Well meaning doesn't make it right

I believe it's fare to say that all of us want happiness, most of us want success (in whatever field or area is real for us) and some of us want to make a difference.

Most of us see happiness as a consequence of success, which it isn't, and some as a consequence of making a difference, which it isn't.

And living a happy life, being happy, discovering the secret to happiness and well-being doesn't automatically deliver success or the ability to make a difference. It rarely does.

Happiness, success and making a difference are three completely different things, with success in one although possibly providing brief respite or momentary fulfilment, usually coming the cost of the others.

That is not to say we can't create happiness, achieve success and make a difference simultaneously. It means to do them together requires very specific information and very consciously developed strategies and tactics.

Loosing weight makes you thin not happy. Making money makes you rich at our expense, not happy. A successful business makes you a business man, not happy or socially responsible. Mastering happiness makes you neither successful nor socially responsible.

You won't find it in 99% of the self-help or achieve your goals, books. Mostly they are either deliberately or misguidedly appealing to your mistaken idea that achieving one means achieving the other. Not the reality that achieving one usually marginalises the other.

As one of an infinite number of examples and as well meaning as it may be, in today's money narrative your success comes at the expense of your community, our culture and the planet. It doesn't have to be this way, but it is, that's how the system is designed. So if awesome financial wealth and security is your goal, making a difference can't be. And if you never trained yourself to be happy before, you'll definitely be miserable (and angry) after.

The quest for happiness, success and making a difference... a powerful statement of the intent to develop high levels of personal mastery, wisdom and leadership.

Anyone can risk money... but what about personal identity and social confirmation?

What do you do if you become aware of a truth so self-evident but so contradictory to every thing you've ever believed (but intuitively suspected) that it compels you to question the very basis of how you live, love, make money and grow your business?

Do you ignore it in the hope that it'll go away?
Do you wait for others to take the first step and confirm your theory?
Do you investigate it carefully, contemplate it deeply, and then do everything you can to help it manifest as strange new behaviour?

Can self-evident be ignored?
Can self-evident be stifled?
Can self-evident wait for others?
Will the manifestation of that self-evidence look exactly the same for everybody?
Will it make it any easier to sacrifice the little true joy, happiness and security you have, on the results other weird people might have achieved but which can't be proved to work for you (until you do it and prove it to yourself). Will that really make it easier?

And can the behaviour and results of new behaviour be accurately predicted, can we make it safe and known? I guess this is the paradox of transformation -- we feel isolated, stuck, trapped, frustrated and caught in a narrative we don't really believe in (to one extent or another), and yet we want the way out to be known, predictable, safe and understood by our parents, friends, partners, children, neighbours and the dog.

Revolution... sure. As long there's guaranteed benefit and I don't have to lay anything of real value on the line.

And what could be of more value than your own personal identity and philosophy. Your narrative of how things work, and why and how you (we) should go about doing what you (we) do.

But what if self-evident compelled you to question your most deeply held beliefs, and in-so-doing you suspect you might just come to acknowledge that they themselves are the cause of your suffering and the source of the little happiness, meaning and purpose you have.

Would you be prepared to wager even that for more? Can you risk the real threat of falling into oblivion?

The solution is not always productivity

Increasing productivity and developing skills has it's uses, but if the systems themselves are the problem, then that simply makes you better at making a bigger problem.

Cautious about abundance

I have been very cautious over the past few years to use the word abundance, I guess in part because of the initial relatively immature expression of this understanding -- It's all about wishful thinking and visualisation.

But upon a deeper reflection, I've not really found a better word.

Abundance is experienced on several levels:
As a expansive state of conciousness (a feeling)
As a logic of thinking
As logic of behavior
As a logic of strategies and systems, especially those of our business.

A state of consciousness is always the easiest and usually the first expressions, but translating that into consistent personal and business behaviour gets progressively more complex. Especially since the world is governed by the laws and systems of scarcity. There's also the question of translating the language of abundance into that of scarcity, let alone the impossible task of communicating the underlying principals coherently -- it's so contradictory to everything scarcity comprehends.

