Are You Happy HERE?

You are HERE!

Are you happy here? Is here deeply fulfilling and meaningful? Is here where you want and chose to be? Is here successful?

Is the path that got you here, gonna get you there? Do you know where there is?

Are you lost?

We Are Evolving, It's Messy and Painful

What I believe we are experiencing right now, is, at the leading edge, the birth of a new level of consciousness. It is quite simply the birth of new emergent capacities in being and becoming, a rising, deepening and broadening of what it means to be human.

We have complex problems to solve and in order to solve them we are evolving new ways to think, new ways to behave and new ways to organise. In responding to what appears to be a world in crisis, we are adapting and we are changing.

What took evolution 10,000’s of years we are doing in decades and this is what it feels like, from within,

On the outside looking in it seems chaotic and on the inside looking out, miraculous.

The cup that is so full empties, making space for the new.

New ways of organising, require new ways of behaving. New ways of behaving require new ways of thinking. New ways of thinking require new ways of being.

Leadership, relationship, communication, business and governance, nothing is sacred, all will be transformed as the new emerges.

Is it guaranteed ... no.

Will it be painful ... yes.

And like all new life, it is precarious.

The World Will Never Know or Miss A Story Never Told

Here’s the thing about living in stories, which is what we do without knowing that that's what we do, and without intentionally having authored our own.

We end with our best role being the second fiddle character in the story of others.

Some stories we just don’t care about and they probably don’t have much impact on our lives. Some stories we can’t stand but since we can’t change them, we either accept or fall victim to them. Others we love, they empower, but only to a point, because they’re our own.

How many of us have taken the time to really understand, craft and embody our story, because it’s not possible to be a victim of the story we write.

It’s in discovering, knowing, living and embodying our story, that we are both empowered and liberated.

Saying NO, Doesn't Mean I Have To Say YES.

When it comes to shaping the societal world we live in, the two most important words in any language are YES and NO.

YES I give my consent and permission for this to happen, or NO I don’t, and of course saying nothing is exactly the same as saying, YES.

In the language of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the 99% are saying something and what we are saying is, NO.

I say ‘we’ because clearly I am not part of the 1%, which by default then makes me part of the 99%

We are saying NO to a pervasive culture of corporate greed, irresponsible governance and excessive governmental and federal influence. We are saying NO to governmental deregulation, which is the same as saying corporate self-regulation. We are saying NO to the legal concept that corporations have the same (if not more) legal rights than flesh and blood people.

We are saying NO to the way things are ...

So what is it exactly are we saying YES to?

We are saying YES, lets change the narrative, but we’re not quite sure of what to change it to since we’re in the process of working that out, and history can’t help. We are saying YES to a new type of creative dialogue and process of complex problem solving. We are saying YES to the idea that people are more important than profits, but and this is important, not that profits are bad.

Occupy Wall Street is a revolution in much the same way the 60’s where a revolution in consciousness. Will it succeed in creating a more humane, just and equitable social order?

It’s not the people in big business who are a problem, it’s the narrative of big business itself. The narrative is much like the narrative of Monopoly. ‘Carry on playing until no one’s left, but the winner, which of course means the game comes to an end’.

The narrative ends when there is nothing left ... nothing.

That’s where the story ends and #OWS is simply saying .... NO, it ends now, while we still have something of value.

The Gap

There is a gap and in this gap lies the 'lie we live'.

This gap is the distance between the values we strive to represent and the values our daily behaviour communicates.

But it stands to reason that if we're learning and growing there must be a gap, and we therefore liars.

Now if someone points out the gap, they have exposed the lie and who wants to be exposed as a liar.

But we must be liars if we are to grow, because only a rock can have zero gap between the values it strives to hold and the daily values it's behaviour communicates.

And I am a big fat liar since the values I strive to represent lie way ahead of the values my daily behaviour communicates, and the more I learn and grow the bigger the gap.

But because I have developed my capacity to become more interested in my growth than I am in protecting my image (as a non-liar), I give permission to those around me to point out the lies they see.

So please be gentle ...

