December | 2011 | The Direction of Intention

Truly Powerful People (285)

Posted on December 21, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

285.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

In your story, the-story-that-you-tell-yourself-about-yourself, your have an underlying force or impulse that drives you. I call this your Root Story. Alan Seale calls it your Soul Mission. Many traditions identify it as a Calling. You might understand it as your Role-in-Life. Have you given a name to what is yours to do?

Everyone has a Root Story, a Soul Mission. Everyone has a Calling, a Role to play in the health of their society and the greater world. It is common to be confused about what it is and even more common to know it but to fear it, hide it, or deny it. Sometimes we know it and want it to be something else.

When we embrace our Root Story, take off the reins and let it run, we step into our power. Actually, it is more appropriate to say that power steps into us. Power is available to us all the time but like a river we place dams on it and interrupt its flow. We tell ourselves that the dams are there for power generation but in truth the dams are not about power at all; they are mechanisms for control. The dams are the things we try to control but can’t – like other people’s perceptions The dams are the fear stories we whip up, “What will happen to me if I am seen, heard, or not understood?” The dams are there when you find yourself playing small so as not to draw too much attention.

This world needs less dams and more powerful people. Name your Root Story, own what is yours to do. And then enjoy blowing up all those dams!

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Truly Powerful People (284)

Posted on December 20, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

284.
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 look forward to my conversations with Joe. He thinks about interesting things. He wrestles with titanic questions. Today we were talking about how I intend to best serve people through this meditation on power and he asked me this question:

If truly powerful people are dedicated to inspiring true power in others, if empowered people empower others, what is power used for? Is it to create a better world, to create personal fulfillment, what is power for?

Earlier this weekend I had a conversation with Duncan. He is a composer and is wrestling with all the questions that come with being an artist in a consumer society. He asked a question not unlike Joe’s question: what is art for?

It is the holidays and I’m reconnecting with some people that I’ve not talked with since this time last year. We’re condensing a year’s worth of life into a phone call. We’re catching up. This has been a year with many deaths; death of a parent, a spouse, a friend. Twice in these conversations I’ve heard this phrase: “It makes me wonder what my life is about.” What is life for?

I have many different responses to these questions about power and art and life and my responses depend upon the circumstances and my intentions. There is not one answer. One of my lessons from Bali was that the way a question is asked reveals the consciousness of the asker: I saw things there that I will never be able to explain and repeatedly asked my guide, “What was that for?” or “Why?” He would always smile; a Balinese rarely asks “why” in the face of a mystery, they dance with the mystery because they know they are part of the mystery. Budi would say, “There is no why. There is no what for.” And then he would laugh.

The question, “What is if for?” reveals the belief of separation: power, art, and life are resources to be used, love is something you find instead of something you are.

Power, art, life, and love are for helping you realize that alone we are meaning seekers; together we are power, art, life and love.

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Truly Powerful People (283)

Posted on December 19, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

283.
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 seem to be having significant experiences in coffee houses these days. Today I was at the Uptown in West Seattle writing about Seeing and Focus Placement. Nearby sat a group of elderly woman having a serious yet laughter-filled conversation about their experiences of the divine. They were talking about what they worship and what they’ve learned about the focus of their worship (it was the word “focus” that caught my attention). One of the women said this phrase and I lurched for my pen to catch it word for word. She said, “The more you try to describe God the smaller you make God. I find it less and less important to even try. Why would I try to squeeze God into a box?”

I loved that question. Why would I squeeze God into a box?” I quickly did a Meister Eckhart Google search for a quote. I didn’t find the quote that I was looking for but this one serves the turn just as well: he said, “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

Your eyes are the eyes of the divine. So, the question is equally apt when I ask it this way: “Why would you squeeze your self into a box?” The more you try to label yourself, the smaller you will make yourself. You are infinitely complex. You are infinitely creative. You will only fit into a box that you create for yourself.

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Truly Powerful People (282)

Posted on December 18, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

282.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

This is my favorite revelation of the week. It comes from a friend who has for the past several years been doing big work on herself. Like all big shifts of perception it sounds so simple but is hard to embody. I’m beginning to understand that most revelations do not come with fireworks and a brass band; they are subtle. They are simple because they’ve been there all along and we just did not see them. They slip in with little fanfare, like removing your sunglasses.

