Always Ready.. Never Surprised…

Like many things in my life, this story originates with a conversation with my wife. She was telling me about a blog posting she just read by Sharon Astyk. If you don’t know her work, check it out at this link. She is a clear writer, that’s for sure. What I appreciate about Sharon’s writing is how authentically she tells the story of her life and the impact of all of our choices on our lives.

The posting my wife was talking about is titled, Always with the Prep. I’ll let you read it to get the full story she’s telling. In essence, the message is that we can prepare for radical shifts in our world. We can do this by going to the essence of what’s involved in sustaining our life. We need water, food, shelter and clothes. That’s what we need. Everything else is not required, however, everything else is where most of our creative attention goes.

Most of us, and I put myself in this category, spend little, if any, time or attention on making sure we have the basics of life if something disrupts the way things generally work. We go to the grocery store and expect that all our food needs will be met. What happens if the power is off in your community for a month? Not so far-flung, when you consider that a million folks are still without power today from an unpredicted storm that went through the northeastern U.S. last week.

Power is needed for refrigeration, lighting and from the perspective of the grocery store owner, to collect your money. When the power is out the grocery stores are closed. What do you do about food for a month? It doesn’t stop there. We also need electricity to power the gas pumps at the local filling station, so no groceries and no gas for a month.

If you are living in an area where heat can be in the triple digits (more and more of the U.S. qualifies), how do you cool your home when it was built for air conditioning as the only way to stay cool in the summer? You can open your small windows but that will only make a dent in what you need.

I haven’t gotten to the good part yet. Then there is water. Water needs electricity too. The pumps to put the water in those towers we see around the town need electricity and the backup generators will only last a short period without more gasoline. Right.. no electricity, no gasoline.. no water….

You get the picture. We are being offered a less than gentle nudge toward preparedness. Sharon makes a good point in her piece. If there was a hurricane coming, you would stock up. Hurricane tracks are becoming more predictable. Things like thunderstorms and earthquakes and tsunamis are not. They happen when they happen.

We could say there’s nothing we can do about these types of “natural disasters” . Yes, I can’t control them. I can, however, be prepared for them. We don’t seem to want to put attention on preparing ourselves for an uncertain future. Let’s face it, the future is uncertain and we can ignore this fact or take action.

The Mormon church is very aware of the possibility of an uncertain future. They strongly encourage their members to have a year’s supply of food and water. Take a look at this excellent writing on questions of Mormonism for more details. What stops me or you from this level of preparation? Many reasons, but at the heart of it is that we are focused on protecting the present form of our life, and live in deep hope that nothing will mess that up.

I encourage you to take a new look at your life. If you are a business owner, you know that nothing is constant. How are you prepared to take care of the basic of life for your business if a major disruption happens. I know, first hand, the impact of not doing this. I consulted for a major company, who represented almost all of my client billings. One day in September of 2008, they called and said, “We won’t be needing you after this month.” Whoops. I knew better and allowed myself to be lulled into the ease of the situation, and totally forgot the truth of how life works.

If you are concerned with the care of a family or elderly parents, how can you prepare, in a reasonable way for the uncertainty of the future? It will require that you put some attention and resources on this. Some of the money you are making is set aside for this purpose.

We live in a society of gratification now. That’s ok, as long as everything remains the same. SInce that’s not going to happen, I MUST focus on preparation, or be willing to accept the consequences of my choices. Which, quite simply, are that I will be putting my business and all that I care about at risk.

Something to consider on this hot, summer’s day.

What was I thinking?

Do you know what your job description is? I don’t mean the few paragraphs someone in the HR department put together to give you an outline of your job responsibilities. I’m thinking about the job description for your life. What is it that you are here for? Big question that often baffles us and whose answer evades many.

A while back, as I have written about here, I realized that I had the directive, “love yourself”, in my job description. I mean, who wouldn’t want that? For starters, it’s a lot easier to talk about than experience. Sure, I want to feel love. Most of my ideas about love are that it comes from someone else. Early on, it was from my parents and grandparents. Then, god crept into the picture. Although that was a bit confusing, since I was told “to love and serve god” and that he loved me, I did as I was told. I could really feel that love at the time.

As I moved into adolescence, love got to be more about relationships with women with sex thrown into the mix. Then there was marriage and children and the circle started over again, or so I thought.