And we experience abundance:
Personally
As a community and culture
As a society and nation
As culture and humanity

It's easiest on a personal level and again gets more complex as we include more people in the narrative and dialogue. One of the biggest challenges being that there is no consistent or right expression of abundance, we are literally working it out as we go along. This is one of the reasons it's so difficult to get a handle on the #OWS movement, especially by the mass media. They are heavily invested in the narrative of scarcity.

What we are getting considerably more clear about is that there is a change, and that this change is in response to the deep appreciation that the rules and patterns which got us here, can't get us there.

Does our future look grim, and should I be insuring myself against it?

A friend send me this question in response to the post, 'what happened to the promise of leisure (and pleasure)?

A few years ago I heard someone claim that people were insuring against the future. I think they meant that people were believing that the future was going to be worse than the present or past. I'm wondering how might we live in the belief that the best days are ahead of us while also being aware of what is real? Holding an optimistic perspective despite the signs of breakdown all around. Is this emergent thinking?

Thanks, and I believe this question to be so relevant I want to reply to it as an open blog post.

Underpinning our culture and way of life is what we call our socio-economic mode of production. It's what keeps us busy, the lights on, the roofs over our heads and the food in our stomachs, and it's typically what we use to define our progress.

So the question may well be.

1. Is our current socio-economic mode of production on the verge of collapse, which from what I'm hearing, seems like a real possibility?
2. And how can or should I protect myself from the fall out of such a collapse, if it happens, while keeping a positive mental attitude?

I'm uncomfortable with hyperbole which principally seeks to induce a contraction provoking a predictable response. For example, 'Click here to save the word', or 'Do you want to earn $500 per hour, working 1 hour per day from home with no previous experience?'

I'm also uncomfortable with simplistic yes, no answers (in this context), which minimises or even negates the need to explore and understand, but rather seeks only tacit agreement or disagreement. And where to from there?

I would therefore prefer to frame the first question thus.

Is our socio-economic mode of production in the process of (more or less radical) transformation? Now this raises a few more interesting questions. For example, transforming from what to what? What are the indicators, or what is the supporting evidence to corroborate such a theory? What is the depth of the transformation, in other words is it a profound core, or a superficial surface transformation. What's the best guess estimate on the timeline. How may I best participate or oppose, which is in a way asking how to best protect myself from the worst of the fallout, or even benefit through and on the other side of, this process of transformation.

And the questions framed as transformation also helps us better understand how we might go about insuring ourselves from the worst consequences of such a transformation, if such a thing is possible. Because insurance requires we bet on how things are going to be in the future, be it options, stocks even attitudes. If we make the wrong guess we lose, if we make an accurate guess, we benefit. So in order to make the right guess we need to be as informed as possible about what's really going on.

Collapse also implies a shocking end with nothing, or little of value and beauty to follow, whereas transformation implies continuity from past to present to future, a change to something higher and better. And this would help us in keeping a positive mental attitude through the process of transformation, which can be both destructive (yes collapse of the old) and traumatic. The degree of destruction really depends upon the degree to which we cling to that which is dead (or dying), inhibiting the natural process of transformation.

And the evidence is just pouring in. Global warming and climate change, over production and consumption, mental dis-ease, financial turmoil and, and this is important, incredible break through's in thinking, intelligence, science, spiritual awareness and cognitive insight.

Of all the indicators, simple maths is the best. Constant global growth be it at 3% or 10% per annum is impossible given that we live in a finite context (planet earth). At an average of 4.9% growth the world consumes double what it consumed and produced in the entire history of the world before that, every 14 years.

This is significant.

Every 14 years, based on average global growth of 4.9%, the world produces and consumes double the amount it has in total ever consumed and produced through-out its history until that point. This means we are currently consuming and producing double the amount ever produced and consumed, for the entire history of the world prior to 1998.

And we can't stop growing because then we go bankrupt. We need to grow at that speed, or even faster if we are to stay ahead of global debt payments and the interest due on that debt.

Quite simply, we can't stop growing (we go bankrupt) and we can't go on growing (we run out of raw materials).

Constant growth is a myth because

1. We will run out of materials, be they natural resources or intellectual property, to commercialise
2. We simply don't need all the stuff we are forced to make to sustain constant growth. Most of it moves rapidly from factory to garbage dump, hence the need for the throw-away culture.
3. We will alter the biosphere to such an extent as to make in inhospitable to humanity
4. We will go bankrupt if we slow growth beyond a point allowing us to service the debt.
5. And it's all escalating at an exponential rate, 2x2, x2, x2, x2 at a constant rate, like seconds ticking away on a clock.

