The Direction of Intention

Set A Thought Trap

Posted on August 5, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

514. 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 am a master of writing myself notes. I fill multiple notebooks every year. They are choked full of excited scribbles, enthusiastic lines and arrows, doodles and stars: all attempts to catch my thoughts before I lose them. Thoughts are slippery devils that jump into my path and then disappear while I look for a pencil.

I have a variety of strategies to capture them. I track them through the dense forest of my mind. Sometimes I set traps for them. I dig tiger pits. I have sexy decoys and have learned mating calls: an evasive thought like “the default story” will come out of hiding when I tempt it with the amorous cry of “the necessary action.” Easy prey!

Of course, there is a serious flaw in my thought-hunting prowess. Open any notebook in my stack, flip to a random page, point to any note and ask me what it means. I will stare at the excited scribble – often a terrific phrase, perhaps useful for a line of poetry, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was supposed to cue for me. What was the revelation, the connection, the greater ah-ha?

Even when captured those trickster thoughts leave a small alphabetic footprint, a cryptic mark and somehow the greater meaning slips away.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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

No Containment Necessary

Posted on August 4, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Several years ago I wrote these notes to myself. The operative word is “contain” and it is wrapping me on the head again:

It is a necessary movement, when you cease looking for answers in other people you will step into the present and begin living with the question. Let go of the idea that there is an answer! Life lived in pursuit of an outcome will set up a false expectation: try to contain life and you will kill it.

In the movement from answer-seeking to embracing the question, there are stages or levels:

1. The slowing down. When you stop seeking answers in other people, you begin finding your answers within yourself. You have to slow down to hear what’s inside.

2. Change the self-talk. Doubt the validity of the chatter; instead of confusing your self with the chatter, separate from it and develop the capacity to witness it. You are not the chatter. You are not at the mercy of the chatter. You can work with it. You begin to understand that your language has power; you have the capacity to change your language, change your self-talk, and thus, change your world. This is the warrior phase; you will necessarily be at war with yourself while you learn to separate yourself from the inner blather.

3.Recover seeing, sensing, feeling. Living in choice, you will have the opportunity to cease fighting within yourself. You will no longer need to turn off your feelings, disconnect from your impulses, or deny your self. No containment necessary.

4. Reorient and align with your nature. Enough said.

5. Stillness is possible. Action in stillness (action without story) is available. Be still. Be rid of containment. Act, not according to your limitations but according to your capacities.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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

The Crux Of The Matter

Posted on August 3, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

512. 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 my head today I am having the most interesting conversation. The crux of the matter is this: could I love myself, truly love myself, if I did nothing for the rest of my life? What if I sat on a park bench tomorrow, gave up all pursuits, let go of all ideas of service or gain, swore off all forms of productivity; could I still love myself?

I am the son of good puritan Iowa farm stock. More than once in my life I have heard people speak of my father as a good man because he was a hard worker. Both of my grandfather’s were blue collar, hard working business owners that “did well” in the world. One was a milkman; he owned a dairy in Monticello, Iowa. The other had a business fixing sewing machines. They belonged to service clubs and sometimes attended church; we don’t talk about those things when we talk about how good they were; we talk about what they did and how hard they worked. We talk about the virtue of their toil.

This is no flippant question. I work with too many people that hate themselves because they are not doing what they want to do or they think they need to do more to be valuable. I am hard on myself if I do not achieve everything on my list each day- as if I didn’t do enough to earn my love.

What if loving myself had no requirements; what if loving myself had no conditions? What if loving myself had no connection to my doing or not doing? What if I did not have to earn it? What if loving myself was the beginning point, the first assumption, the prerequisite,… the structure of the land so that all of my behavior and my actions, like water, followed this path of least resistance?

I do not think I would do less work. I am certain I would work differently. How can I possibly be fulfilled if my center point is anything other than love?

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

Filed under: Love, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: self-love | 10 Comments »

Follow The Sound

Posted on August 2, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Inside the Volunteer Park Conservatory in the room just beyond the orchids there is magical piece of art called the Over Lyre. It is the work of Portland, Oregon artist Dan Senn. Suspended just above your head, small wooden dowels and metal disks are suspended from lines of piano wire. A gentle vibration sent through the wires tilts the dowels tapping the disks; it is a chime that soothes and inspires inner quiet.

