Nancy Love’s Weblog

Today I am reading Wayne Dyer. ” Change Your Thoughts – Change your Life”  I have been reading Wayne Dyer since the 70s.  Today he is exploring the “Great Way”, the Tao Te Ching of Lao -tzu.  There are 81 verses in “the Great Way”.  I am intent on reading one verse per day until I am done.  I find it interesting that there are 81 which is 9*9.  I have enjoyed the first three verses; The Mystery, The Paradoxical Unity and Contentment. 

The Mystery … be curious about things.  Experience non-judgement and mystery. 

The Paradoxical Unity … states are defined by the  knowing of the opposite.  Accepting or allowing both at the same time is the paradox of unity.

Contentment … just notice the Tao.  What does the integrated self tell you about your desires?  Move from desire to allow the reward to be the path, the journey.

Of course those are my interpretations which I accept witll be different for you.  It is interesting and comforting to read about and from the ancients.  Comforting to me to thing that people of other times had it all figured out before we got here.  That simplifies things for me and allows me to accept the ’42’ answer to the question of life, the universe and everything.  That answer that came from the imagination, the thoughts, of Douglass Adams and it works for me.

Life is good. Integrated thinking, sensing, feeling is good.  It has been, is and will be good.

Develop Relationships

Accept Chaos

Name Elephants

Share Information

Embrace the Process

Douglass Adams wrote about a computer named Deep Thought and how that computer over millions of years was able to calculate the answers to the question of life the universe and everything.  The answer was 42.  It is a great answer when you think about it.  42 – simple yet complex.  And isn’t it comforting to know that their is an answer.

Hello world….  Today is a new day.  Obama is president elect of the US and the ‘us’ is back in the US.  The hope of the nation and the world seems to be wrapped up in the man and yet we all know that it was the voters who made their own dreams come true.  They had the courage to support someone that they felt would support them back.

I hear a predominant message about a black man in the White House.  Barak Obama is more than that.  He represents the world.  Mixed and inclusive in all aspects and a small ‘L’ liberal champion for the US and the world.  “Hope lives as long as their is breath.”  Everything is possible if you engage the people in conversation.  Obama was masterful and the engagement piece.  Everyone is celebrating with him not for him because they were a part of the conversation, involved through Internet and other messaging at a personal level.

Barak Obama and his team have mastered the engagement piece and have given the world evidence of what can happen when you talk WITH people reather than TO them.  A brilliant campaign run by a brilliant and caring leader.  Congratulations.

Our Canadian people will learn the lesson and adapt the approach to match the Canadian need.  Around the world the message will be interpreted in at least 9 ways.  Hope = personal control… Hope = inclusion and contribution… Hope = achievement and success … Hope = creativity and differentiation … Hope = analysis and thought provoking opportunities… Hope = loyalty and security and predictability… Hope = excitement and variety and possibility…Hope = furthering the cause, taking control… Hope = peace and harmony in the world.  Hope lives on…..

And the conversation continues …..

How much peace do you feel?  How much pressure do you feel on you?  Peace and pressure. chicken and egg …..  Can you know peace without knowing pressure???  Peace is a sensation for me, more than a feeling.  It is a state of complete contentment, when you know that things are right in the world.  I often feel peace and I am constantly seeking that feeling of peace.  Peace, like the others is a choice.

Pressure … I guess the best way to understand my relationship with pressure is to use an example.  Deadlines create pressure for me.  I often miss deadlines and then work very hard after the deadline to complete things.  It is weird but the pressure presented by the deadline shuts me down.  Once it is past then I can actually get to work and get it done.  So pressure often freezes me. I get stuck.  How much pressure is there in my life depends on me right now.  I consider myself very fortunate to be running my own business and although I answer to clients and there is pressure to provide the best possible product, the standards that I set for myself often are higher than any they may have.

What does pressure mean to you?  How can you use the pressure in your life to motivate rather than freeze?  That is a question I ask myself.  I set artificial deadlines to fool myself into getting things ready on time.  I am a procrastinator, and pressure is not my friend.  I create my own pressure and my own peace.  I am as satisfied as I want to be.  Each day brings new opportunities for peace and pressure.  Choose both.  Learn to manage both.

PULSE is about peace and pressure.  The path through, Prepare, Uncover, Learn, Search and Explain is the path from pressure or lack of peace to peace.

As you may have noticed we are travelling along the Life Scale that Warren Redman uses in hisbook Emotionsl Fitness.  Warren and I have been working together on a plot to overtake the coaching world.  more about that later.  For now I would like to explore the PULSE perspective on the next tow pairs of words on the Life Scale… Place and Prejudice.

How much do I feel like I am in the right place?  Reading this question a couple of weeks ago moved me to action.  Since then I have reorganized and decorated many rooms in my house.  I have begun again to take charge and control over my immediate environment.  I travel a lot as most of you know so home had become where I come to repack my suitcase.  Over these two weeks I have been leaving my mark and paying attention to my home, my PLACE.

I am confident that that is not the only thing that Warren is asking about.  My physical PLACE is just that … a physical place.  For me it needs to be functional and comfortable and beautiful.  Am I also in the right Emotional PLACE?  The question also motivates toward seeking a more functional, comfortable and beautiful place emotionally and intellectually.  Head, heart, body – in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.  Affecting one, affects all.  There is an integration that occurs when you least expect it.  Having sorted my PLACE I do feel confident that I am in the right place, on I have created for myself.

Prejudices – hmmmm.  How much prejudice do I feel against me?  That question brings up STUFF for me.  I also see the opportunity to use my sense of place to overcome my experience of prejudice.  i don’t want to dwell in it.  I want to change it.  Prejudice can motivate or deflate.  Just reading the word shifted my state from feeling great about my place to feeling more uncertain and less confident.  I choose to set that aside and go with my strengths and the things I can control.  Moving from my right PLACE to my next right PLACE with PULSE.

ON Warren Redman’s Life Scale.  Purpose and problems are the presented as the ying an dyang or positive and negative sides of the same coin.  It is an interesting problem… or purpose… to distinquish the two and then pair them for consideration.

On a scale of 0-20 what is your purpose score?  How purposeful are you?  How much does a sense of purpose figure in your life and its decisions?  For me I would set my score at 18 or 19.  What that means is that at the moment I am full of purpose.  I am working toward something.  I am building a business that I hope will out live me.

ON a scale of 0-20 what is your problem score?  How riddled with problems is your life and how much of your life is spent on dealing with problems?  For me I would set my score at 18-19.  What that means to me is that I spend a lot of time dealing with the problems, the things that are in the way between me and my purpose.  I don’t feel that that is a bad thing though.  If I wasn’t dealing with the problems I wouldn’t be moving toward my purpose.

So you need both in your life.  No purpose leads to no problems and no problems can result from an unclear purpose.  That’s the negative side of this equation.  Positively speaking is you have a high sense of purpose then you may not consider the challenges that stand between you and the goal as problems put as opportunities to move a step closer.  It comes down to perspective and semantics.

Purpose is good.  It motivates.  Problems also motivate.   WOW … Looks like my rose coloured glasses are working well this morning.  Happy day.  Live with purpose and love your problems.  They are a sign that you are on the right road.

What do purpose and problems mean to you?  What are your scores?