September 4, 2016
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #3
From the Greenbelt of Boise, Idaho, Labor Day Weekend
If you don’t know your way, can’t find your way, or have lost your way, you are not sure or do not know how to get where you want to go.
– Cambridge Dictionary
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
– Lao Tzu
When nothing goes right, go left.
– Anonymous
Sitting here in the middle of a three day, Labor Day weekend, I’m reflecting on the meaning of the holiday. It is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers: the majority of us who are paid for an expenditure of our physical and/or mental effort to provide goods and services of value.
In the midst of a contentious election season, buffeted about by tweets, my perception is one of frothy sound bites from the underlying collision of waves. It strikes me that we have lost our way, and are not sure or do not know how to get where we want to go. We’re becoming exhausted with our current expenditure of effort that is not returning sufficient value socially and economically.
Real issues are confronting us, and we’re reacting to them to defend and protect ourselves. In this reaction, we’re contracting, and being offered choices of returning to past memories of perceived greatness, or staying the course to keep going. When we’re not sure or do not know how to get somewhere, we can become fearful, and quickly react with a conditioned response of fight, flight, freeze, or appease. If we’re on a path of increasing escalation, how do we change directions? If nothing seems to go right, how do we go left?
How do we Find Our Way, amidst everything going on around us? I offer that it doesn’t come from looking outside of ourselves for the answers. When nothing “goes right”, and I want to end up somewhere better, I benefit most by changing directions to look inside of myself. Here are some questions that I’ve found help me:
Making commitments gives us direction that enables action and provides a point for evaluating if we are there yet. As you develop your commitments, be clear about what fulfilling these commitments means to you. Building meaning connected to our commitments creates motivation and the energy to persevere in the face of challenges. Commitments with strong meaning provide a frame of reference, ground to stand on, and a clear intention with which to face and engage effectively when we feel challenged.
To Find Our Way, we look inside ourselves and make commitments to ourselves and those around us. My commitment as a Leadership Coach is:
“to develop myself and those around me as Clear Confident Leaders, to create a better future today,
for the sake of those who follow us.”
What are you committing to do, and why?
Let’s create a better future today!
Clear Confident Leader Weekly Observer, Issue #3
From the Greenbelt of Boise, Idaho, Labor Day Weekend
If you don’t know your way, can’t find your way, or have lost your way, you are not sure or do not know how to get where you want to go.
– Cambridge Dictionary
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
– Lao Tzu
When nothing goes right, go left.
– Anonymous
Sitting here in the middle of a three day, Labor Day weekend, I’m reflecting on the meaning of the holiday. It is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers: the majority of us who are paid for an expenditure of our physical and/or mental effort to provide goods and services of value.
In the midst of a contentious election season, buffeted about by tweets, my perception is one of frothy sound bites from the underlying collision of waves. It strikes me that we have lost our way, and are not sure or do not know how to get where we want to go. We’re becoming exhausted with our current expenditure of effort that is not returning sufficient value socially and economically.
Real issues are confronting us, and we’re reacting to them to defend and protect ourselves. In this reaction, we’re contracting, and being offered choices of returning to past memories of perceived greatness, or staying the course to keep going. When we’re not sure or do not know how to get somewhere, we can become fearful, and quickly react with a conditioned response of fight, flight, freeze, or appease. If we’re on a path of increasing escalation, how do we change directions? If nothing seems to go right, how do we go left?
How do we Find Our Way, amidst everything going on around us? I offer that it doesn’t come from looking outside of ourselves for the answers. When nothing “goes right”, and I want to end up somewhere better, I benefit most by changing directions to look inside of myself. Here are some questions that I’ve found help me:
- What is my current state?
- How might I ground and center myself?
- What do I care about?
- Where do I want to go?
- What do I plan to do or achieve?
- How do I want to show up and engage with other people?
- What skills and abilities will help me the most now?
- What am I willing to commit to creating for myself, and those around me?
Making commitments gives us direction that enables action and provides a point for evaluating if we are there yet. As you develop your commitments, be clear about what fulfilling these commitments means to you. Building meaning connected to our commitments creates motivation and the energy to persevere in the face of challenges. Commitments with strong meaning provide a frame of reference, ground to stand on, and a clear intention with which to face and engage effectively when we feel challenged.
To Find Our Way, we look inside ourselves and make commitments to ourselves and those around us. My commitment as a Leadership Coach is:
“to develop myself and those around me as Clear Confident Leaders, to create a better future today,
for the sake of those who follow us.”
What are you committing to do, and why?
Let’s create a better future today!