Possibility | The Direction of Intention

The Way You Frame The Question

Posted on August 22, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

TODAY’S FEATURED REMINDER FOR HUMANS

There is a vast difference between the questions, “Why is this happening to me?” and, “What’s the opportunity in this?” Both questions are frames that we place on our experiences. Both questions determine the range of possibilities and choices we see in our lives. Why not place a frame that opens a vast range of possibilities instead of placing a frame that closes most of the doors?

FOR TODAY’S FEATURED REMINDER FOR HUMANS, GO HERE.

Filed under: Possibility, Prints for Humans, Seeing, Story, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: creating, intention, intentional, possibilities, possibility, questioner, questioning, seeker, seeking, the art of seeing | Leave a comment »

Be An Avid Catcher Of Your Thoughts

Posted on August 21, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

TODAY’S FEATURED IDEA FOR HUMANS

This notion is the heart of change. It is the practice of self-awareness. Listen to the story you tell yourself about your self. It is ripe with ideas, dreams, and yearnings. It is also ripe with fears, doubts, and comparisons. Capture the ideas. Listen to the dreams. Follow the yearnings. It’s a muscle. Develop a focus for the creative. Capture what’s useful and let the other jabber go.

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Filed under: Art, Awakening, Creativity, Edges, Education, Emergence, entrepreneur, Identity, Intuition, Language, Love, Metaphor, Pattern, Perspective, Possibility, Power, Prints for Humans, Seeing, Story, The Direction of Intention, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: change, dreams, focus, heart, ideas, Self Growth, self knowledge, self worth, yearning | 2 Comments »

Say More With Less

Posted on August 20, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

TODAY’S FEATURED THOUGHT FOR HUMANS

One of my favorite humans is Master Jim Marsh. He told me a story of a dilemma. Something in his world was bugging him. He complained about it a lot. One day he realized that complaining was not helping. He said, “I decided I had 3 choices: to stop complaining, to move, or to do something about it.” He stopped complaining and began acting to change on what was bugging him. Sometimes talking about something makes us feel like we’re doing something. It’s a deflection. Actions, as we are told, speak louder than words.

TO GET TODAY’S FEATURED THOUGHT FOR HUMANS, GO HERE.

Filed under: Art, Awakening, Creativity, Edges, Education, Emergence, Heroes, Perspective, Possibility, Power, Prints for Humans, Story, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: action, activate, activism, activist, change, change agents, creating, doing, evoke, inspire, intention, intentional | Leave a comment »

There Is Wisdom In Dancing

Posted on August 19, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

TODAY’S FEATURED THOUGHT FOR HUMANS

To restate an old notion: knowledge is not wisdom. And, often times, our reliance on knowledge blinds us to wisdom (for instance, passing a test has little or nothing to do with learning). My mentors taught me that the toughest thing in life to master is relationship. The reason: relationship is at the heart of everything we do whether we acknowledge it or not. Life IS a relationship. Education, business, art, spirituality, leadership, management, self love, economics, agriculture, kindness, gratitude… are all relationship skills. Wisdom is found in the fields beyond your thinking. Get onto the floor of life and dance.

TO GET TODAY’S FEATURED THOUGHT FOR HUMANS, GO HERE.

Filed under: Art, Awakening, Body, Business, Creativity, Education, Family, Gratitude, Identity, Intuition, Love, Metaphor, Perspective, Possibility, Power, Prints for Humans, Seeing, Story, Surprises, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: body, business, dance, dancing, education, Gratitude, heart, kindness, life, living, mindfulness, mindset, relationship, slow-dance, spirituality, tango, waltz | Leave a comment »

Walk The Line Where Sky Meets Earth

Posted on August 18, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

TODAY’S FEATURED THOUGHT FOR HUMANS

There is a concept that shows up in one form or another in all spiritual traditions: find the middle way. Finding the middle way is simply another way of saying ‘presence.’ Be present. Be where you are, not in the past, not in the future, here, in the middle place. Move out of the distant poles of right and wrong, us and them, red and blue, and walk in the actual, the present, instead of the conceptual. Deal with what’s in front of you instead of what you think is there. It’s a sound business practice, too. Guiding people to the middle way, to the line where sky meets earth, IS the artist’s job.

FOR TODAY’S FEATURED PRINT FOR HUMANS, GO HERE.

Filed under: Art, Awakening, Business, Creativity, Edges, Possibility, Power, Prints for Humans, Seeing, Story, Transcendence, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: artist, artistry, earth, guiding, middle way, past, poles, presence, present, sky | 5 Comments »

Thoughts Babble. Hearts Speak.

Posted on August 15, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

TODAY’S FEATURED THOUGHT FOR HUMANS

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is cut through the mental chatter, the fear stories and investments in obstacles to hear what your heart already knows: what is right for you…. Cutting through the racket is always a process of growing quiet enough to listen.