Even now the only way we are staying ahead of the game is through monetising and commercialising every dimension of our human cultural commons (which belongs to us all), exploiting every natural resource (which also belongs to us all), whilst exporting the real cost of that production into the future. This is a trick companies like Enron used, except they got caught, but we just do it in smarter ways. Well not so smart, it's just called global denial.

And this all happens while the money system, as it is and because of cultural design, pools profits into smaller and smaller points of collection, meaning the disparity between have's and have not's also grows exponentially.

The data conclusively shows, the system as it is will break down (whether we lynch culprits or not). It is inevitable and it will happen quickly when it does, in much the same way a business recognises its bankruptcy, quickly. This does not mean is goes bankrupt quickly, just that it refuses to recognise the signs until it's forced to acknowledge it's real financial position. Until that point the directors live in the powerful elixir of false profit, hope and denial.

And bankruptcy seems like the point we will get to first, although this is not certain. In bankruptcy, all commercial activity stops. There is simply no money available to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Willing sellers and buyers have no medium of exchange, except for the few who may have access to precious metals, but this would be a very interim solution, since the have's already control it (and it's another scarce resource, which doesn't really solve the problem of scarcity).

Of course the old system (transformation always implies the death of the old) does not have to end so traumatically, if we recognise early enough and respond to the data. The longer we delay, the more inevitable the traumatic collapse of the 'scarcity' based system will be.

And I can hear you whisper. Sure sounds like collapse to me, and it would be if something new wasn't already emerging.

What we are witnessing in the world today is a global shift, at the leading edge, from scarcity to abundance consciousness. This in itself is simply a necessary precursor to a new way of thinking and the development of a 'revolutionary / evolutionary' new economic mode(s) of production. And it's important to point out that the current model got us from wandering the plains in search of our next meal, to here. It was necessary, in that this was how it happened.

Scarcity and the age of growth are not bad. It played a crucial role in our human evolution. It just can't take us from here to there. Everything is useful to a point, ceases to be useful anymore and then deteriorates into a problem. If not attended to it shifts from a problem to pathological pattern, ending its life in psychotic self-destruction. Our current system appears to be in the final stages of psychosis. And even now, there is lots of money to be made. There is incredible profit in destruction and many merchants who are happy to profit while 'Rome Is Burning'.

It's important to recognise that abundance is not the opposite of scarcity, that's simply the antithesis and a negation of the principals of scarcity, a subtle confirmation of those very principals. Abundance is the step after scarcity, after the benefits which flowed from that level of consciousness, have run their course.

It may be easier to picture this as the most significant step in human evolution is over 50,000 years. As the emergence of a new species, playing by different rules, rules beyond the comprehension of scarcity mankind. There is simply nothing I can say to scarcity man that will help him understand abundance, in much the same way that it would be possible to explain to Neanderthal man, the rules of modern commerce.

Suffice it to say, that we will witness and are witnessing the transformation of the financial systems, of our understanding of 'what money is and what it does'. From a thing holding independent value, to knowledge (an idea), signifying a level and degree of contribution.

At the heart of a new socio-economic mode of production is going to lie a new story of why we are here, what we are supposed to do. Growth will not be measured by economic activity, but rather by community, wholehearted participation and care.

We will no longer be driven by the need to earn a living so that maybe at some point we can get around to doing what it is that we really want to do. It will be the revolutionary shift to a steady state economy, where the gifts of our planet and cultural heritage are recognised as the human commons and our real wealth.

And the best insurance policy. Personal transformation. Your shift, the shift you bring to your family, community, society, culture and together we bring to the world. Your reconnection with community (scarcity and the age of growth came at the price of isolation and separation), because when the money system as it is fails, which it will, it's the community who will support each other.

There is no free meal; this is not a change external to the very essence of who you are. It is not a cognitive, dry intellectualising. It's a metamorphosis of being, becoming and participating. It runs so deep and alters our world so profoundly that the impulse to deny it is overpowering.

