Anticipating doom is brutal. And anticipating brutality is even worse.

It creates an enormous amount of emotional overhead. It makes it difficult to invest, hard to make long-term plans. And it fills us with dread, short circuiting our creativity.

Peace has a dividend.

Economic peace, political peace, interpersonal peace. It gives us room to dream, to get restless and to make things even better.

We don’t need other people to lose in order for us to win. And keeping score is overrated.

Most of all, it’s worth investing in peace of mind. The dividends are huge, and the journey (the way each of us spend our days) matters.

That’s one of the primary benefits of enlightened leadership. It creates a safe space to do important work.

Seth Godin has written eighteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership, and, most of all, changing everything.

Image courtesy of Kanenori.