November | 2011 | The Direction of Intention

Truly Powerful People (254)

Posted on November 20, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

254.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Power-with-others is quiet; it doesn’t need a trumpet or a drum. It needs no show. Power-with-others is like a mountain meadow during the first snow of the year. It is to stand still with the autumn sun on your face, eyes closed, and breathing deep.

Power-over-others is loud; it needs to dance and prance and make sure everyone knows it is there. It likes to roar and kick things. It is the alpha male beating its chest. Everything is a challenge. Everything is a reason to roar.

Both require agreements with others. The agreement central to power-with-others is conscious, intentional and generative. The agreement central to power-over-others is conscious, intentional and destructive.

What are your agreements?

Filed under: Power, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Truly Powerful People (253)

Posted on November 19, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

253.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Two old guys wearing suit coats and ties went to a coffee house to meet with a web designer (doesn’t this sound like the beginning of a joke!). The designer was a few years shy of 30 years old and he showed up to the meeting in his uniform: sweat pants and a hoodie. Two different eras and ideas of business collide! A microcosm of the old world meeting the new plays to the sound of steam, lattes and the smell of espresso. They stood gaping at each other wondering whether they should sit and talk or run for the exit.

They sit. The young web designer was studied in his ease, feigning confidence as he slumped to mask his what-the-hell-am-I doing-here panic. His grey haired clients looked knowingly at each other out of the corners of their eyes, silently carrying on a conversation they started before they walked in the door; “I told you so,” one look betrayed. “We’re wasting our time,” the other silently responded. They were out of their comfort zone, out of their culture, and wondering what happened to the time when an elder guided the youth through the complexities of the world, not the other way around.

And then, a beautiful thing happened, something that always happens when people look beyond their judgments and expectations and say what they really feel. The young designer sat up and through some divine inspiration said, “You have to help me know how to help you?”

The old guys, eyes popping, stuttered and said, “We don’t even know where to begin.”

“Thank goodness. Then we’re in the same boat with each other!” the young designer smiled. “How about if I ask you a few questions. Maybe you could teach me a bit about business and especially about your business. Let’s see if we can identify why you might need a website?” The old guys relaxed and replied, “The world passed us by and we’ve been a little intimidated.”

Common ground is a beautiful thing and so easy to establish when approached with open hands. Despite what we like to think,no one is powerful alone.

Filed under: Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

Truly Powerful People (252)

Posted on November 18, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

252.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

It was a lazy autumn afternoon and we sat in a coffee shop for a few hours talking about art and life and travel. Our conversation was like a winding path that slowly went deeper and deeper into more personal and meaning-full territory. He asked a question, more to himself than to me, “If I value my family, why is it that I can never let myself just be with them? Why is it never enough to just be?”

A great question!

He was quiet for a moment as the question hung in the air between us, then he continued, “Why the judgment? Why the need to achieve all the time? I can never just be – and this need to achieve things every moment of every day is driven by this voice on judgment! There is no resting in the moment. Why can’t I feel contentment?”

His questions are ubiquitous; I hear people asking the same questions everywhere. Why can’t we feel contentment? Why the judgment?

Here are some questions to ask about these ever-present questions: What are you actually achieving? What are you actually judging? Do you know what you are trying to achieve or is it some abstract idea that is impossible to attain? What do you gain by giving away your life and relationships to something that is impossible to grasp, like sand running through your hands? What does doing enough look like? What does being enough feel like? Who in your life is the keeper of “enough?” Whose voice is in your head judging you? Why do you listen? Do you need to listen to the judgment?

As Viktor Frankel wrote, “Happiness ensues.” Contentment, like happiness is not something you attain, it follows. It is in the meaning your give to your day and your life not in what you achieve. Your life is like sand and it runs through your hands each and every day. What would it take for you to decide to be present and content in it?