So of all things, I would suggest the biggest insurance policy would be, knowledge, verifying and learning. Is what I have written here the delusions of the insane? Just wrapping your brain around the fragility of our financial system and economic mode of production causes incredible angst and tension. It causes us to contract, deny and dig further into the very system which mathematically cannot continue.

This will create anger, even rage and this is healthy. In any relationship that is dying, there is pain upon the recognition of its passing. However, we don't want to use that pain and projected anger to force us to take the next step. Pain, anger and suffering simply can't comprehend the systems of abundance, let alone participate in developing them.

What happened to the promise of leisure (and pleasure)?

The promise of technology and industrialisation was... more time and convenience for culture and the individual. So what went wrong, because we now have less time, more pressure and more debt?

We are in every respect just like the dog chasing its tail. The faster we run, the more dizzy we get and our tail, the anticipation of leisure and reward, remains just as far away as it's always been, if not further -- If we apply the quantum theory that the faster we go the smaller we get, resulting in the distance from nose to end of tail growing.

Back on track. The problem is twofold, mindset and systems.

Mindset
The mindset of growth converts every opportunity [of more time] not into the opportunity for greater leisure, but rather the opportunity to do even more, so we can make more, buy more, have more. The false promise that more is somehow better, even when most of the more is completely and utterly unnecessary, and adds nothing to our quality of life, cultural development or physical comfort.

In fact it could easily be argued that it's hurting us now and mortgaging the future.

Systems
The other is the systems of which the money or financial systems is the biggest culprit. The vast bulk of our money is created through the mechanism of debt creation (home, business and government loans), and attached to debt is interest. The interest however, is never created. And so trapped in this false scarcity, we are compelled to produce more to firstly stay ahead of the debt payments, and secondly to service the interest on that debt (which was never created)

The only solution to this quandary is constant economic growth. And even a child can reason that constant growth within a finite context is destined to fail.

So even if there was a sudden planetary mindset shift from the idea that exponential growth equals progress, which it may have been many decades ago, but now is actually counter progress, to a steady state equals progress. We would still find ourselves trapped in the traditional money narrative of chasing debt and the interest [never created] on debt.

It's a bit like using one credit card to pay another. It's an ill conceived plan ultimately destined to fail.

And as complex as it may seem, and it can get a little tricky, both mindset and human systems can be changed. Mindset can be mastered and moulded, the ideas and narratives which govern our behaviour and the systems can be transformed. And we can change the narratives of the existing systems, the values and principles on which they are build.

The point here is that money and the systems governing is creation, distribution and final dissolution (required in a debt based system) are all the creations of our minds and mindsets. We can change them. Money is not a real thing like trees and tractor tyres. It's an idea of how we should go about exchanging value (our gifts) and keeping score.

It is as illusionary as Celsius or meters.

The challenge comes in when we try to change the systems without first having changed our mindset. The money system is a product of mindset and it has been a powerful instrument in human development, but now the cause of looming catastrophe and untold misery. But to change it, we need to master a new level of enlightened mindset, with which to design and experiment with other more relevant narratives and systems of money.

It we simply tear it down, we can only ever replace it with another variation of the system which we have just gotten rid of.

Mindset mastery or transformation alone is not enough, but playing and redesigning systems from within the very mindset (values and beliefs) which originally developed them, is... well pointless.

Consistent winning, in a finite context, is just another way to lose

As our recognition of the inter-dependantness of all things deepens, so too does the absurdity of the psychology of sustainable winning (growth) in a finite environment become more apparent.

Let’s use the game of monopoly as an example. The game has a finite number of players, money, resources and properties -- just like planet earth. Inevitably, and in a relatively short time one player through chance or skill emerges the winner. But at that point the game breaks down and comes to an end. And when the game comes to an end the winning itself turns to loss, because the game has ended, even winning itself.

And when the game ends all lose, and the only winning is the memory of winning.

It's worthwhile noticing that the strategy of development and growth is initially useful as properties are purchased and developed. But at some critical point in the game when development has run its course, when everything that can be commercialised, has been, for the game to continue the rules need to radically change.

From growth to consistency, from private ownership to communal use and from competition to care. In that space the game now has a chance to evolve and bring forth new potentials unrecognised and not needed during its phase of growth.

In our human evolution, we have come to that point. The rules of the game are changing as we recognise the inevitability of loss, the inter-connectedness of all things and the finiteness and fragility of this small planet we call home.

