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Musing

Climate Of Possibility

Thursday, 23 May 2013
Challenge, Musing
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Sir Ken Robinson defines real leadership not as command and control but as climate control.

The question is what kind of climate is worth investing in as a leader?

One where people work in a fear of failure?

One where people feel the need to ask for permission?

One where people are required to service the ego of the leader?

How many context’s have you been in where at least one of the above climates has been true?

What we need are leaders empowered to create a climate of possibility. A climate where people are encouraged and reinforced to put their best foot forward and contribute to helping others do the same.

Whether you have a mantel of leadership or whether you are an engaged follower, you have the ability to contribute to climate and help shape it. However, no matter what you do, the climate will always influence in the type of growth you do or don’t experience.

Just know that the fewer life-enabling decisions you choose within in a given climate, the less you or anyone else will grow, and the less a sense of the possible will take root..

Freedom In Less

Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Challenge, Musing
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You don’t need more inspirational stories.

You don’t need more reasons for why.

What you need is less conventions and frameworks to validate your decisions.

What you need is a greater commitment to create – unbounded by what’s come before and not limited to what you think is expected of you.

Start with the idea that you have nothing but what’s innately ingrained in your talent.

It’s all you need to begin. What you have and who you are today is enough. No more reason to wait then – you’ll find everything else you need along the way.

Windward

Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Musing, Where to begin
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With skill and experience you can sail into an opposing wind. There’s even more that one technique to defy its resistance.

In life, as in sailing, we can craft maneuvers to spite the prevailing forces – be they systems, social barriers, opinions, or doubts. It’s an achievement of courage and resiliency to do so.

However, what we almost always resign ourselves to is that we can’t change the direction of the wind itself. It’s out of influence and therefore we must bear with it. This may be true in the meteorological sense, but in almost all others, despite the size of the obstacle, the gift humanity has is its ability to change the winds of our time.

Whether it’s civil rights, economic prosperity, famine or disease.

The direction our future blows in is up to us. Considering how we treat each other, how we are treated, and how we treat the world are parts of leading the change. Though just remember that there’s no point being able to change the wind if you don’t bring people along with you.

So go ahead and define what the next movement is. It starts with deciding which direction you yourself want to go in.

Beyond Raw Material

Monday, 20 May 2013
Musing
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What makes us humans distinct?

Our individuality.

Our curiosity.

Our imaginations.

The unique combination of these things is core to what makes each person who they are. The diversity of the how these facets come together is an awesome thing to stop, recognise and admire.

However, the most important aspect of that makes one person unique from another is not so much the raw ingredients and how much talent was bestow through your genetics. Regardless of any thing else, what matters most is your ability to choose how your individuality, curiosity and imagination plays out.

We are not slaves to instinct and primal urges. What really defines us is our will act on the things that create the most meaning.

For ourselves.

For the people that matter to us.

So what are choosing to do with all you have?

Making It Last When It Counts

Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Challenge, Musing
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Nothing is more certain to awaken us to our priorities than a brush with life or death.

A new baby.

A serious health scare.

When pressure points like these are pushed, our framework for what matters abruptly exposes itself even if we think we have never consciously formed it.

This is perhaps because living is something we’re all hardwired to understand. It’s in our DNA to want to thrive – when this part of our code is not firing, it’s tragic, and we know something is very wrong. So though we can often be oblivious to the question of our priorities, the event of a life or death encounter can quickly rectify that.

On reflection, it seems in some ways we – those of enjoying the comfort of developed economies – are the poorer for this awareness being something we are not more cognisant of. Many of us almost have to rely on a sudden jolt in order to ever have the chance to appreciate just how delicate and beautiful the balance between life and death really is (and the priorities they bring for each of us).

Fear and dread are the likely culprits that hinder any real going contemplation of it. However, if we were able to move past these barriers, even embrace the reality of life coming to an end, then thinking of our mortality more (and that of those we care about) could actually make us stronger. Rather than diminish our options, it stands to grow our resolve to make better decisions for our lives.

Consider, for a second, the following:

If the next interaction were to be my last engagement with a person, how would I want it to go?

This would be an exhausting question to put in front of ourselves for every person we meet. However, perhaps thinking on it – and questions like it – more frequently than never, will grow our understanding that while our connections in life may be momentary, the impressions we make don’t have to be.

If we challenged ourselves a little more with the thought of our greatest limitation – our mortality – it may just serve as the inspiration we need to drop the erroneous and embrace the vital instead. At its best, living in a more aware state will allow us to better define who we are and capture the best of what we have to give.