How the Book of Genesis Helped Me Prepare Our 2018 Company Kick-Off

We all know that we need to get out of our comfort zone to realize our true potential and to live a meaningful life. Developing a successful career, excelling at your favorite sport or building a healthy and happy family, all require self-sacrifice, sustained efforts and mental strength. However, staying out of our comfort zone for extended periods, may lead us to experience exhaustion and to feel that we are being taken advantage of. So how do we balance engagement with our wellbeing?

I picked that topic for our upcoming company annual kick-off, as I feel that this balance is key for our 2018 company success. As a 20+ years old start-up with limited resources in a highly-competitive market, we must constantly innovate, re-energize and renew our commitment.

The first time, God addresses Abraham, the first patriarch of monotheism, He asked him: "Go for yourself from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you (Genesis 12-1). God commands Abraham, which was still then called Abram, to get out of his comfort zone, leaving his known environment: his birthplace, his family and his land to an unknown destination. Only then, after leaving his comfort zone, Abraham will realize his true-self and receive blessings: And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name (Genesis 12-2). Rashi, the famous medieval commentator, notices the small addition of for yourself at the very beginning of Gods command, interpreting it as for your own good, your own benefit. Why does the commandment itself Go needs to include for your own good? shouldnt this promise be part of the reward described in the second verse?

In fact, God commands Abrahams two mental movements: Go and for yourself. Indeed, you need to go above and beyond toward the Land however you need to care for your wellbeing, your own good and your own benefit. God doesnt ask us to go against our own wellbeing but to transcend it and only when we go beyond our selfish self only then we experience satisfaction and happiness. There is no happiness in the comfort zone, however getting out of it needs to ultimately improve our wellbeing rather than to diminish it.

In the original Hebrew version of Genesis, the Go for yourself command includes two identical words, each with the same two consonants: - sounding like Lech Lecha. In Hebrew, words consist only of consonants with vowels being later additions. The Go for yourself, Lech Lecha commands describes a pendulum movement with two oscillations with equal amplitudes. The energy created by the Lech oscillation enables the Lecha oscillation with equal energy. In other words, the further we go more in the Lech (Go) movement, the more we get in the Lecha (for yourself). The more we transcend ourselves, engage and contribute to our joint goal, the more we end-up realizing our potential and achieving satisfaction. Similarly, the more we live the moment and enjoy our experiences, the more energy we gain to then get out of our comfort zone and to contribute.

We can look for more than a mere balance between our full engagement and our wellbeing: lets discover our true self in our life journey.