What I didn’t understand was that love starts with me. If I don’t love myself (meaning that there is nothing about me that I don’t accept), I can’t fully love anyone else. So much good and bad literature and media brings us glimpses “into love”. These perspectives are primarily emotional and conditional. If I do what you want, or I don’t hurt you or something like that, then you love me. God bless grandmothers, who don’t have such conditions.

Anyway, I didn’t understand the absolute requirement to love myself, so I didn’t. I looked in all the wrong places for love and it eluded me. All the while, loving myself was part of my life’s job description. Can you imagine my frustration?

That’s not the worst of it. There’s a second part of my job description. I’m to live in integrity. If I thought I had a clue about that, I was sadly mistaken. I didn’t know anything. I have recognized that integrity requires loving myself, so at least my job descriptions are complementary. I had no idea what a challenge this can be. If it was about being truthful, as we commonly think of it, that would be challenging enough. I find that it’s far more than that. It’s about being aware of everything I do. It requires that every action, word, feeling and thought are in harmony. If you have ever felt confused, you know the challenge of having the internal orchestra work together.

It doesn’t stop there. Not only does my job description include loving myself and living in integrity, it calls for me to teach others love and integrity. At times, this feels too much. I know when I fall down and don’t live up to what I know integrity is. There are plenty of moments when I don’t love myself. So how can I possibly teach others?

The good news is that I can do it because it’s easier to see love and integrity in others than myself. The gift of this job description is that I have the privilege of learning from my wife and children and all those I work with. As I teach about love and integrity I can see where they struggle and find my struggles. I offer them love and see it reflected from my remembering.

In the end rather than wonder, “What was I thinking, when I took on this life’s job description”, I find wonder and gratitude for having the perfect job. Good to remember, at moments when all I can see I believe to be my defects.

So what about you? What is your job description? Not sure? Send me an email (find it in the “about” section of this blog) and I will send you a tool that might help.

On Writing Well or How to Do What you Love and get Paid for It.

I am a fan of Sharon Astyk’s blog. She offers a wide variety of wisdom on important global issues. Perhaps more important, she is a subsistence farmer, who offers wit and advice on how to live in a simple, more self-sufficient life. She is also an accomplished author of three books, “Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front” (Sharon Astyk), “A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil” (Sharon Astyk, Aaron Newton) and “Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation” (Sharon Astyk).

One of Sharon’s recent blog postings moved me. As you can tell, she is a serious writer. In the posting titled, The Writing Life, Sharon offers one of the most thoughtful, helpful and inspirational pieces about doing what you.

I work with many folks who are trying to bring together their passions and purpose with work. They often complain that you can’t really do what they love and have a good livelihood. That’s not my experience and Sharon’s piece pokes a big hole in that belief.

Sharon’s personal story is about doing what she loves because it’s the right thing for her to do. She didn’t start out writing so that she would make a lot of money or to have lots of readers. She says that when she started blogging (she recently celebrated her 1000^th blog posting), she didn’t know if there would be more than four people reading her blog.

Some will read Sharon’s piece and say she was lucky. I don’t believe in luck. I believe that Sharon is listening to that inner muse we all have. Some call it intuition will others may refer to it as sixth sense. This inner guidance is ignored by most of us because we have been taught that the only real source of direction is our logic of the opinion of others who know more than we do. I guess Sharon missed that lesson.

So whether you are a writer or someone who is wandering around with the question “how do I do what I love?”, this article will serve you well.

Until later,

Thomas

New Years Resolution

On this New Year’s Day for 2009, many of us participate in the practice of New Year’s resolutions. We look at areas of our lives that we want to improve – perhaps it’s our health, or our financial situation or primary relationship. Whatever the area(s) we feel need improvement are, we feel that the new year is a blank slate where we can write a new chapter for our lives.

Not unlike many of us, I am also drawn to this practice. As I was talking with my wife about the year ahead for us, I remember the years past where resolutions were so heartfully made, and then dropped by the wayside within weeks or days of January 1st.

So why does all this good intention go unrealized? I believe there are two primary reasons. The fist is that we don’t really understand change. Changing the way that life works out for us requires us to change our behaviors. Most of our behaviors are developed over time and become unconscious habits that are activated automatically.

To change our behaviors requires that we engage a practice that is focused on the change we desire. The first step in the practice is to recognize that the behaviors that create the situation I want to change exist. Through this recognition, I can watch the behaviors as they start and then begin the process of changing them. The second step in the process for change comes through a new choice on how to engage the situations that I encounter.

For instance, if I am trying to lose weight, I must first recognize the habits I have for putting food into my mouth. Maybe I hear a little voice that says, “Oh that will really taste nice, let’s give it a try.” when I spy a tasty pastry at the local coffee shop. Before I know it, the pastry is in my mouth and mostly consumed. By recognizing that there is this little “voice” that goes off when I see that pastry, I can move from an automatic response to deciding in this moment whether that pastry is really something I want to eat.

As I think about the changes I choose to make for 2009, I ask myself “what new practices will I begin to support these changes?”. So that it’s not only an intention, like saving enough money to pay off my credit cards, it’s also a series of practices that will help me recognize my current spending behavior, and support me in changing that behavior so that I can really accomplish my intention.

The second reason that our New Year’s resolutions go unrealized is that we can quickly become consumed with despair if we don’t see the results that we want right away. If my resolution is to find a new job and I don’t find that new job by the end of January, I haven’t really experienced what I’d like in finding that new job, and I will abandon my pursuit. I have the internal dialogue that says, “Well, it’s just too late to do anything about that now”. Then another eleven months go by without the change I want.

I was recently talking with Catherin Austin Fitts for the December 12th edition of our Business Matters radio program. She is a woman of much wisdom, and so many things in that conversation were very inspirational to me. One of the points she made is relevant to today’s topic. She pointed out that it’s never too late to start making changes in your life. Maybe we’re in financial situations where we are underwater with the value of our home compared to our mortgage amount. Perhaps, we are in a job we don’t like, but are afraid to make a change because of the “bad economy”. Maybe we are just so far overweight that we feel nothing can make a difference.

Whatever the inner dialogue about your situation, you can do something today, right now, that will be the first step to change. Don’t feel that you have to jump the Grand Canyon. Just take one step today. Then tomorrow take another step. If you forget, then the following day, take a new step. With each new step you will find the will to make real change in your life.

Blessings to each of you,

Thomas

Technorati Tags: authenticity, change management, Deliberateness, dotherightthing, Knowing, leadership, Practices, Priorities, Purpose, success, Trust, Truth, Wisdom

Who am I?

Such a simple question and yet the answer is often unclear, vague or confusing. I have been spending time over the past few months reflecting on the next stage of life. In the background of this contemplation are the dramatic changes going on throughout the world. Much of what I thought was the “common sense” of how things work has proven to be incorrect.

One of the most powerful examples of a person who walked with certainty was the life of Mohandas Gandhi. A story that created a profound awakening in me was from Paramahansa Yogananda’s book, Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda visited Maganvadi, Gandhi’s ashram, and during one of his conversations with the father of modern India Yogananda asked, “May one not kill a cobra to protect a child, or one’s self?”

To which Gandhi answered, “I could not kill a cobra without violating two of my vows-fearlessness, and non-killing. I would rather try inwardly to calm the snake by vibrations of love. I cannot possibly lower my standards to suit my circumstances.” With his amazing candor, Gandhi added, “I must confess that I could not carry on this conversation were I faced by a cobra!”

I have read this story before and each time I would have some inner dialogue that started with, “yeah, but”. Surely I thought it is right to kill to protect. As I read this again over the past few days, I realize that Gandhi’s power to inspire both Indians and those around the world such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela was because of his clarity of who he was and what he should for and his absolute commitment to deliberately live his values.

I also would say to myself, well that was Gandhi but I am a “mere mortal”. I can’t live a life like that. This simple and undermining belief has been a nemesis for much of my life. Why do I accept that I can’t, each day, begin anew the walk of my own truth? Why can’t I allow the purpose of my life and the values I hold dear to guide every thought, inform every choice and fill every action? No reason actually, except my fear of letting go of some things I think I need.

Could I, like Gandhi distribute all my wealth to the poor and live a life of simplicity and non-attachment? I don’t know. What I do know is that it is important for me to examine my foundation to make sure it is firm. The first stage of that requires impeccable honesty, courage and an open heart.

With that clarity, I then can clearly see what I am called to do. Then the real test of my determination will be presented. I will share the unfolding of this process with you.

Until later,

Thomas

Technorati Tags: courage, Deliberateness, Determination, dotherightthing, inspiration, integrity, leadership, Passion, Purpose, Self, simplicity, success, Trust, Truth, values, Wisdom

What do you do when you don’t like “what is”?

