I often meet people in my work who are waiting… just waiting for the right moment to make a change. I have come to call this (to myself, not to them) “living contingently”. Typically this state involves the mind-set “I will make a change when … the mortgage is paid, the kids have left home, I get a new boss, the new year comes”. In one in a hundred people this set of circumstances may miraculously occur… for the rest of us movement usually begins when we realise that we are waiting for a time and a set of circumstances that will never arrive…

Rather than being disheartening this insight is liberating. It comes with the realisation that we can begin to switch-on our lives whenever we choose… in a small way…

I’d like to say that this process is easy-peasy but actually it takes self-awareness, discipline and persistence (great fun though!!)

I’m into my poetry at the moment and the poem below describes one persons journey at the beginning of this realisation…the moment you start to be different, and the moment that people start to realise that you are “in-motion” (see precession below).

Enjoy and have a good day…

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.

(Mary Oliver)

Avoid | Increase

Considering the 5 Essentials, what is it that if you avoided would increase your energy, and what is it that if you increased would increase your energy? I’m talking about foods, drinks, people, situations, places, things, whatever. Anything, that in your mind, would raise your energy if you did it, or didn’t do it. You don’t have to do any of these just now. Simply take the time and real consideration to answer for yourself, and see what you say.

I cannot encourage you enough to actually take 5 minutes to do this! Take a blank sheet of paper, draw a straight line from top to bottom, head one side ‘avoid’ and the other side ‘increase’ and throw down what you know to be true for you.

Bring it ON

For the next three weeks (21days) make it a point to increase only one or two of your increase list and decrease one or two of your avoid list. This does not mean abolish these things on your avoid list nor only do the things on your increase list. Instead, simply pay attention to your one or two ‘avoids’ and ‘increases’. I predict that you will be pleasantly surprised at the difference that this will actually make for you – in real life.

Try it and let us know how you got on if you want.

Have a great life.

Lots of love

Matt

5 minutes on the 5 essentials for Human Energy…

Doing what you love and doing and what you’re good at…..

mmmmmmmmm, easy to say and difficult to do and the more I experience the more I see the operative word being DOING. It is in the doing that we come alive.

Thankfully Matt has been on to me for ages about this and the penny is just beginning to drop and for anybody who is interested Buckminster Fuller’s concept of “precession” sums up the importance of doing…of being in motion.

Below, is an edited summary of some material I found on dailyhappyliving.com (check it out) which gives a really accessible explanation of precession…….

YOU & PRECESSION

What can You & I do to use precession to our advantage?   Let us analyze the example of the Bee Gathering Honey.   Does the bee know it is helping the universe in its task of preserving plant life?  No!  Does the bee need to know that it is helping the universe in order to get its reward?  No!   All it has to do, is go after its desire or goal (to collect honey) and it will automatically be provided with its rewards!

Similarly I would like to  point out that we human beings are also `programmed for happiness’ by nature (or the universe or God)!   So all we have to do in order to get good precession is to go after our goals and dreams with a passion – knowing that when we pursue our purpose, we are actually helping the universe in our own unique way!

Just think about it.   If you are happy, you naturally spread this happiness: your spouse is happy, your children are happy, your family is happy, your office colleagues are happy to see you!  If you are depressed, you spread your depression to one and sundry!  A happy person does not get into fights or start wars!  So it is good to go after your own happiness.

Imagine what would happen if the bees were to go on strike and stopped gathering honey.   The pollination of flowers would not take place and plants would eventually die out!   (This idea was explored a little in the movie `Bee Story’.) However this won’t happen because the bees are `programmed’ by nature to go out and gather honey and don’t have a choice in the matter!

However we humans have been given the choice to follow our `program’ and be happy or go against nature and be miserable!  If we keep saying that this world is `illusion’ and try to avoid living life to the fullest now – hoping somehow that will qualify us to live a better after-life, then we are not unlike the bees that go on strike!  We are going against nature and God!    Thus if we persist in living a miserable life in this lifetime (which is against nature), we have no chance of being happier in the next life!

So my suggestion to you if you are an average person  is to go after your dreams with your whole heart and soul knowing that the universe is for you.   You will know if you are going in the right direction, by the precession you create.   If you have good precession, nature will pat you on your back by giving you `lucky circumstances’  and you will achieve success and happiness easily.

If on the other hand you are off track and you create bad precession, then the same universe may give you a `knock’ on the head rather than a pat on your shoulder to get back on course again!   Setbacks and lucky breaks are just nature’s way of giving you both`negative or positive feedback’ – so that you can steer in the correct direction!

…..get in motion……Andy

There is a lot to be said on the experience of applying your talents to your passions. Andy’s two pieces of advice – do what you love and do what you’re good at. It is so easy to say and so simple to do. Yet, often we don’t remind ourselves of these truths nor do anything about it.

