Balance … a process in which one is still while in motion.

John Mizenko

Blogged with Flock

I started a new course with Kent State’s EMBA program today. Every class like every group has a unique personality and there’s nothing to do but engage or resist it. This is a genuinely nice group who are actually interested in learning, sustaining my faith in learning-kind.

There was clear evidence on the relationship between receptivity to learning, sense of humor, healthy community, and a strength-based culture.

Blogged with Flock

Chaos does make us more mindful. We make better choices in more chaotic environments because we pay much closer attention to the subtleties of what is happening around us. You cannot be on your cellphone, or talking to others or letting your mind wander when you are driving in unregulated traffic. You have to use all of the capacities that every driving instructor tries to teach you when you are sixteen. Pay attention, anticipate, leave space and be careful. Good advice for a chaotic world.

Parking Lot

Blogged with Flock

There is a lot of damned-either-way-isms at the international political levels where the competition seduces heads of states to create bonds around common enemies. It is an unenviable position. Smart leaders would spend more time creating bonds that actually build global community through the creation of change.

Charles Dickens once remarked that we live by the kindness of others. The good news is that more often than not, it is an unearned kindness - at least from a non-linear karmic kind of way.

A tribute to Tom Knight:

A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on.
Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: “You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong.”
Knight turned the machine off and on.
The machine worked.

Everything has two sides of advantage and disadvantage. This is true of my growing capacity to notice authenticity and inauthenticity in people who may or may not seem very genuine in their expression. The upside is the resonance that occurs; the downside is the disappointment that occurs.

Most people have the ability to express care and concern. For some, it’s a strategy for control - for others its a genuine and selfless expression. It’s a good day when the difference is obvious. Bottom line: we need to take responsibility for being wise or surprised.

One of the themes in “Mountain Paths” is the willingness to claim our power.

Two of the most focusing questions we ask ourselves, whatever the context: What matters most to me here, and am I using some aspect of my best self to create the conditions for this?

Until we get clear and take action, we stay distracted by apparent obstacles and challenges - we disown our power and give it away. These 2 questions bring us back to our power.

Book 5 is out: “Mountain Paths / A Guide on the Journey toward Discovering our Potential.” It’s a package of things I’ve learned and shared as coach over the past 30 years. Working from the metaphors of fire, earth, wind, and water, it offers guidelines on discovering and engaging our potential for passion, confidence, connection, and agility.

There is a free introductory download at www.DesigningLife.com

Here are the 1st 3 paragraphs of the first chapter…

Passion begins with being focused on the best of who we are. Fire, earth, wind and water are always at their best. They have no consciousness otherwise. All they can do is be the best of what they are. When weÕre clear on our best, thatÕs all we can be.

Think about any moment of success, achievement, or joy in your life. In every situation, you engaged the best of who you were at the time because you had no consciousness otherwise. You stayed totally focused and clear on your best qualities, capabilities, and intentions.

Being our best is always a matter of focus. When we understand our life, we understand that what we focus on, we become. To pay attention to the best in us is to feel clarity of purpose, self-trust, and the willingness to dream dreams that inspire and connect us as never before.

It’s been 30 years now of being in the business of helping people change. I live by the zen saying that in the beginner’s mind the possibilities are many and in the expert’s mind they are few.

I have helped individuals achieve sustainable transformation into leaders, discovering new ways to open their hearts as never before.I have helped large and complex divided organizations come together and heal into one culture. I have helped communities listen within and dream and inquire more deeply around impossible issues as never before.

And that said, I have more tolerance of people who doubt the ontological inevitabilities of change than I do people who take an expert rather than beginner’s mind to the process.