“It was a slow economy my first year with the company, 2002, I was way under quota, and you know how you get. I would’ve typed up a formal proposal and delivered it personally to a mom-and-pop store for a $500 sale. I was calling on everyone. I looked at my territory, and right in the middle is MegaStore X.

I thought, what the hell. I called five or six times. I couldn’t get through, but I kept calling. Then one day out of the blue I get this call – it’s MegaStore X on the line. The purchasing agent tells me she wants a price. So-o-o I asked, “Help me understand what the – ‘and she cut in, “I just want a price.’ I tried again, ‘Okay, but describe the problem your current supp – ‘and she cut me off again, ‘Are you going to give me a price or not?’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am. I will be there tomorrow.’

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In life, perhaps in one moment, we are given an opportunity to listen. If we are still, we may actually hear what is calling to us. We have a choice at this time; “do I listen” or “do I move back into the familiar patterns of my life?” Do I answer the call and take the risk inherent in it’s promise - to change me and “riddle” me into being more fully who I am?

Quote

” Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and is meaningless – even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire of renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his Minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.” (Campbell, 1949, p. 59)

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As you weather these difficult times, there is something to keep in mind: We have been through this before. It may not feel the same, certainly we have unprecedented news coverage this time around, but this is just the current manifestation of one phase of the cycle of the life of a business – birth, life, death and transition. This is the destructive phase – denial awakens and there is simply too much to think about, safety is replaced by fear, comfort is shattered by anxiety, and predictability is overrun with doubt – leaving each of us feeling isolated and vulnerable. It may be a time that you find little comfort in the company of others so it is important to use your speech wisely and stop scaring one another.

Pull back from the feelings of a “freefall.” Recall and hold onto the other major phases of the cycle of your business – Creation and Preservation. Spend a few moments and bring to mind those areas that are working and focus on preserving them. Begin again by creating and digging deeply into the processes that are tried and true. Leverage your assets and spend time with the key people in your life. Focus on preserving what you can while creating within the possibilities that are available to you. This is a time to invest wisely, with the resources that remain, so as to position yourself and your organization for the recovery that will follow.

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When we function within our perceived limitations, we unconsciously sort through what we think we can do and what we assume we cannot. In so doing, we maintain the old and inhibit the new. If we can create more space around the way we think of ourselves and our abilities, our minds open and we see what is really possible.

With an open mind the heart begins to open and possibilities arise, naturally inviting new choice.

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“The challenges faced in daily life, business, career or creative pursuits are a vital part of your accomplishments. If managed with compassion and insight, these challenges will inform your process and ensure your success.”    -Tdukes

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Opening the mind and the heart will change your attitude, thinking, and behavior. Invariably, with change comes resistance. While you need to move through this resistance to achieve sustainable change, it is important to recognize that resistance accounts for personal and organizational stability. Change requires that we hold resistance in our awareness and feel its persuasive power while persevering with an open mind and heart.                 -Tdukes

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Today is a good day to practice mindfulness. So many fears and doubts are arising, on our collective horizon, that it may be difficult to establish those feelings of hope and possibility that often carry us through difficult times. The practice of mindfulness is the basis for managing unwanted and non-productive thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Goldstein reminds us: “Mindfulness is a quality of noticing, of being aware of what’s happening in the moment, not allowing the mind to be forgetful. . . [there is no]. . . other factor which [is] as powerful as mindfulness for the cultivation of wholesome states of mind and the diminishing of unwholesome ones.  There is nothing special we have to do to eliminate unskillful states or make skillful ones happen, except to be aware of the moment.  Awareness itself is the purifying force.” (Goldstein, 1976, p. 141)

Today is a good day to pay attention to what is working in your life. Marvel at the successes you have achieved. Sort through the challenges and find your accomplishments. Look to your relationships, your friends and family, expand you view over your lifetime and allow the feeling of your successes to emerge into consciousness, right now.

Goldstein, Joseph. (1976).  The experience of insight:

A simple and direct guide to Buddhist meditation. Boulder, CO:  Shambhala.

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If we stop for a moment prior to just one communication we make today, we could ask ourselves; “what outcome am I after with this person?” With this simple consideration, we bring consciousness to our intention, and shift the locus of control from the external to the internal. As we proceed with the communication, and pay close attention to how the other person is receiving our words and behaviors, we adjust accordingly and shape the communication toward our intended conclusion. Bandler was perhaps the first to articulate this lesson from Milton Erikson, one of the most accomplished communicators of the last century: ”The meaning of your communication is the response that you get. If you can notice that you are not getting what you want, Change what you’re doing. But in order to notice that, you have to clearly distinguish between what you are getting from the outside, and how you are interpreting that material in a complex manner at the unconscious level, contributing to it by your own internal state.” (Bandler and Grinder, 1979, p.61)

Take a moment to reflect on all of your communications today. Notice your intention, but believe in the results you are getting. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, do anything differently. Be willing to adjust to achieve your goals.

Bandler, Richard and Grinder, John.  (1979). In John O. Stevens(Ed.).  Frogs into Princes:  Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  Moab, UT:  Real People Press.

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That which you are going to become is always present.

As you sit quietly. . . and rest into this moment. . . gain a sense of who you are. Who is sitting here? Note the feeling of the body. . . note the tensions. . . the breath. . . and relax.

Now gain a felt sense of who this is. . . sitting here. Release any mental concepts or images and allow a feeling/seeing sense of who this is. Allow a cloud made up of millions of pixels; pinpoints of emotion, image, sensation and feeling.

And ask, “Who is this that I am going to become?” Allow your self to emerge.

Spend time with this being. Become better acquainted now.

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Contemplative Collaboration is one of the tools I utilize when working with groups. This approach to facilitating the collaborative process involves a significant increase of the participant’s consciousness and includes the full range of human sensory awareness: Feelings, sensations, sounds, ideas, patterns – both positive and negative -emerge in a field of perception and are sustained for long periods of time. Holding open this field of awareness, reveals deep and often hidden potential that is cloaked in the comfort zone of normal group functioning.

How this context of receptivity is achieved, involves the cultivation of ancient methodologies for opening awareness to specific mental faculties of concentration, mindfulness, compassion and empathy. These qualities of individual attention inform the psycho-social context and maintains a climate of incubation allowing impulses and ideas to emerge. Not only does the individual hold and facilitate his or her own ideas and impulses – he or she is guided to remain open to the ideas and impulses of the other participants in an environmental consciousness.

Two reasons innovations fail:

1) “[There is} a failure to let ideas grow . . . Ideas are like plants - the seeds don't look much like the final flower, and need time and nurturing to blossom. If there's no incubator in an organization, there's no way for new seeds to develop, and therefore, not much innovation is going to happen.
2) [There is] an unwillingness to take risks. ”
(Perfetti, Christine. July 26, 2007. Debunking the Myths of Innovation: An Interview with Scott Berkun )

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