I was talking with Catherine Austin Fitts, one of the most astute observers of the financial markets I know. Catherine was helping me understand some of the criminal activities that have created the current world economic crisis. (If you would like to listen to our conversation, go to Business Matters next Friday for a download.)

I could feel my blood boiling as she recounted some of the horrific behaviors that have gone on over the past 10 or so years. When I asked Catherine what we can do to fix this very broken system, she started talking about what we can do individually. I asked if she wasn’t angry. She pointed out that the first step in the process of making the changes we need is to not get caught up in what is unfair, or to be obsessed with any anger about the situation. What we are called to do is focus on what actions we can take TODAY for change.

As I have reflected on this, I know what she says is true, and sometimes I just forget. Catherine reminded me of the power of accepting “what is”. What it means is that I make a clear and non-judgmental assessment of the situation I find myself in. It doesn’t mean that I don’t initially allow myself to feel anger or whatever it is that I feel. That’s important. What it means is that I deliberately choose to move past those feelings so that I can see what is really going on beyond my feelings.

From this place of clarity, the best actions for me are evident. If on the other hand, I focus my attention on being angry or letting fear take over, then the view is clouded and as often as not, I will act from this cloudy perspective. I don’t have to tell you what the outcome of that is.

Now is the time for courage and deliberateness. Join me in choosing right action over emotional obsession. Our future is at stake.

Until later,

Thomas

What is the impact of my buying?

I was walking through the isles of the toy section of a local farm and hardware store with my wife. We tend to support local businesses wherever we can. So we had made a special trip to this store to get a few winter items for the kids.

Since Christmas is just a month or so away, the store was filled with all sorts of things that children would like. Our 3 year old was drawn to the toy truck/tractor section. As he was being mesmerized by the blinking, talking, action-oriented vehicles, we were looking at the traditional toys that we know from our past. You know things like John Deere tractors and Tonka trucks. In the case of Tonka, the wonderful metal toys they used to offer were not to be seen. Our disappointment almost turned to despair when we realized that most of the John Deere tractors were manufactured in the People’s Republic of China.

We got to talking about the nature of the toys that are available to our children. So much is made inexpensively and oriented to noise and action. We wondered two things. The first is what is the consequence for our children in terms of the activation of their imagination. Our son, was fascinated with toys that had buttons and made sounds. How does this support his play? Aren’t these toys he was playing with a bit like training him to be an effective robot pushing the right button when the right stimulus appears?

The second and probably more troubling concern is a complete disconnection between our children and the people who made the toys. Over 95% of the toys in this store were “Made in China”. They are made to meet a desire to have cheap toys that are flashy and entertaining. Little or no concern on a number of concerns starting with the toys true educational value.

This trend is pervasive in our culture. How many children (or adults) have a sense of what is involved in producing what we buy? How many of us know the impact on our long-term economic viability, the cost to the environment or the effect on our children of our buying choices of everything from toys to food to clothing to entertainment?

I know there are plenty of times I buy without a thought to these questions. Who is thinking about them? For the most part, not those who provide the good and services I buy. It is my responsibility. So when I buy anything, I MUST remember what is important to me before I buy anything. I ask myself how will this purchase supports those values and what is the impact of this purchase. If I am satisfied with my answers, great, then I go ahead and buy. If not, well, maybe I should practice a bit of restraint.

Your thoughts?

Until later,

Thomas

Do the right thing

Sunday was a great day. Jonah Meadows, the producer of our Business Matters program had arranged an interview with Naomi Klein the author of several best selling books, the most recent of which is “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” .

In this book, Naomi exposes political behavior that occurs in times of upheaval and disaster. This behavior allows those in political and financial power to implement laws and policies that are primarily for their advantage. These advantageous positions would never be considered in times of peace or prosperity. She meticulously pieces story after story together to illustrate this premise. I found myself disturbed and feeling motivated to become a voice that arouses public opinion to stop this activity. If you haven’t read this book, I recommend you move it to your must read list.

As Naomi and I settled into our interview, I was curious about what motivated someone to speak out about issues that would certainly draw criticism and worse to her doorstep. She said that she really didn’t worry about it. (I have read that she believes that her mail has been intercepted because of her writing.) She said her focus was telling the stories of those who trusted her to speak on their behalf. Those who have been directly impacted by the effects of this disaster capitalism whether they are in Bagdad or Bangladesh or New Orleans. She related that the feedback she receives in letters and responses to her public appearances was overwhelmingly positive. It was clear that what she does agrees with her soul.

