Archive for Possibility Thinking
Bold Blubbering and More
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Yes, it’s true. I blubbered. I blubbered yesterday all over Skype. How humbling! The changes and other challenges in my world right now are touching in deeply to the little kid part of me who, it seems, is a blubberer on occasion––on Skype. Yipe!
How does this relate to writing a business plan? Well, today’s subject is Management and Organization which means I need to make our team members (me included) appear stellar, strong and credible. And I blubbered yesterday on Skype.
No worry. Because I also received some great support yesterday, from Allan, and from Tim, Liz and Paul who responded to my blog. Thanks so very much to all. You made my day!
So, moving boldly forward into the joy of writing about the amazing people who have worked together to bring the Bold Moves work this far over the past six years, Allan, Roger, Diane, and let’s not forget Janis and Paul. Oh, and of course, the blubberer – who did get a good draft of the Technology Plan completed yesterday!
Uh Oh, Another Bold Move!
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People who have even a modest propensity for looking through the lenses of fear and doubt would have a nay-saying hay day with the BoldMoves process I find myself in at present. I know this, and it is why I’m not getting anywhere near anybody like that.
Okay, so I’m squirreled away writing what might seem like an outlandish business plan to launch our (Allan’s and my) currently modest business Pond Productions, into the world in a big way. I’m wrestling every day, with an amazingly creative variety of Inner Critters who would just love to take me out with their limiting jabber.
I’m thinking that I’m not the only person in the world right now who is fending off Inner Critter messages. Ha! In fact I believe that we have an entire society of people in the US in exactly that condition, so I’ve decided to go public with my personal process in this blog.
I can hear Allan’s gasping thoughts as he reads this, “What is she up to now?” The answer is, I’m not sure, but it seems to me that if I (we) are looking to invite millions of people into BoldMoves journeys of their own, it might help if they have a model, and right now the size of my own gasp at what I’m up to is enough to qualify me to be that model. Stay tuned.
WHEN IS ENOUGH – ENOUGH?
Have you noticed how fast we are moving through the calendar of recent hearing comments like “can you believe the year is almost over?” – as if our world is speeding up (and research is indicating that it is)? And, have you witnessed friends feeling tremendous pressure to go for the proverbial American dream? As a result of the speed of life and the increased pressure of life – growing numbers of adults in America are experiencing increased anxiety, greater sleep deprivation with increased pressure to stay the course as if on a non-ending treadmill.
For many of my clients, they are operating on all cylinders continuing to make the climb up the corporate ladder and bring home more money to support ever-increasing life-styles, family goals and personal wants. For those that remember the days of keeping up with the proverbial Joneses – imagine that the Joneses are most likely in debt, fore-closing on their home with a strained marriage.
So a fair question to ask is “when is enough enough?” At what point, do we look to readjust our goals and ensure they are corded to who we truly are and examine what a winnable game related to our life and work goals looks like? For many of us, we are playing an intense game of life but – at what costs? What does it specifically look like for you to “win” in your life? For some, the quality of family life, robust personal relationships and personal health are at risk with current strategies. If you find you are filled with more worry and less joy – questioning if there is more to life than your current scenario – you might be ready for a move that allows for a significant detour integrating your personal values and desires without the heavy lifting towards a purposeful journey.
When disaster happens in our lives, it offers a pause to reflect on the personal quality of life – to lower the mirror and reflect on what is working and what needs changing – allowing for a calibration of sorts towards a more purposeful, meaningful and engaged experience. So do we assume that the speed of life is not going to slow down but rather speed up? And, if we assume that many of the complexities that we have in front of us may have a long shelf life. What would it look like to have that meaningful conversation to evaluate lifestyle in your current roadmap. What defines your enough-being-enough for you?
Sweat Lodge Sovereignty
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The sweat lodge tragedy in Sedona, Arizona has rocked the news this past week. It can have potent meaning for us about how we make important choices in life.
The nightly news prompts us to choose a side. Do we identify with the victims of the tragedy whose plight we can all respond to with horror? The Native American community which seems deeply justified in its indignation over the appropriation of its traditions to the purpose of making money?
Can we see the viewpoint of Yavapai Country Sheriff Steve Waugh who seems to be doing his job in trying to determine what charges should be brought? The community of Sedona that understandably wishes to preserve its reputation as a safe haven for spiritual seekers? And can we empathize, even a little with the focal point of all of the debate James Arther Ray? Like other top, self-help gurus he can readily justify his huge fees by the fact that in our materialistic world the fundamental mantra is You Get What You Pay For. For moneyed folks looking for deeper meaning in their lives, that can easily translate to entry fees in the thousands of dollars. Anything less might simply not have them invested at a level that fosters real results.
Once again, we are spun about by the confusing perspectives presented to us by the images and voices of the external world. In this whirlwind lies perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from this very controversial disaster. As a people, we all-to-often look to others to define our reality for us. Whether it is the teaching of a famous guru, the authority of a stalwart sheriff, the consensus of a community, headlines and sound bytes of media coverage, or the wisdom of indigenous peoples, we seek answers outside of ourselves––often to our detriment.
What to do? We can learn to listen to our own internal wisdom. Listen to our bodies when they say, I am too hot now and need to leave this sweat lodge. Listen carefully to our minds until we can readily distinguish between fear-based thinking and possibility-based thinking. Listen to our intuition when it asks us to draw healthy boundaries. Tap and utilize our internal creativity. We can learn who we truly are so that when various options are presented, we know how to choose wisely.
Then, we can have compassion for all of those victimized by the disasters of life because we have no need to project our internal frustrations onto others in the form of blame and shame. And we have the power and clarity to use our personal sovereignty like a laser for making wise choices even in a high-end sweat lodge experience where there might be a lot of pressure to conform.
Waking Women BoldMovers
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Okay, so our world has slowed down in recent months and it seems we’re all looking around hoping someone will get things moving again. We search the news and the net for any signs that it might be safe to get motivated and take new action, but remain unconvinced as our trusted indicators surge and then sag on a daily basis. So what to do?
Every challenge has its attendant lesson and the big take away from the current doldrums is that the energy needed to get things rolling isn’t out there somewhere. It lives within each and every one of us.
Imagine for a moment that each woman who belongs to any women’s group is a single cell in a body that has been lying on the couch watching the world slug along. Then imagine that just one cell in that body––one woman in that organization–– decides to turn her attention inward instead of outward. Suppose that one woman sees within herself, the heat of a desire cooling to just an ember from neglect, and that just because it is noticed once again, that desire receives enough energy to flare up into a genuine flame.
Imagine that the heat of that cellular flame is felt by the cells next door, signaling them to also look inside for what is waiting, wanting to manifest. It’s easy to imagine from there, that before long, that whole body would be warming to action, stretching into new possibilities, rising from the couch to create traction in a fresh and amazing dance.
Sisters, we are the traction we’ve been waiting for. The remedies for what ails us are our own courage, conviction and creativity. If we look inside and give ourselves a fraction of the belief we have so willingly given others, we’ll get this world going again, against all odds.
This article was adapted from one I write for ForbesWoman earlier this week.
Guru Golf Balls
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Once we step into BoldMoves Country, everything changes because instead of judging ourselves based on the criteria of the external world, we see the world from the inside-out through the lens of our uniqueness and we can find delight and wisdom everywhere we go.
For instance, I delight in the process of looking for golf balls. Each morning I walk out on a desert trail and return home along a golf cart path. At first, finding a single ball on my walk was a big win. Then one day, I found three without even trying. A few days later I found five and just a very few days after that, ten golf balls. I couldn’t help noticing how I had been limited by my beliefs and expectations. Now, I expect to find at least one ball everyday and I almost always do, effortlessly and sometimes very unexpectedly.