Waiting for the old game to end so we can start a new one is not the option we want to be shooting for.

Adolescence is always painful, not least for the rest of us

It's a mistake to believe that abundance is the opposite of scarcity and therefore plays by exactly the opposite rules. It's more useful and certainly more technically accurate to think of abundance as the next step in our human [psychological] evolution, which finally integrates the core learning points of both unconsciousness and scarcity consciousness.

From Unconsciousness to Scarcity to Abundance... to Relevance.

In the 1960's we witnessed necessary, but rather crude expressions of World Consciousness and the Woman's Liberation Movement. Over the past 50 years these expressions have developed and matured, are infinitely more sophisticated, complex and beautiful.

So to with Abundance Consciousness. Its earlier expressions held in stark contrast to the heaviness and pain of scarcity, and with it some mystical magical power to achieve all we want through wishful thinking and visualisation -- Usually corroborated by a few pointed anecdotes.

Abundance is not the opposite of scarcity, not is it prior to scarcity, not is it equal to scarcity. The age of [leisure] abundance lies after scarcity, because it's more complex, sophisticated and paradoxical, and depends on us as a culture transitioning through scarcity. It plays by new upside-down rules, redefining the realities of limit.

It only happens when we make the invisible [unconscious] rules now governing our world of progress visible. When visible, we have the opportunity to de-construct the ones no longer necessary and are keeping us trapped, transform the ones which have meaning but are still relatively immature, and create new ones.

It's by design.

We live in a world of finite resources and limitations. These do not go away because of a shift in consciousness; we just begin to experience, relate to and use them differently. We see abundance in deeper more subtle levels of reality, while respecting and working with the limitations of the finite more apparent world.

Scarcity is not limitation, and abundance is not without limit. Scarcity is a state of consciousness, a governing feeling, an experience and interpretation of life from which all strategies [even corporate] emanate. Limit is limit; constraints in any finite environment, exist.

More than anything, abundance is the adolescent human, growing up.

3 methods for change

1/ Spend your time burdened and victimised. Insist on finding the culprit. Want change, but resist all attempts to change. The systems are corrupt and inequitable, unless you can figure out how they can work for you.

Effortlessness means doing nothing new.

2/ Search for inner peace and serenity, but do nothing to threaten your sense of identity, nest egg and investment portfolio.

Effortlessness means detachment.

3/ Transform the way you perceive, experience, think and act and then go out into the world and live your personal philosophy. Cooperate, build synergies and where necessary bring accountability. Be psychologically prepared to risk everything for a better future, while working in new ways within old systems, to build your business and develop your career.

Effortlessness means doing everything (relevant to you) in a new way and with a new mindset.

Ending badly is a bad ending

All relationships end, but they don't have to end badly.

They end badly because we play them out passed the time they could or should have ended, naturally.
They end badly because we avoid the short discomfort of confronting that end, and instead fearfully wait for them to spiral into pain and anger, where we are forced to acknowledge that end.
They end badly because we are scared of a unknown future.

We are in relationship with people, business, money, govenmental and cultural systems. And it will end badly if we don't confront our fears, and talk about why they are not working and what to replace them with.

It may still end badly, because we can't control the responses of others, our partners. But ignoring the problem guarantees it ends badly, and confronting the problems only means it may end badly. The more caring, intelligent and skilful we are in confronting the problem, the less probable it is that it ends badly.

We are in relationship with a way of thinking, in exactly the same way we where in relationship with our ex-partner, with the same fears and doubts about a new way of thinking that lies beyond.

Don't be fearfull, this is how our evolution feels from the inside. It's a messy process full of false starts and abandoned projects.

Mastery, the new frontier

Complexity, diminishing natural resources, population, technology, information.

Our world is doubling in complexity, consistently and relentlessly. We are exposed to more information in one day than the average person was exposed to in an entire lifetime a little over a hundred years ago. And that continues to double consistently and relentlessly --- multiply 2 by 2 once per minute for an hour, and you will experience for yourself the consequences of consistent doubling.

And we adapt.

Our brains develop, re-wire, our psyches expand connecting more dots... getting more complex, creating more complexity. Complexity driving complexity, doubling consistently and relentlessly.

