry: rational

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: realistic; of sound mind

Synonyms: all there, analytical, balanced, calm, cerebral, circumspect, cognitive, collected, cool*, deductive, deliberate, discerning, discriminating, enlightened, far-sighted, impartial, intellectual, intelligent, judicious, knowing, levelheaded, logical, lucid, normal, objective, perspicacious, philosophic, prudent, ratiocinative, reasonable, reasoning, reflective, sagacious, sane, sensible, sober, sound, stable, synthetic, thinking, thoughtful, together, well-advised, wise

Antonyms: irrational, ridiculous, unrealistic, unreasonable, unsound

There we go. I've so often heard the need to be sensible, to exercise sound judgment, good sense, and to be rational, reasonable, and realistic. Often, I am those things; albeit, not all at the same time generally.

Now the Thesaurus opens up the virtues of reason to a whole slew of words that are meant to keep up grounded and sane, along with being of sound mind. Heck, who doesn't want to be of sound mind? Seems rational and reasonable to me.

However, I have been know to be unstable, irrational, even ridiculous. I've certainly been unreasonable often enough and of course, I am quite an expert at being unrealistic. It's the sales training in me I suppose. Who wants a salesperson who is realistic and balanced and calm? Certainly not I. Equally, as a sales manager, I must lead the unbalanced and ridiculous to greater success, which as Albert Einstein knows full well, is the only way to get there in style.

Here's To Irrationality! With Just A Touch Of The Ridiculous. Oooo! Such A Wonderful Combination!

Spread Some Joy Today--Let the air out of your soundness of mind for little bits of fun. Full time rationality is so boring.