Filed under: Perspective, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

Truly Powerful People (251)

Posted on November 17, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

251.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Each week in class we do a review of peer calls – coaches coaching each other – and we talk about what they learned from each other. One of the coaches was unable to connect with her peer but came to class very excited to tell us of her experiences in life during the past week. She said, “I think I’m more conscious!” Her excitement was palpable.

What do you mean by that,” I asked.

“I’m connecting with people in a different way.”

“How do you know? What feels different?”

She paused for a moment and offered, “I am less guarded – no, I am not guarded at all. I don’t feel the need to protect myself all of the time. I am much more available. And, here’s the thing, I am listening to people at a much deeper level. What people say is not always what they are saying.” And then she added, “It feels like life is an invitation.”

Extend an invitation to the world, and the world will extend an invitation to you. It is how things work. It’s the same notion as empowered people empower others simply because they step into the world as truly powerful.

I’ve suspected all along that life is really as simple as a Beatles lyric: The love you take is equal to the love you make.

Filed under: Awakening, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Truly Powerful People (250)

Posted on November 16, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

250.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I had a huge revelation last week helped along by two experiences.

On a walk around the park, Megan and I bumped into Amy who had a new iphone. Amy was delighted and a bit mystified by her phone. She showed us how she could ask the phone (Siri) any question and the phone responded: Siri, a lovely female voice, gave her the answer. “So what,” you might say, “Everyone will have one soon, it’s the newest, latest, best-est, craze.” Yes. This technology is incredible and already ubiquitous; and it is not going away. In fact this technology, like all technologies is doing more than impacting us, this technology is changing us. What is it to have a device in your pocket that can answer most questions that pop into your noggin the very moment the question pops in?

Megan is in college, all of her classes are on-line, her connection to peers and teachers is virtual, she does research through Google, the entire experience is about access through technology UNTIL it is time to test what students have learned. The test is about the knowledge retained or contained in the noggin of the student even though the student, up to the moment of the test, has never needed to contain/retain or be the source of information anytime during the process.

The concept of “student” has for centuries been defined as a receiver (container) of information; we know how much knowledge has successfully made it into the container by testing the memory of the student. Memory has high value in the student-as-container paradigm. The role of “teacher” has for centuries been to pour the information into the student’s head. Teacher as source made sense until recently.

These roles and definitions have bugged me for a long time; I knew it was old world thinking but couldn’t put my finger on why or what the new world notion is or could be. Megan and Amy helped me see it. We live in the age of interconnectivity. The internet is greatest connector ever invented. The web is the greatest source of information in the history of humanity and anyone can plug into it. In fact, to work and live in the modern era you NEED to plug into it. Knowing how to access information and determine if it is relevant, substantial and useful is now the most necessary skill to master. Student’s can’t be passive receivers and no longer need to be containers. Mostly, they don’t require a teacher to pour information into their heads; they need a teacher who can guide their pursuit and help them learn to discern substance from blather. The teacher can no longer be the source (they can be a source). Student-as-container is the old paradigm; student as the “pursuer” of information is here to stay. The way we educate needs to catch up to the realities of life in this century.

As an educator said to me last year, “The kids are going around us. We’re standing in the way.”

Filed under: Education, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

Truly Powerful People (249)

Posted on November 15, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

249.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Power is like the sack in this Sufi Story:

Mula came upon a frowning man trudging along the road to town. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, “All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack.”

“Too bad,” said Mula, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’s hands and ran down the road with it.

Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking. Meanwhile, Mula quickly ran around the bend and placed the man’s sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.

When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, “My sack! I thought I’d lost you!”

Watching through the bushes, Mula chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to make someone happy!”

Power-with-others is not something you acquire. It is something you have and do not appreciate. People rarely see their own power when they have it but are very aware of it when it is missing. They find their great gift when they stop trying to be clever, when they stop trying to have power over others. Power-with is natural; we only have to work hard to lose it.