I thought about this interaction since Sunday. Her calm demeanor and passion to be a voice for those who did not have one was a powerful reminder to me of the right place to focus my attention. I can see times when I would be more concerned about what other people think than to be single-mindedly focused on doing the right thing. I remember, once again, that doing the right thing is always supportive of my purpose and completely aligned with my values.

So why falter? Fear of not being liked by others comes to mind. This recurrent theme is a limiting factor no doubt. So my daily mantra becomes, “Am I doing what feels right?” If the response to this question is “yes”, then great. If the response to the question is either “no” or “I don’t know”, then I will stop, feel what’s right and do that.

Until later,

Thomas

What’s really important?

As I look around me, I see the complexity and quantity of things that fill my world. I am amazed by the cost in many ways of this complexity of accumulation. I know that each time I acquired something new, I had a thought or emotional impulse that said, “I need that”. Yet, with each acquisition, I am both assuming some responsibility for maintaining in some way what was bought (Just think we have a whole industry for storing purchases that we can’t use). It must be dusted, moved, cleaned, operated….

The ongoing costs never entered my mind when I was at the moment of purchasing. The only thing I was clear about was “I need this”. What fueled this need. A lot of factors.. I wanted to be like someone else. I wanted to make things easier. I wanted to improve my circumstances..I wanted to feel good… Whatever the wanting (and I am not judging the wanting here), I never asked myself what will the ongoing requirement me to keep this new purchase going. If it is something that requires power, the power it will consume. If it is something that can break, the resources or knowledge to fix it when i breaks. If it is something I wear the costs to clean it. And so on…

This complexity of my world has run unbated for my whole life. Underlying the desires that have fueled this accumulation and complexity is a whole system that influences me to buy more. For the nature of business has almost completely centered on growth as the only objective. For if I am profitably growing, I am succeeding. If I am in the food industry, I want folks to eat more. If I am in the clothing industry, I want people to buy more clothes. The list continues even into our educational systems. We honor the school systems that are growing in student enrollment and improvement of test scores…

Yet we haven’t really examined the underlying belief that growth is the right objective for our existence. Rather than overlay onto you my beliefs, I will simply ask you a question. As you look now at the balance of your life, what do you choose to be guiding principle (belief) for the decisions you make about the accumulation and disposal of stuff in your world?

The answer will tell you more than I can.

Until later,

Thomas

Technorati Tags: simplicity

Leading without competing

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I am not in a dream. Today I had such a great time with an interview for an upcoming episode of Business Matters. This episode, which we will air at the end of next week, is about GREAT small businesses. You may not know it, but small businesses represent over 1/2 of our economic output. Pretty amazing…

Today’s interview was with Jon Cates of Broadway Cafe in Kansas City. I won’t give the whole story away (otherwise why would you want to listen to the radio program?) but i will say a bit about why I was so excited about our conversation.

I think one of the defining myths of capitalism is that if you don’t focus on the competition you will not succeed. I have thought about that a lot over the past few years. It has seemed to me that this approach often is both distracting and does not produce the results expected. It seems to me that the best and most sustainable approach is a commitment to be the best at what you do so that your customers will never consider going anywhere else.

This simple statement of being your best requires that you give it all you have. It isn’t a half-hearted kind of thing. I find that most of the corporate clients I work with have a strong sense of winning over someone else; fighting the competitors and so on. Yet there is too little attention put on being the best. Being the best is both a personal commitment and also includes the actions that both confirm that commitment and inspire those around me. Each day everyone in the organization creates a customer experience that is better than the one from yesterday.

A tall order, however, when it is the unwavering focus of the leaders amazing things happen.

What brought Jon to my attention was a story that one of our producers told me about how Jon’s establishment thrived even when a Starbucks opened up close by. How is this possible? It wasn’t by reshaping their approach to “compete” with Starbucks. It wasn’t by a new marketing plan (they don’t spend any money on advertising). It was by simply doing better what they already did and not put any attention on what Starbucks was doing.

I can’t wait to share the story with you next week.

Until later,

Thomas

Technorati Tags: Accountability, business, dotherightthing, innovation, inspiration, integrity, leadership, Passion, Purpose, success, values, Wisdom