And it's not comfortable and I am exposed, but I have made a choice and this choice demands I widen and embrace the gap.

Why We Need To Discern Good Information From Bad

How can we know the difference between good information that works and bad, that doesn't?

Good information empowers, bad enslaves, but with empowerment comes the need for evolving response-ability and mastery.

Good information although it's often initially more uncomfortable creates self-evident expansive shifts. Bad, although initially more pleasant or reassuring triggers a pathological contraction.

We experience expansion as happiness, connection, joy even ecstasy. We experience contraction as isolation, guilt, doubt and fear.

Bad information is addictive but passive. Good, interesting even intriguing, but difficult to sustain since it demands change.

Good information uses a methodology of scientific investigation with bad completely uninhibited by the need to verify the integrity of it's content.

As we embark on a path of developing personal identity and mastery for the purpose of enhancing performance, meaning and deep happiness, we need to become increasingly discerning of the information we digest.

Reinventing, Me

Let’s acknowledge and validate the classic midlife crisis. It’s cool, I’ve had 3, and I’m only 45.

Although we may picture a early 50’s balding guy with a paunchy gut, wobbly marriage, successful but completely uninspiring career, buying a porche and trolling for babe’s. This is a tragic depiction of what’s really going on.

Although admittedly, it’s traumatic even debilitating when experienced from the inside and denied as inappropriate from the outside. And let’s not kid ourselves, it not the exclusive domain of men any longer.

It’s a crisis of meaning, purpose and identity. It’s a time when the values that drove us to get where we are, are not the values that can possibly motivate us to get to where we need to be.

And although we may not be entirely sure of where that is, we are certain ... it’s not here.

A midlife crisis, if handled intelligently, compassionately and skillfully may be likened to a chiropractic adjustment, a realignment. It’s a time to consciously and intentionally reinvent and re-create ourselves aligned with a deeper more meaningful purpose and contribution.

It means it’s time to take the next step.

We’re going though a midlife crisis when life, relationships and work seems uninspiring, dull, grey and flat and in which you can’t see the meaning in what you do. It feels as if you are living someone else life, which in a way you are.

Let’s validate the midlife crisis as a profoundly intelligent psychological response to our need for a more compelling identity and future.

Strategy, Logistics, Outcomes

Strategy, the plan we make. Logistics, its execution.

Strategy, like choreography, a sequence of sets or combinations of moves.

Logistics, like martial arts, training, technique and tools.

The more sophisticated the mind that created it, the more complex the strategy, the more artful the execution and the more divergent the roles.

Inherent in strategy, like the air we breath, lies logic or reasoning, and reasoning like the leaves on a tree, hang on the assumptions (beliefs), complexity and mastery layered within.

That the purpose of business is solely for profit translates one way, that business is both profit and social response-ability, another. One strategy simple, one beautifully and richly more complex.

A masterful strategy may be designed, but if those who execute do not or can not grasp the inherent logic, the strategy, un-execution-able.

And countless [business, organisational and personal] strategies, grounded in mythic false assumptions like both mechanical and creative thinking respond equally well to carrot and stick, irrational, delivering the very outcomes they seek to avoid.

Why is that ...

Who Am I, Will Knowing That Help My Performance and Happiness

It’s obvious, right. You lie at the heart of your personal performance and well-being, and at the heart of your performance and happiness lies personal mastery [mastery over you], not self-control, that’s something else entirely.

If by mastery we mean an expert understanding and skill in ...

Is it possible to know who you are, because if performance and happiness depend on mastery and mastery depends on understanding [and skill], then understanding or knowing yourself is mission critical.

Yes it is.

I can’t explain in this post, not because it’s impossible, esoteric or wacky spiritual, but because you’re complex and it’s takes time to not only theoretically understand but experientially verify. Which is the only way you really get to know who you are.

A coffee machine is made up of components that work together as a unit. You, just like a coffee machine are made up of components which work together, including your brain, physiological and energetic components, much like a dog or cat.

But your have something unique. You have the capacity for self-reflective awareness. You can learn about you. You can master you, change your thinking, reasoning and behaviour, quickly.