FOR TODAY’S FEATURED PRINT FOR HUMANS, GO HERE.

Filed under: Intuition, Love, Possibility, Prints for Humans, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: Guidance, heart, inner guidance, inner monologue, inner peace, intuition, meditation, quiet, stillness | Leave a comment »

Unroll The Generosity Perspective

Posted on August 15, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

I’m eavesdropping. Kerri and Pastor Tom are in the next room having a planning session. I just heard P-Tom say, “The generosity perspective fell down. Woody rolled it up and put it under the table.” I laughed out loud. They are talking about a banner but, taken out of context, it is a terrific and ominous phrase!

If you take a gander at the daily news, follow the political circus, count the people trampled in the crush to buy stuff the day after Thanksgiving, you would be hard-pressed to find a better phrase for our times. The generosity perspective fell down. And, to add icing on the metaphoric cake: Woody easily rolled it up. He put under a table.

This land is your land. This land is my land. This land was made for you and me.

I’m convinced that there is another side of the coin. There is no denying that meanness exists in our world. Humiliation is a game played everyday through social media and beyond. Yet, I still believe that there is a disconnection between the rhetoric and the lived experience. I see and experience terrific acts of generosity every day. Some are small acts, some are vast – unfathomable, some are spontaneous, some are planned but all are generous. In fact, when I really pay attention, I find that the incidences of generosity far outpace the acts of cruelty.

Cruelty makes for good gossip and good gossip is cruel. And so, meanness sells. It is good for advertisers so those are the stories we broadcast. Generosity, on the other hand, erases victim stories and so is rarely yummy-fun to talk about. Acts of generosity are less potent as a selling tool.

Cruelty is easy to see. Generosity requires an intentional focus.

This morning I bumbled into a TED talk by Patti Dobrowolski. I learned that the odds are 9-to-1 against making change even if the change needed is life saving. Her message is great: draw the story you want to tell. Literally, draw it. And then tell it. If we want a different story we have to imagine a different story. If we want a different story we need to tell a different story. If we want a different story we need to act a different story.

If Woody easily rolled up and stashed the generosity perspective under the table it should be equally as easy for Woody to reach under the table, unroll the generosity perspective and hang it for all to see.

Filed under: Awakening, Love, Metaphor, Perspective, Possibility, Seeing, Story, The Direction of Intention, Transcendence, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: change, drawing, focus, generosity, giving, kindness, Patti Dobrowolski, paying attention, perspective, story | 1 Comment »

Embrace The Bump

Posted on August 13, 2015 by davidrobinsoncreative

Art stores are dangerous places. We entered the store with a short list: vine charcoal and titanium white paint. We left with a suspiciously large bag – Kerri found the pen and pencil aisle and got “that look” in her eyes. I found her sitting amidst a vast circle of pen possibilities making marks on a pad of paper. “Ooooooooooo,” she cooed, feeling the latest pen for weight and suitability for her hand. “I looooooove this one,” she said to herself. Her pile of “I love this one” selections was formidable. Art stores are like opium dens.

20 (aka John) was with us. He regularly incites us to riot and misbehavior. He was little help extracting Kerri from her pen-nest. 20 impacts us like a snout-full of laughing gas. He has a way of making the darkest day bright. 20 is, in fact, a bringer of light; he has developed this capacity because, like all bringers of light, he knows well the other side. One day in early summer, we sat on the deck drinking coffee and made our belly buttons talk, giving voice to the things we think but cannot say in polite society. We laughed so hard that I had to run inside the house; I couldn’t breathe. Twenty’s belly button had a lot to say.

After escaping the art store, Kerri hefted her bag of supplies to the car while 20 and I waited on the corner. That’s when we saw the sign. It was something Sartre might have provided had he been a traffic engineer. It was existential. 20 and I jumped at the chance to make a selfie with the sign-philosophical. It simply read, BUMP.

As we snapped our selfies, laughing all the way, I couldn’t help but recognize that life – a good life – is riddled with bumps. In my consulting days I used to work with people to embrace the bumps rather than try to remove them. There is a pervasive notion that smooth sailing makes a good life. A bump-free life is a recipe for disaster. All of life’s lessons are found within the bumps. A life without bumps is a life without challenges is a life that is boring. And, in truth, people create bumps if they don’t already exist. They’re called a hobby or gossip or a complaint or drama. In story language, bumps (called ‘conflict’) drive the story; without bumps there is no movement. Yearning is a bump. So is desire. Unrequited love is a bump. Loss is a bump. Wondering what is beyond the horizon is a great bump.

20 is a great teacher of how to address bumps: Laugh. Make a selfie. Alter the word to something even more outrageously appropriate. Look for the next opportunity. Let your belly button talk.