If we think about it, conceptualisation can be a very enjoyable experience. “Keep looking up here and not down there”. Being a legend in your own mind and / or in the collective mind of collusive others is a sure fire way of thinking all is good when in actuality all is far from it.

People senior in organisations are easily seduced in to this ‘life above’. It is very comfortable. Holistically, senior leaders take their eye off the big picture and look to cost save rather than efficiency gain. They’ll naturally look to all else around themselves as to what can be manipulated rather than consider adjustment of their approach.

Middle leadership are waiting for steer from above whilst senior leadership make disjointed snap judgements based on personal gut feeling. Leaders emotionally remove themselves from their wider teams and instead go in small minded ‘fixing it themselves’ mode, aka – “I know what to do” rather than hold the breadth of the whole, enfold the right parts of the organisation together to become collectively more creative in solving the dilemmas of the day. This is usually because leaders think that if they solve all the problems they know, then everything will be sorted. It is based on an ego of ‘I can know everything’ and / or ‘I know how to solve it’. Both cases shrink thinking in to one person (or small team) and thus kill the creativity of the collective.

Times like now need people to come together to work on their company and / or industry wide problems. The solution is very much in the big picture. In a growing economy I’d suggest not paying attention to your business, instead pay attention to your industry!

Beyondnowhere limited have been working with international organisations who are financially number one or number two of their field in the world. Successes of our processes and catalysts have seen organisations and groups of organisatinos transform in their style of doing business and therefore in their levels of energy and reward. Cross industry organisations have had top teams learn and experience ways-of -working that tap in to their group intelligence.  They are able to codify their approach such that a practical route map holds the team in energetic and purposeful relationship.

When the purpose is energising and the ambition and strategy clear, teams experience a power unlike any other. Held correctly, we have seen thousands of people align and create results beyond expectations, including five times business growth and resourcing cultures with the latest sustainable business practices.

Over five consecutive years in one organisation and six in another, Beyondnowhere has catalysed transformations in divisions, organisations and cross organisations in a value chain.

For more, visit www.nowheregroup.com

Nadine Stair, 85 years old at the close of her life…

If I had my life to live over, I’d try

To make more mistakes next time. I would

Relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier

Than I have been on this trip. I know very

Few things I’d take seriously anymore.

I would take more chances, I would take more

Trips, I would scale more mountains,

I would swim more rivers, and I would

Watch more sunsets.

I would have more actual troubles

And fewer imaginary ones. You see…

I was one of those people who lived

Prophylactically and sensibility and sanely,

Hour after hour and day after day.

Oh, I have had my moments

And if I had to do it all over

Again, I’d try not to have anything

Else, just moments, one after another,

Instead of living so many

Years ahead of my day. I’ve been

One of those people who never went

Anywhere without a thermometer,

A hot water bottle, a gargle,

A raincoat and a parachute.

If I had to do it all over again

I’d travel lighter, much lighter,

Than I have.

I would start barefoot earlier

In the spring, and I’d stay that way

Later in the fall. And I would

Ride more merry-go-rounds, and

Catch more gold rings, and greet

More people, and pick more flowers,

And dance more often. If I had it

To do all over again.

But you see,

I don’t.

Whilst we are on the subject of on-ness, I was remembering one of my favourite poems – The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

On-ness for me is about the rhythm of life, the give and take, and how we respond to the ups and the downs. Take a look, it certainly touches me every time I read it…….Andy

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me 
is true.
I want to know if you can 
disappoint another 
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life 
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone 
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

There are 6.788 billion people living on the surface of the Earth.

Trillions of people have been and gone and potentially trillions more will come. What is unique is that we (including you) happen to be here right now. This in itself is quite something- the (actual) experience and phenomenon of being alive… and this happens year after year, day after day and moment after moment.

You know this applies to you because you are breathing. Breathing is all the proof you need to know that you exist. Feel free to check it for yourself right now!

This ‘being alive’ experience is the baseline phenomenon. With this, we invite you to explore a few fundamentals that you already have.

Use your own judgement on how you feel and be honest with yourself…

Physical (0 – 10): Your body, your clothes, your home, your possessions, your money, your people, your surroundings

Mind Set (0-10): Your thoughts, your views, your tendencies, your desires, your consciousness

Emotional (0-10): Your expression, your feelings, your ‘heart’

Social (0-10): Your friends, your family and all those who span from the most intimate to you to the most distant

Purposeful (0-10): Your awareness of what you are naturally passionate about and what you are naturally talented in.

One or more of the 5 elements above could be attracting your attention. Note which one(s) and quest in to your own answers.

You know what it is like to have an ‘off’ day! When things feel clumsy and frustrating.

Well an ‘on’ day is when things are clear, purposeful and run with a rhythm.

This is the experience and feeling of being switched on.