This is how she said it: I’ve learned to be in the chaos without buying into the chaos. See, no fanfare. And, if you are truly underwhelmed, ask yourself when was the last time you resisted, defended, justified, needed to be right, fought for others to see what you see, needed approval, bought into the notion of perfection, or any of a thousand other ways you buy into the chaos. Are you anxious, afraid, motivated by what you fear or do not want, in survival mode, or certain that the universe is throwing obstacles in your way? Chaos, chaos, chaos.

Can you imagine what it might mean in your life to be able to stand solidly in the chaos without needing to control it, contain it, or deny it? Can you be present without needing to manipulate or force anything or anyone yet say without inhibition exactly what you need (it’s not the need that matters, it is how you fill it that defines you).

Reread the first part of her statement: I’ve learned to be. Her focus shifted. The earth did not shake, the clouds did not part, no ascension or angels or twenty-one gun salute. Her focus shifted, she realized choices are creative acts and instead of being caught in the whirlpool, it swirls around her.

What could you buy if you stopped investing in chaos?

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Truly Powerful People (281)

Posted on December 17, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

281.
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’m wiling away an hour in the Muse Coffee house. The place is mostly deserted so the barista and I are having a sporadic chat between customers. He looks tired and I told him so. He smiled a knowing smile and told me that he was a new father and there wasn’t much sleeping going on in his house. I closed my computer and he came from behind the counter and sat with me at my table.

I asked him what it felt like to be a dad and he said, “You know.” I told him that, actually I don’t know. I don’t have any children. I am a sometime uncle – I rarely see my nieces and nephews as they are spread out across the country. He sat back in his chair and stared at me for a moment and said, “I thought so many other things were important. Really important. And then I became a father and nothing else matters. Nothing. Not even sleep.” We laughed. His eyes beamed and filled with tears; this young man that I did not know until 20 minutes ago, a man I’d never seen prior to walking into Muse, allowed himself a vulnerability that he probably hasn’t allowed himself in years. He said, “Life is an amazing thing,” he said, wiping his eyes.

Yes. It is.

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Truly Powerful People (280)

Posted on December 16, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

280.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

The mantra goes like this: control your controllables and let the rest go.

It is deceptive. There is something in the phrase that often leads to a mistake: believing that “letting the rest go” is the same as “control the controllable.” It is a trap with the pull of gravity; all who pass this way find themselves muttering under their breath, “Yeah, but look at all the stuff I let go! How did I get here again?”

When you begin living in choice you begin the work of controlling the controllable and letting the rest go. Drawing a line between what you can control (what you see, what you think, what you feel, what you perceive) and what you can’t control (What other people see, think, feel, and perceive) is the first step. Letting go of what you can’t control is first part; it is the easy part and often that’s where people stop. They release what they can’t control but stop short of owning what they can control. The transformation happens when you create new thought patterns, when you offer your great gift because it is your offer, not because you might get something from the giving, not because it might or might not bring acceptance from others. The old habits and patterns will remain intact regardless of the illusion of control that you let go. If new patterns of thinking and seeing aren’t created, then the old enabling behaviors will reassert themselves.

Doing the work of controlling the controllable is when transformation occurs. It is when you really learn that you are creating yourself through your thoughts in this moment, and in this moment, and in this moment,….

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Truly Powerful People (279)

Posted on December 15, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

279.
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’ve not touched a canvas or a brush in 5 months. In fact, I’ve rarely been to my studio in the second half of 2011. I’m in the studio for the first time in over six weeks and it feels odd. I’m not here to paint. I’m here because I a have two meetings downtown and an open hour in between. So, in the open hour I came to my studio to stand, and look, and ponder. There have been times in the past when I saw my work and didn’t recognize it – someone else painted these paintings. Someone else was interested in this visual pursuit. I remember that guy and am no longer that guy.

As luck or fortune or serendipity would have it, my phone rang as I was standing here. It was a call from a friend that I have not seen or talked with in more than 20 years. In addition to catching up, feeling like it was only last week that we last talked (how nice!), we offered each other the crib notes version of the past 20 years, a bread crumb trail that led us to this moment in time; he , like me, is standing in his life saying, “I recognize the person I was and am not sure who I am now.” And, here’s the gift of age: at 30 that was a reason to panic; at 50 it is an opportunity to create. We laughed at the wealth of opportunities swirling around us – opportunities that we can sense but do not yet see.