Filed under: Power, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Truly Powerful People (248)

Posted on November 14, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

248.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

As I clean out my files I am discovering notes and stories that I have no memory of writing or receiving. Here is a piece that I found tucked in the dark corners of a file marked Perspective. Someone must have sent it to me a few years ago because they knew I’d pass it along someday! Today is that day:

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to
the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people
live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered:

“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they
have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at
night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that
go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends
to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

Filed under: Perspective, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

Truly Powerful People (247)

Posted on November 13, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

247.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Among his many clients, Mitch Hammer consults with the military. A few years ago he was talking about The Ground Truth and I asked him about the phrase. The Ground Truth is term used by soldiers to describe what is actually happening on the ground (of course) despite what the politicians and generals think or decide should be happening. It is the actual experience as measured against the ideal or the abstraction.

The creation of power begins when you take a look at the ground truth. What is actually happening versus what you think should be happening? Can you let go the ideal long enough to locate yourself in your ground truth? What do you see when you drop the list of should-do and should-be and simply see what is?

The ground truth is often obscured behind a wall of judgments and expectations, manipulations and enabling. The ground truth lives beyond belief and faith. Can you allow yourself to suspend the judgments, set down the expectations, let go of the resistances and simply describe What is?

Filed under: Power, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Truly Powerful People (246)

Posted on November 12, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

246.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

There are two quotes that populate my old website. I love them both and together they are the bookends of what I value. Tonight I recognize that they are the acorns for this meditation on power.

The first is from Reynolds Price: “The need to tell stories is essential to us, second in necessity to nourishment and before love and shelter.” Reynolds Price was precise in his choice of language and it was not an accident that he chose the word “essential” in reference to our need for story. Story is how we make meaning of our lives; we story ourselves every minute of the day. Without the story we would wither and die just as surely as if we were deprived of water. The story that you tell yourself can be generative or toxic; it can support your growth or stunt your potential. Either way it is a story that you tell.

The second quote is from Glade Byron Addams: “Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night.” Today, I spent the day in a high school and many of the kids (and teachers) have let the bus leave without them. They’ve forgotten that there was a bus to catch. I thought about this quote a lot today and wished I had the Promethean spark to rekindle their heart fire. I wanted to shout, “The bus is here and it is leaving, run now! You can catch it if you run now, bang on the door and force it to stop for you!” I wondered if they know that their passions are worth chasing.

I wondered if they know that there are passionate people in the world like Lisa, Jill and Megan that believe in them and are willingly throwing themselves in front of the bus because they think passions are worth chasing. They are amazing and carry with them that sacred spark, reigniting hearts and reminding students and teachers alike that someone cares about their passions more than their performance scores.

They know and live boldly the essential power of story. Those voices you hear as you chase that last bus of the night are these three incredible people cheering for you to run like the wind and catch your hearts desire.

Filed under: Heroes, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Truly Powerful People (245)

Posted on November 11, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

245.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

It is 1978 and I am miserable in high school. I have learned to jump through the hoops to get my requisite “A” yet the closer I get to graduation the more untenable the hoop jumping becomes. I do not yet know there is another way and although I am at the top of my class I am considering dropping out. And then I sign up for a class in comparative religions taught by a most unusual man. His name is Robert Place and unlike most of my teachers he seems to love his job. Everyday he enters the room whistling and I am always surprised by what we do. Actually, to be clear, I am surprised because we do more than listen to him and take notes; we explore, we question, we challenge, we reach, and are encouraged to think for ourselves. I work harder in his class than I have ever worked in a class because I am more than a mere receiver of information; I am engaged with questions that matter to me and for the first time in my path through education I believe that what I have to say matters. In fact, in Bob Place’s class, what I have to say seems to be just as important as anything he has to say. What we say together is never an end result – an answer – it always leads to a new question and a necessary action. It leads to a powerful engagement. My classmates and I are bonded in our pursuit; we become powerful together.

I am thrilled and I suddenly understand what learning is all about: it is the quality of the pursuit, not the rightness of the answer. I tell him of my insight and he winks and says, “It’s a funny thing, that is also what life is about.”

Filed under: Education, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »