Why Remain Who We Are?

I saw a great quote the other day by John Maxwell.

We can't live our wildest dreams by remaining who we are.

Isn't it a quirk of our human nature that we invest so much in protecting who we are, yet our deepest longing is to become the person who could live our wildest dreams?

What are your?

Who do you need to become to live them?

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Free Falling Into The Future

I caught a PBS special on Joseph Campbell recently. Campbell, a professor and prolific writer on myth, who passed away 20 years ago, is someone who always inspires me. His encyclopedic grasp of the various spiritual paths and traditions, and his passion for his subject, always helps me catch a glimpse of life from a larger perspective.

What struck me in this recent program was his statement that despite all we may do to try and control our lives and loved ones, when it comes down to it we are all really just, “free-falling into the future.”

He went on to imply that when we find our way to let go of the fear-based need to control, the habitual mind-clouding judgments about what is “good” and “bad”, and the perpetual striving to have life show up in some other way than how it is showing up – we can arrive back in the present moment, at peace and truly engaged in our lives.

I will try that again today.

www.acoach4u.com

I am enjoying these long summer evenings catching up on my reading. I just waded into "The Ancestral Mind" by Dr. Gregg Jacobs, and it is an interesting read.

After 25 years of clinical research Dr. Jacobs believes that much of our inability to secure true peace and contentment is due to the compulsive analysis, judging, and comparing activities of our "Thinking Mind", which gets in the way of our more intuitive "Ancestral" mind.

Dr. Jacobs' research shows that if we can just find the way to routinely slow down or shut off the Thinking Mind, (relaxation techniques, meditation, etc.) we will connect with far more of the natural joy of living.

This finding supports everything I have experienced in my coaching work, and is in alignment with every spiritual tradition I have studied.

It's nice to see science catching up with life.

Enjoy the moment.


Steve

www.acoach4u.com

Puppies and Enlightenment

Masters have described enlightenment as nothing more than being exactly who you are, right now and at every moment, without pretence, guilt or the least apprehension. By that definition, my new puppy is the most enlightened soul I have ever come across. Eight weeks old, a cute as a button yellow lab, completely in the moment, Wyatt displays unabashed joy one second, and falls fast asleep the next. Irrepressible, his unique personality is constantly emerging, creating mischievous moments from the simplest of props.

He is a great teacher of living fully in the moment.

Steve

www.acoach4u.com

How Is Your Negative Capability

In 1817 poet John Keats wrote of his insight into a special quality processed by those great souls who plumb life’s full depths:

“at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason”

It is a gift to be able to sit with the mysterious, dark and unresolved parts of our life. They are the door through which our breakthroughs lie.

Steve www.acoach4u.com

Seeing Through The Heart

I was at a funeral Friday. As my family and friends reflected on what we loved and will miss about Rob, it struck me how everything else we accomplish and gain in life pales in comparison to how well we loved.

In the end, what really matters, and what we are really remembered fondly for, are simple things:

-- How well we cared about and kept in touch with family and friends.

-- How well we forgave loved ones who hurt us.

-- How well we attended to and nurtured our children.

-- How much joy we brought into the lives of those around us.

I was reminded of the quote of author/teacher/monk Jack Kornfield who said that enlightenment is nothing more than the ability to see the world through your heart.

Doing that everyday, amidst our busy and complicated existence, is a life-long project.

Steve www.acoach4u.com

Making Intuitive Decisions

In finishing off Michael Ray's latest book, THE HIGHEST GOAL, I was struck by a simple decision making tool he teaches his MBA classes as Stanford.

I think it's powerful in its simplicity and by the way it accesses your intuition, that deeper place of wisdom.

Here is what you do. Reduce a decision to two options. Reach for a coin and assign each side to a particular outcome. (If it comes up heads I will take option A. If it comes up tails, I will take option B.)

Make yourself still, by settling down and taking a few deep breaths. Flip the coin.

As soon as the coin reveals its recommendation, pay careful attention to your reaction.

If you react with a "yes, I knew that was the best way" you have your answer. If it is a "no, that doesn't feel right", you also have you answer.

What a simple way of checking in with your intuition.

Steve www.acoach4u.com