There is an area near our patio where a number of balls land after bouncing off our roof. As I returned home empty-handed one morning, I counted on finding at least one ball there as a last resort. Then alas, I spied professional golf ball hunters with their long poles and bags searching the area and I felt certain that they had cleaned it out. But, having learned my prior lesson about limiting beliefs, I kept my eyes open anyway, and there just a few feet from my patio, lay a bright white Callaway in full view. How had they missed it?
I would never have thought to look for golf balls on the desert portion of my walk because it is at least a hundred yards left of the fairway across a six lane thoroughfare. I often stop on that trail to appreciate the beauty of the early morning desert, and as I did so one morning, I saw a palo verde tree off the trail. In my mind, the tree spoke to me saying, come here, I have a gift for you. I’ve learned to follow that intuitive voice (in BoldMoves Country we call it the Whisperer), so I climbed the hill to the tree and looked around thinking the gift might be the sighting of a coyote or the finding of a special stone of some kind. But there, off in the remote desert in full view from the tree but hidden from the trail, was a brand new shiny Titleist. How fun!
Allan and I would love to know about the meaning you make in your life when you look from deep inside your unique self. Leave a comment by clicking the link to the right below.
“I just got to the finish line to discover I was in the wrong race.”
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In a conversation with a client recently over coffee, I heard – once again – the painful (but door opening) story of realization of a top performer who – by resume – had a charmed career. From college to a swift climb on the American Corporate ladder, to finding love, marriage and creating a family and building towards financial freedom – in many respects, the storyline appeared as a Normal Rockwell painting. Then, stress at work, pressures with the family, and the final knock of the economy removing much of the hard earned assets financially had Tim fall into a deep somber where he began to discover a new truth about his life and world. Simply put, he realized that much of what he created was externally-based from childhood impressions, an unconscious motive to keep up with the Joneses that shaped his early-on decision-making around what he believed to be the right path for success.
Imagine getting half way through your life and discovering that your intended road to success was not built of concrete but rather terracotta stone that dissolves over the years if not attended to.
For Tim, this discovery proved to be hard, uncomfortable and with feelings of failure. However, in his moments of despair, Tim had a pin-poke of an opening of a possibility that his life could be rewired for a positive – a new journey that would be corded to his core values and beliefs. Tim had the courage to believe he could make a bold move – for himself and his family – fueled by an innate desire for an adventure he rarely allowed himself to believe. And, from that opening of possibility – he stepped onto a new pathway that brought him joy, fulfillment and a purposeful life and meaningful career.
It makes me think about how courageous are we to assessing our current situation and – if not desirable – being open to the possibility to make a change.
Time to Cut That Chain and Steel Ball Around Your Ankle?
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Let’s face it, we are all noticing how fast time is flying by – saying to friends, “can you believe half the year has gone by – where did it go?” And, as the months and years fly by, for many, there is a heavy weight like a chain and ball around the ankle reminding many they are not living a purposeful life. Too many people have lost the vibrancy of youth and dreams simply seem out of touch and no longer possible to turn into reality. As the saying goes, in every economy there is profound opportunity – and my question to you is “what is possible for you to have right now?” Imagine that you were given a magic wand from Harry Potter and friends to create the one thing that would make you happier right now – what would it be? Is it a desire for a meaningful relationship, a purposeful career, moving towards better health or creating a compelling home environment that would serve you? What is needed – really only needed – is the smallest opening within you that the possibility exists for change. If you had the magic wand and could impact one area of your life that would bring you closer towards being on purpose and more engaging, what area would it be? Treat yourself to ten minutes today – unplugged from the noise of the world and open to the possibility that you can lighten the load and move forward towards want you truly want. In the ten minutes of quieting your mind in a place that serves you, sit with the question of what you want most right now and define a couple of steps to move you towards your dream. Live bold.