Is it going to stop, will the train finally arrive at the station. Will the bubble pop. Will life return to the sedentary pace of the 1920's. Is it reasonable to assume it will. Can progress be stopped?

In part the solution lies in new cultural systems, technologies and patterns of behaviour, but it's the human psyche which designs, executes and administers such systems.

New ways of thinking, new motives for engaging, new skills and talents all depending on new levels of personal 'psychological' mastery.

The inner personal psychological world is the new frontier.

Reading behaviour

My colleague says she cares about me, but consistently digs into my stuff and forgets to return them.
My partner says she loves me, but consistently bullies [ignores] me when I don't do what she wants.
My boss says he values my input, but consistently cuts me off in mid-sentence.
My children say they love me, but consistently argue with me.
My bank says it cares about me, but when in financial trouble my assets are ruthlessly seized.
My parents say they love me, but they consistently make asinine corrections.
I say I love my wife, but I consistently talk over her.
I say I love my children, but I consistently get impatient when they make mistakes.
I say I value my family more than anything, but I consistently work extremely long hours and over weekends.
I say I want to learn Chinese, but I have not even tried.
I say I want the world to change, but I don't consistently work to change myself or the world.
I say I want to get fit, but I never go to the gym.

We can say anything, but it's our behaviour and the systems we develop that are really communicating what we believe and what we want. Listen to the words, but learn to read the consistent behaviour.

In the case of conflict between words and consistent (not once off) behaviour, it's the behaviour that is communicating the truth.

If you care, consistently find ways to show that care. Or else you don’t… care.

The systems we have

The political, financial, banking, judicial, industrial, commercial ...

The systems aren't wrong, just old -- reflective of a more traditional, contracted and hierarchical way of thinking.
They where once new and innovative.
They got us here but can't get us there.
Much and many are invested in these older systems--there is fear of the new, fear the loss (CISAP).
They are strong but vulnerable.
All systems end their days as self-destructive, even the biggest one of all, the universe.
Even self-destructive systems cling to survival, as irrational as it may seem (see Syria).
Systems sensing attack, contract into more archaic and fundamental beliefs (USA fundamentalism).
It's impossible to predict the degree of conflict, or future depth and degree of systemic collapse.
A random sequence of apparently unconnected events could cascade as an unfolding in any direction.
Our existing systems evolved mostly out of relative unconsciousness, now there's the prospect of intentional design.
Human systems didn't develop and don't exist independently from natural systems, each influences the other (global warming & climate change).

Where one step is light years away

In this article: In over twelve years of mindset coaching in one form or another, there is one question which has consistently tripped me up. How to illustrate, not even prove, the relationship between mindset and the results we experience, and mindset and our psychological well-being -- by that I mean the quality of our inner experience of life.

I don't know a person who doesn't know this, and yet I know only a handful who actually get it ... 'as I believe, so I think and experience the world. As I think and experience the world so I behave, and as I behave so I influence and am responsible for crafting (in part) the results I (and all of us) experience'.

This is mindset. The sum total of all we believe and assume to be the truth. Thousands if not millions of tiny and big fixed ideas / beliefs clumping together, in loose and dynamic alliance, to form narratives about not only the possibilities of the next moment, but also rationalising the past and interpreting the present.

Some of these beliefs are individual in nature, some cultural. Some are created by fear and ignorance and others through experience, education and occasionally trauma. Some are the consequences of our psychological level of maturity [world-view], some by our state of consciousness and others formed by our temperament and personality.

An introvert lives in a very different world to an extrovert. They have different assumptions and beliefs about what is right and wrong, how one should behave and treat others. For example, extroverts thrive in a competitive environment... they perceive competitors as warmly as collaborators. Whereas introverts thrive on cooperation and are turned off and even repulsed by competitive behaviour.

Think for a moment how this would affect the problem solving potentials of colleagues, managers and couples. One perceiving the other as disengaged and fragile while the other seeing anger, dominance and intolerance. Where neither is in fact true.

Mindset is the lens through which we see and understand not only the world, but our partners, children, staff and clients ... ourselves. And it's this perception which guides our response and the logic of those responses. And it's our mindset that determines what systems and structures we create.

But mindset is one step removed from working directly on the thing itself, and it's that one single step that might as well make it light-years away.