Lora, Megan and I watched as a young boy, maybe 5 years old came into the conservatory chamber. He was following the sound to discover its source. He was enrapt the moment he stepped into the chamber and saw for the first time the Over Lyre. His stillness (presence) was so…full, that we were enrapt by him. His quiet became our quiet. His parents entered a moment later and were literally stopped in their tracks by the power of his presence. His presence swept us into the present.

We were, all of us adults, moved to tears.

This capacity for awe, this is what makes us human. This desire to follow the sound to the source, to give ourselves over to it, to marvel and be-come the delight, this is the purest form of creating; it unifies us.

How long has it been since you followed the sound and gave yourself over to delight?

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

Filed under: Awakening, Seeing, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

What Do You See?

Posted on August 1, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

510. 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 number one reason for understanding the power and impact of the-story-you-tell-yourself-about-yourself-and-the-world is (drum roll, please): We see what we believe, not the other way around. And what we believe is a story. If you have ever wondered why there is so much shouting on the airwaves (masked as “news”) these days you might consider that your belief is the rope in an ideological tug of war: if the shouters can get you to believe it you will most certainly see it – and if you see it you will call it truth.

After we believe the story we tell, we commence a search of the world for the data (proof) that supports our belief. Tell the story of a scary world that is a dangerous place and you will see plenty of supporting evidence. Tell the story of never having enough and lack will be ever-present. Tell yourself that people are generous and kind and you will find them in every grocery store, office complex, and on every street corner.

In this sense, truth is relative. What is true for you is not necessarily true for others. Like you, others are scouring the world for proof that what they believe is true. Everyone is telling a story. Each story is beautiful, relevant, and unique to the teller and so they assume it is truth for all because it is truth for them. If it is normal for me it must be normal for you….

What binds us is not a single truth but our capacity to story ourselves.

The difficulty is not in multiple truths, multiple stories; the challenge arises when there is the expectation of one story – one truth. When I believe that your truth must match my truth, that my truth is the only way and yours is inferior, that I must convert you to my truth, then we are on an untenable path. With the expectation of one truth we step into the dark woods and get lost.

There are many ways – as many as there are people on the planet. There are many truths because there are many stories. If there is a single story it is that between birth and death we will make sense of our experiences and we will do that through a process of story creation in our active search for proof that supports what we believe.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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

Create It Now

Posted on July 31, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Clients often say to me, “I don’t know what I want?”

This question, “What do I want?” is hard for most people to answer. It is hard because we assume that the answer is an outcome, a thing (a noun). We assume it is achievable; somewhere down the road is a place called happiness and if only we knew what it looked like we might be able to get “there.”

What if we are making it harder than it really is? What if we have the wrong premise? What if the assumption beneath the question is actually a verb? What if what we want to create is a better life, a better relationship with ourselves, a quality process of living? Then the question is easily answered.

If what we want to create is a better life it is useful to recognize that life is not something we will “get” or achieve by tomorrow or the next day or the next. Life is not something we create later. Life is the process that is happening now while we are fretting over the thing we think is missing.

What if we are not separate from what we want? What if a full experience of life is actually the intention? There is no better time or place to begin a full experience of life than the present.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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

Story Yourself Strong

Posted on July 30, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

508. 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 was sitting in Muse waiting for Elizabeth and listening to the conversations all around me. Most were focused on what was wrong. Most were steeped in what was missing. It was a lack-fest.

Brendon Burchard teaches people in business that stories of struggle are more effective than stories of success because people will more readily identify with the struggle. Stories of success put people off. They don’t want to hear about your victories; they will buy your stuff if you identify with their pain. Doesn’t that speak volumes!

So try this experiment: Identify your strengths. Stop and consider what you do well. Focus on what you love to do? Make a list of what you love to do and what you believe are your gifts. Make a list of your strengths. Enjoy it. Brag to yourself. Relish it. Try it.

Then, ask this question: Is it possible to identify your strengths separate from your needs? Make another list of the things you think you need. Embellish this list; have fun with it just like you did in making your list of strengths.

