Today, I am thankful for those gigantic insights that emanate from a small, unanticipated discovery.
I love those days when I discover something that I thought was lost – either physically lost or mentally lost in my memory. Let me share a story to provide some more flavor here. A few years back, in mid July, my family began a vacation at our family summer home on Cape Cod. Normally, we vacuum the house upon our initial arrival to the house to clear the dust and ensure our 14-day stay is as sanitary as possible. The next day, our youngest son and his cousins were building a fort in an attic room from blankets and old boxes, when he lost his iPhone. We tore the house apart trying to find the lost device on that day and over the next 13 days, but to no avail. When we finally arrived home, assuming his original phone must have been lost or stolen, we bit the bullet and bought him another one. We forget all about that unfortunate incident as the months passed by. The next year, when we took our sojourn back up at the summer home and proceeded to pull the vacuum from the attic, you can only imagine our glee (and embarrassment) of discovering his iPhone sitting on top of the vacuum, basically in the same spot he likely left it the summer before. That’s when I had my insight: Maybe we should be cleaning the house a bit more. This revelation enriched my thinking, despite lessening the size of my wallet.
The lesson that emanates from a riveting ‘a ha!’ moment is worth its weight in gold. Recently, I came across a fascinating article in the Neuro Leadership Journal by several prominent psychologists that speaks to the power of self-generated insights. These internal moments are extremely powerful for a variety of reasons. First, scientific research from many clinical studies confirm that earnest, self-generated insights can enhance one’s capacity for learning. Moreover, these revelations can enhance one’s engagement to a specific task, which in turn motivates an individual to take additional action. Thirdly, a compelling insight can serve as a generalized rule that can be applied to other perplexing situations. Finally, a robust insight can even lead to systemic, long-lasting changes in the brain.
Today, I’m reminded of a fascinating, serendipitous discovery that took place on this day (July 15) in 1799 that led to an amazing insight about our ancient ancestors. For years, archeologists and historians had been attempting to decipher the hieroglyphics script of ancient Egypt. While Napoleon Bonaparte was embarking on his military campaign in the late 18th Century, French soldiers were rebuilding a fort in the town of Rosetta, some 30 miles outside of Alexandria. One of the troops, Pierre Bouchard, came across an unusual black slab of basalt stone with ancient writings. The jagged stone, about two feet wide and four feet tall, was a fragment of an inscription in three different scripts: ancient Greek, Egyptian demotic, and Egyptian hieroglyphics. When the French discovered the Rosetta Stone, they did not really know what it meant. The Greek text revealed that that the stone honored the Egyptian king, Ptolemy V, who reigned in the 2nd Century BC. However, the hieroglyphics were not decipherable, as the world had not cracked the ancient Egyptian code. However, an Egyptologist in France, Jean-Francois Champollion, who knew a few of the hieroglyphic symbols and had studied other ancient languages, including Greek, was marveled to find that the Greek text lined up exactly with their limited knowledge of Egyptian demotic and hieroglyphics. As a result, they were able use the Greek as a guide to unravel the entire hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt, which then opened everyone’s eyes to the tradition, culture, and religion of their life nearly two millennia ago.
Sometimes, in the middle of July, insights can occur in the oddest of places, including Egypt and Cape Cod. Might you find the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone in your attic, right behind that seldom used vacuum.
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