Relaxing into our discomfort

In this article: What do we do when circumstances turn toxic or the environment hostile?

Our first priority when facing any complex, overwhelming or threatening context, is to clam down. The more psychologically contracted or flooded with emotions we are, the less clear, more fundamental and less rational our thinking and behaviour becomes.

Many of us use those feelings of discomfort and the heightened emotional states to drive participation, but the quality of that participation is then compromised, even to the point of being self-destructive.

But calmness alone is not enough to solve the problem or create a solution representative of a more noble purpose. What we need is purpose, intelligence, more proven research and less myth, new skills and the least amount of toxic psychological baggage possible -- Specific strategies and tactics with the ability to execute.

The thing with strategies and tactics though, is that they are not independent of the psychological and personality processes and logic that developed them.

Before anything... lies our developed capacity to deeply relax into and not contract away from, the source of our discomfort and anxiety. It is the heart of personal mastery.

Even good assumptions can be bad

Every action, every system or way of doing things, has at it's core an assumption or set of assumptions and beliefs.

If I eat food, the assumption is that food will satisfy my hunger or some psychological discomfort -- we don't eat just because we're hungry.

If my life is obsessively geared toward making money, there is the assumption that some physical or psychological discomfort will be relieved, or some benefit created, through that effort.

Assumptions themselves are neither good not bad. Many are false and the rest are just more or less mature, intelligent and rational.

The ability to clearly identify and evaluate these assumptions and de-construct false ones, transform less intelligent ones, and create completely new ones, changes not only how we understand the world, but how we act in and how we feel about, ourselves, others and the world.

Consistently questioning and querying our assumptions (especially when they're working for us - precisely because they're working for us) and exposing and contemplating new foreign assumptions and narratives are the keys to psychological development.

Challenging the status-quo

In this article: Typically we understand challenging the status-quo to mean resisting and confronting.

But this invariably creates conflict and almost certainly more deeply entrenches the very mindset assumptions being resisted, and the status-quo itself. It makes change laborious, expensive and time consuming.

Rather challenging the status-quo means making the effort to more deeply understand and expose the less-rational mindset assumptions upon which systems are built. Of educating ourselves and those who insist on defending and maintaining them. And of experimenting with new systems based on new more refined and coherent theories and beliefs.

We cling to old ideas and systems because we have vested interest, stand to gain or are paralysed by the prospect of change, and the loss of personal and cultural identity that would mean.

We cling because we are afraid of loss.

But once a system has been established simply transforming the underlying assumptions, will probably not be enough to change the system itself.

And tearing down systems without transforming and changing the underlying cultural mindset assumptions are almost certainly going to result in... Just more of the same. Surface change with regime continuity.

Effectively challenging the status-quo requires the aligned, purposeful and focussed endeavours of demolition experts, philosophers, teachers, architects (professionals), artisans, builders, and soldiers.

Life, moral or amoral?

You may have a belief that life is inherently good and supportive of your endeavours (moral). Or you have a belief that life is neutral and is neither for nor against your success (amoral), i.e. does not care.

Both are useful, but which best empowers you when circumstances get decidedly difficult?

One way to get it right, an infinite number of ways to get it wrong

In this article: We complete activities faster, with less error and with significantly less stress after we've developed the ability to consciously and intentionally direct our focussed stream of attention.

Although there are innumerable parallel sub-conscious processes happening within the mind / body complex all the time, we have only one conscious stream of attention. Every shift in that conscious stream of attention is an interruption, and interruption is the single biggest barrier to creativity and productivity -- and the biggest contributor to frustration, stress and illness.

Learning new skills and concepts although necessary are not as important as learning to hold our attention on what we're doing despite externalities and internal impulses -- but it is subtle. In essence personal or mindset mastery begins with stabilising and mastering our ability to hold that stream of conscious attention and direct it at will.

For example I could sit down to learn some new technology. And I could despite intense external interruption (from my kids or colleagues), but I will learn it quicker, more accurately and with less frustration without interruption (the myth of multi-tasking) -- at least for the time I have allocated to that activity.

But there are different qualities or methods of 'controlled' or focussed attention. And just like pharmaceuticals there are side effects or contra-indications to each method. Get the method wrong and the contra-indications escalate to the point where the benefits of a focussed stream of attention are dramatically outweighed by the negative consequences.