Compare your list of needs with your list of strengths.

Now, throw away your list of needs. The odds are good that this list dominates most of your time and focus so toss it. You can dig it out of the trash later.

It is useful, creative and productive (not to mention generative) to focus on your gifts and build upon your strengths. If you want to create something new, your strengths will help you. Placing your focus on your needs will generally lead to lots of excuses.

Bring your strengths to the party. They are far more interesting than what you think you need.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

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

Where’s The Value?

Posted on July 29, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

507. 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 be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

Here are some thoughts about self-love from Ana-the-wise (with my comments in parenthesis):

Pure intention comes when you allow that you are the most important person, when you stop relying on others to find your value (your intentions split when beneath every action runs a river of need for others to give you your value; your intention splits and becomes, “to seek my value in others”).

Valuing what you do begins with valuing who you are. Valuing yourself is really a question of being, not a question of doing. Your value has nothing to do with your achievements – your achievements do not give you value (you assign your actions their worth so why not drop the illusion and begin with recognizing that you are unique in the universe before you ever do a thing).

You have within you all the elements you need to create for yourself what you desire. No one is going to recognize your value for you – value can’t come to you if you don’t first value yourself. Begin with this: value your opinion of yourself above all other opinions of you. Know one else knows you better than yourself so be the measure of yourself and let go any one elses idea of what and who you should be.

So, if you are seeking your “authentic” self a good first move might be to stop seeking it in others eyes.

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

Wave The Card

Posted on July 28, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Deep in my crow protection charm box, a potent set of crow talisman cards carefully nested in a Wintergreen Altoids tin, created and juiced-up with the magic of Lisa and Avery, is a card that reads, “Wave this card in case of surrender.” It has become my summer action mantra; its power extends beyond crow protection and serves as the north star of my sailing ship. I wave that card regularly, at least once a day. Recently I’ve waved it so often that like a soccer referee I only need to pull it from my pocket and hold it aloft for the universe to see. Red card; I surrender. What is the next best business step: I surrender. What shall I do with my life now: I surrender. What shall we do for dinner: I surrender.

As Alan reminds me (and I often report), there are two different understandings of the word “surrender.” In the west it means to give up. In the east it means to give over. My card definitely refers to the eastern variety. As I stand on my balcony waving my card I am not signaling defeat, rather I am letting go of resistance. I certainly know how to swim upstream. I am well versed in pushing back. I am a master of struggle. The currents are strong and pulling me in an unknown direction; I surrender. I have been paddling against the current for quite a while and although I might have acquired Popeye arms and a clear determination, my canoe remains stationary. What might happen if I allowed the current to carry me? Where might I go if I used my paddle to steer instead of to resist? I surrender; let’s find out.

Since I began waving my surrender card the crows have stopped their assault. I have stopped my assault, too. At lunch Andrew and I talked of walking into discomfort, stepping into the unknown. This is to allow follow the current. We talked of surrendering the need to know. Act and see what happens. The message is clear: there is a vast difference between working with potential and trying to force something into being: the operative phrase, the statement of nature is “to work with.”

Filed under: Awakening, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: surrender | 2 Comments »

Mind Your Metaphors

Posted on July 27, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Alan and I just facilitated a forum on transformational leadership coaching. We worked with the importance of language and metaphor and I was reminded why I believe all change begins with a change in language. To change your language is to change your story. To change your story is to change what you see and experience – it is to change your world.

Language is metaphoric. Language is always referential to experience; language is not the experience, it is the interpretation of the experience. How you story your experience – the language that you use to define yourself – gives meaning to your world. Language is much more powerful than we understand!

You create your world through the story you tell. Your metaphors reveal the story you tell.

Ask yourself what is the difference between “problem solving” and “working with potential?” Are you “fixing” yourself or “creating” the life you desire? Are you “blocked” or “empty” or “jazzed” or “on fire?” Are you “enough” or “authentic” or “present?” Have you “arrived?” Is your life “broken into compartments” or is there “flow?” Have you “fulfilled your potential,” “given away the farm,” or are you “seeking clarity?”

Are you still in doubt about who defines you? Who tells your story if not you?

Filed under: Language, Metaphor, Story, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »