Confounded
by Michael Feeley
There’s a word that deserves more use: confounded.
Not just confused. Not just annoyed. Confounded carries so much — the mental fog of extreme bewilderment AND the heat of frustration all at once. It’s not just “I don’t understand.” It’s “I don’t get it! Why would you do this? Explain because it’s costing me something.”
I hired a company to manage three properties. They didn’t maintain them. They let things slide, deteriorate, decline — quietly, while I trusted them. When I discovered the neglect, I wasn’t just disappointed. I was confounded and with just anger. If you couldn’t do the work, why not hire someone who could? Why let things fall apart rather than ask for help?
That’s the heart of being confounded. It’s not the problem itself. It’s the inexplicable choice that created it.
We get confounded by politics. By cultural decisions that seem to defy common sense. By noise that drowns out reason. By people who had options — good options — and chose the worst one anyway.
Confounded stops us in our tracks. And maybe that pause is useful. Maybe it’s asking us to look more carefully at ourselves – what we assumed, what we trusted, what we let go unexamined.
So today I’m asking you directly:
What confounds you?
And more importantly — What do you do with that feeling?
Don’t bury it. Bring it into the light.
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
Please share this Daily.
This also matters – Above Board and Underhanded.
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