There are is only one way to get it right, and an infinite number of ways to get it wrong.

Good teachers of meditation, and there are few, are really worth their weight in gold, especially if we add up the significant cost of a life time of lost creativity, productivity and frustration [stress].

One of the principal benefits of meditation lies in the process of discovering and developing that right way. In meditation we work directly on that focussed stream of conscious attention without the added complexity of working on something else while working on attention. One by itself is difficult enough.

What is learned in meditation is almost immediately applied into the real world of work and relationships. The benefits, initial big wins, prove the process and the proof drives practice.

It's another process to apply the understanding, again with many ways to get it wrong and only one way to get it right.

There are many other and in my opinion more significant benefits to meditation, but without the developed ability to intentionally apply [and hold] a very specific type of focussed attention, all endeavour thereafter takes significantly longer, with a significantly higher error rate and increasing levels of frustration and stress.

Attention

As long as we allow ourselves to be provoked and shocked into action, those who want to hi-jack our attention and direct our efforts will find ever more manipulate ways to so so. Even in the name and for the sake of, 'a more noble purpose'.

It stops when learn to focus and hold our attention, and give it to only those causes and products which attract and inspire us, and aligns with our personal philosophy.

With that we determine which ideas, organisations and institutions flourish and which whither -- we shape our cultural landscape. We free ourselves from manipulation and demand evidence and proof of care.

Discover you purpose ... NOW!

In this article: Is it reasonable to assume the purpose can be discovered or created... now? As if it's an act of will devoid of the need for personal mastery, and a reasonably sophisticated level of knowledge about the social context and systems at play.

The message that is pumped through repetitively and consistently, particularly from the US, is instant. Instant understanding, instant success, the instant formula. The reasoning is simple. It's the lizard brain that's making all the decisions, so let’s make sure that we're marketing to the lizard brain which seeks principally... immediate gratification.

The logic runs something like this -- Our message is good, so what if the method is a little manipulative, it's the goal that's important, not the method. This mindset assumption is not only false, but has been proved to be false every time. Because the way and the goal are not separate, the way is the goal and the goal is the way.

The thing is, your purpose is not all about you... self-indulgence is.

It's about your cooperation [with others] in shaping our future external shared reality. The one we call community, culture and the world.

And the less we understand of the context the less relevant our participation becomes. And I don't believe relevance can be separated from purpose. In fact I would argue that relevance is purpose.

Relevance: Our capacity to specifically (using our developed talents), collaboratively (in cooperation with others) and appropriately respond (meeting the real needs of the external context) to what is both important and required.

Because without relevance what's left is self-indulgence, and without personal identity, only chaos.

It's not what we [want to] believe it is

In this article: Examining a few of the corporate, management and coaching mindset myths believed to increase productivity, innovation and creative thinking, but really do the opposite while increasing staff turnover, illness and hostility.

Multitasking
We have a single stream of conscious attention which although can jump quickly from activity to activity, can only focus on one at a time. So what looks like multitasking is really a constant interruption of the stream of attention reducing productivity and increasing our mistakes by up to 50%.

Groupthink and brainstorming
Over forty years of research shows that if efficiency and creativity is the priority we should be left to work alone, because we produce more and higher quality ideas alone than in a group. And to make matters worse, that performance drops as the group size increases.

Collaboration
That passive forms of collaboration like email, instant messaging, cloud documents and online chat tools work more effectively than active forms of collaboration like meetings and group activities.

Open plan offices
Personal space and freedom from peer pressure, even the types of pressure created in team building and groupthink environments, are essential for creativity and productivity.
Open plan offices impair memory, increase staff turnover, and make people sick, hostile, unmotivated and insecure.
Open plan workers are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, elevated levels of stress, susceptibility to illness especially flu, and argue more with colleagues.

In short the single biggest barrier to creativity and productivity is interruption.

I would argue that groupthink; brainstorming and collective action plays more to the organiser’s desire for control than to the real objective of forging new ideas and of finding innovative ways to apply them. There are benefits to social interaction like the introduction of new narratives, attachment, the creation of a social glue and a sense of shared purpose, but productivity and creativity aren't amongst them.