So, the theme of the day is made clear: stand still. Review and revel. This is the burning point of life, the place where past meets future. The place where anything is possible.

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Truly Powerful People (278)

Posted on December 14, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

278.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Today I have been thinking about the word Separation – it was a thread of the conversation that wound its way through both coaching classes. Alan pointed out to the group that somewhere in the 18th century we western thinkers separated thought from impact on reality; in other words we stopped believing that our individual thoughts in the moment had any effect on the world outside of our noggins: thinking only has punch if the body is engaged. Essentially we found a way to cleave our Being from our Doing which is particularly absurd when you consider that most of what you do in a day is think thoughts, and the thoughts you think create the world you believe you inhabit. It is not a stretch to recognize that thinking IS creating. That we managed to embrace a philosophy of compartments (head is separate from heart) and reduction (what’s the bottom line?) leads me to believe that it is our just desserts that we wander the earth looking for meaning and wondering what is truly valuable.

Of course, the being/doing separation that intrigues me the most today is the separation of the present from health and/or fulfillment. Here’s how it works: convince yourself that if you just do x,y, or z someday you have health (or wealth or success or meaning,…fill in the blank). It is life lived as an outcome. Life lived someday, achieved out there in the future. If you just have more money, more time, more friends, more wine, more clothes, more technology, you will arrive and be complete (this is lack in disguise)

It is a miracle (I use that word consciously) what happens when you release the story of separation and, instead, tell a story of connectivity: health/wealth/happiness is something you create now; it is something you choose in this moment, and the next moment. It is your story. Your thoughts create your world. You are powerful. Your thinking is not neutral in impact nor is it passive. Separation is an illusion.

How would you live if you believed that your thoughts mattered? How would you live if you believed that your actions mattered and were an expression of your being (your doing reveals your being)?

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Truly Powerful People (277)

Posted on December 13, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

277.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Control is not power. Power is not control.

Power is misunderstood as control because most of our associations are with power-over-others. We are literally confusing Power with Control. As Peter Block writes, our businesses, schools and departments of government are structured on models control and compliance. He asks a relevant question: how can a people that so identified with democracy and freedom model all of their institutions on compliance and control? How can all of our leadership ideals be based in models of power-over? Beyond the rhetoric, cultures always betray their real values in the institutions they create.

True power is the release of control: it is focused action in service to the greater good.

As a friend recently said, “I’m afraid of becoming powerful because of what I might do to other people.” Her fears, our fears, have nothing to do with power. To hammer the point: power-over-others has nothing at all to do with Power and everything to do with Control. Her fears are not about what she will do to others; her fears are about what she will become if she ceases to control her power and unleashes her potential.

True power is ever present. It is amplified in relationship. It is not a possession or the dominion of a few. It is not something to be wielded like a sword by a single person. True power is a force that is intensified through a relationship of intention. A strong offer is power with a focus. True power cannot diminish or be exclusive; if anyone is diminished it is not power at work, it is control. If anyone is excluded it is not power at work, it is control.

Truly powerful people have no use of control over others because they are too engaged in the creation of power with other people.

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Truly Powerful People (276)

Posted on December 12, 2011 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Motivation is an impulse. It is a force. In story form it is the need that drives the quest. Intention is that force given a direction. Intention is the quest. Hamlet’s quest is to discern whether the ghost of his father is a spirit from heaven or a demon from hell. He cannot act until he knows. His impulse, the force that drives him is to restore balance to the world. In the play there are many words for the concept of balance: justice, clarity, right action, order. He is to be a king and his role, if he is to serve his people, is to provide order and justice. It is what drives him. The play Hamlet is a detective story: he must know from where the ghost comes. Why must he know? Right action, justice depends upon the answer. If the ghost is from hell it is trying to trick him to unjustly kill his uncle. If the ghost is his father’s spirit from heaven he needs to kill his uncle for revenge and justice.

In your story, the story that you tell yourself about yourself, have you given a name to the force that drives you? I call this your Root Story. Alan Seale calls it your Soul Mission. Many traditions identify it as a Calling. You might understand it as your Role. Have you given a name to what is yours to do?

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