This makes mastery important, and this what makes knowing 'Who Am I' important to your performance and happiness.

Everything is possible ...

... but some are just more probable.

Why Is It We Lose Our MOJO?

For some it’s the grind, the years and decades of high work, financial, relationship and family performance. It’s not that any of these are bad, it’s just they all drink freely from the cup of MOJO.

For some it’s a big traumatic event which hammered confidence and squeezed the MOJO.

For some the MOJO stopped when the goals of financial independence and professional recognition where satisfied, or whatever goals they may have been. Now the idea of creating a new life’s purpose needs some MOJO we just don’t got.

For some the MOJO we had, which got us here is not the MOJO we need, to get us there.

And for some the MOJO cup was just half empty to begin with.

But MOJO is not a scarce resource ...

We could wait for a lucky event to get the MOJO going, but that’s a bit like playing the lotto, or do what it takes to get the MOJO flowing.

MOJO though, second time round, is a little more tricky and takes a little more mastery ...

[Sunday Contemplation] The Value In And Hidden Trap Of Stories

It's worth remembering ... It's all a story.

We understand the cosmos and our place in it through stories, and it's the story that enables or dis-empowers. That Jews were to blame for the suffering of the Germans, the Nazi story. That the universe began with a big bang, the cosmologists story. That there is a heaven and a hell, the religious story.

Jesus is a story and he told stories and Buddha was a great story teller and most of what we know of him, is a story. Psychology is filled with stories as is theoretical mathematics and quantum physics. Democracy, autocracy, theocracy, all stories.

There is no truth, just stories. Some more consistent that others and others more probable than some, and all stories evolve.

We are driven by stories, we can't escape it. Part of growing up is becoming aware of the stories that motivate and shape our behaviour, and of taking response-ability for crafting better more useful ones when it becomes clear the problem is not with the world, but with our stories of the world.

The story though is not at all important, it's the effect the story has, that is ...

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An Emergent Model Of Business Needs A Greater Complexity Of Thinking

At the heart of the traditional model of business lies core desire to make money, that’s it's overriding purpose, and if possible make a small difference and contribution.

At the heart of the enlightened model of business lies the more complex core desire to make a difference and contribution and almost as an apology, make money.

At the heart of the emergent model of business lies the infinitely more sophisticated and complex core desire to make money, make a unique difference and contribution, and all in a way that’s morally, socially and environmentally responsible.

Three core assumptions, three core motives, three core strategies, three core outcomes and three levels of complexity thinking.

It's Not All Of Mastery

If an expression of gross mastery is the ability to sit physically still regardless of how uncomfortable one may get, for as long as one has previously determined, then what would a corresponding expression of subtle or metal mastery be?

If mastery is the ability to choose freely which physical, emotional or psychological impulse to respond to, then would that not depend on an ability to not respond to any?

Without mastery we are driven by a compulsion to respond to almost every emotion, feeling and thought twitch and impulse, a few of which take us toward our vision, the vast bulk away.

Ask anyone and they would agree on the need for mastery. Ask the same person to explain in exact detail what it means to be perfectly psychologically still and you will at best get a vague non committal answer.

It’s not all of mastery, but mastery depends on choice and on the trained ability to consistently choose which sensation, emotion, thought and feeling to respond to, which means being able to not respond to any.

Stuck Is Always The Problem

and there’s hardly a product or service out there that is not designed to help in one way or another, get us unstuck. Everyone gets stuck, we just get stuck at different places, for different reasons and with different amounts of money.

Those with the right personality, education or talents create initial success faster and easier, but get stuck later. It’s more frustrating for them because they’re unused to getting stuck. They've come to believe they’re bullet proof and beyond it, so when they do, they tend to project the pain they feel.

Getting stuck is always painful.

Those with more difficult personalities, less education or apparent talents get stuck earlier, which is even more painful, with most never getting out the blocs. However, if they do, they can come to create awesome success, but it takes infinitely more effort, persistence and mastery.

And that too will get them stuck, later.

We are never limited by our personalities, education, talents or beliefs, but rather by our refusal to adapt, learn and grow.