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"No illusion is powerful enough to stop the truth from being itself."
Alan Cohen
Authentic Truth, like greatness, is not dependent on anything to exist. It simply is.
The difference maker is our ability to see and own who we really are, not who we think we are.
What is the power of your Authentic Truth?
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
Is your abundance in alignment?
"If we continue to pursue hope, then we had best become a producer of it, rather than a consumer of it."
Peter Block
I had a revelation today.
My mind was churning and burning, as I like to say, having it's way with me -- spitting out all kinds of fearful thoughts.
And then it hit me . . .
I REFUSE to participate in my fear!
Think about that!
Fear is a habit.
It is not truth.
We get to decide what is true for us.
We decide what defines us.
Hope is a source of scarcity when it keeps us from doing what we CAN do.
When hope is a prison, an immobilizer, it is passive. It involves waiting for other people or events to fix something for us, to solve a problem so we don't have to.
People who find themselves longing or wishing for things to be different, but don't take responsibility to make things different, are caught in the Illusion of Hope.
Hope becomes an excuse to play small.
When hope is a source of abundance, it is active. It is made real by consistent action -- doing what you CAN do.
Hope is real when you refuse to participate in your fear.
Will you feed the fear monster, or starve it?
When hope is real, you are a catalyst in the world.
Every time you choose your fear over your greatness, you deprive the world of your greatness.
Remember what Mother Teresa said: "I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time - just one, one one. So you begin. I began - I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two THOUSAND . . . Just begin - one, one, one."
What can you do today to be a producer of hope?
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if each night before falling asleep we could truthfully say to ourselves, 'Today I was freerer than I was yesterday'? Free from fears, free to be uniquely ourselves, free to say what we mean and mean what we say, free to genuinely enjoy and celebrate life."
Sue Patton Thoele
Are you free to be who you are today?
"I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude."
Benjamin Disraeli
My friend Craig Jennings just sent me this quotation - perfect for Thanksgiving!
I love this time of year - Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It reminds us of the beauty and power of gratitude --
of seeing
and loving
what we have right in front of us.
This year, I have so many things to be greatful for.
I just got back from meeting with a client and saw the city of Springfield planting lots of trees on the main road I live off of. Greatfulness!
I have the best relationship I've ever had with my father. Greatfulness!
I have published a book that is helping people from all walks of life choose the abundance of who they are. Greatfulness!
I'm being who I am much more than ever before. Greatfulness!
And I am connected to all of you -- friends, collegues, fellow companions on the journey.
Greatfulness!
Happy Thanksgiving and abundance to you all. May you find and celebrate the abundance of who you are every day of the year.
"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."
Audre Lorde
Being abundant - exercising the freedom to be who you are - is the hardest thing in the world to do.
And yet, it is also the easiest thing to do.
If we only have awareness of the power of who we are.
You've had those moments, haven't you? When you've grasped the power of your greatness, the power of your uniqueness.
Maybe it was a split second. The pure, unbridled beauty of who you are fit together perfectly with where you are.
And you understood.
You knew.
But then something happened. Something came along - a thought, an old belief, a comment from a friend. And that knowing was gone.
Why is it so challenging to live who we are more frequently than not?
It's got to do with our fears. When we lose that knowing, it's because our fear is bigger than our courage.
But what is fear if not perception? Conditioning? Learned behavior?
What is stalling your Courageous Abundance?
"The mighty oak was once a nut that held its ground.”
Unknown
This quote was sent to me by one of my best friends, Gail Stone.
Gail's new book, Get A Grip and Go: 5 Simple Steps to Receiving What You Want is coming out soon, and with my book, Coaching Into Greatness, out now, we've shared the ups and downs of creating your first book.
We also share our love and reverance for trees. Gail has taught me a lot of things, and opened me up to some amazing perspectives, books, and resources. More than anything, she personifies what it means to trust and have faith in the unknown.
We can never know exactly what's coming to us. But when we have support and the right environment, we can stand up tall, walk the path, and see the beauty all around us, that's always been there. It's our seeing that changes.
Gail's been that kind of friend in my life.
How can you be that special force for someone you know?
"It's never the end of the world. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles M. Schultz
I love this quote! Isn't it true that we can never completely see all the things that are on their way to us -- the Abundance around the corner?
We struggle and struggle, getting frustrated and sometimes downright discouraged
because we can't see for sure what is coming.
People with high Abundance Intelligence, or Abundance Intelligence® , balance the need for certainty with a belief that they are manifesting things they can't see, or sometimes even imagine, today.
And in the meantime, they keep on doing what they can do.
Do you believe in what's coming to you?
The birth of that marvelous wish in your soul
the dawning of that secret dream
was the Voice of God himself telling you to arise and come up higher
because he had need of you.
Emmet Fox
Who are you being in the world today?
"How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now, and there will never be a time when it is not now."
Gerald Jampolsky
Happiness is a choice. We cannot always choose what happens to us, and when. But we can choose our response.
Are you holding your happiness hostage?
"We turn outward, attracted by the beauty we see in created things without realizing that they are only a reflection of the real beauty. And the real beauty is within us."
- Ernesto Cardenal
What Greatness do you resist seeing inside yourself?
"And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk
even more."
Erica Jong
The Illusion of Control is all about our attempts and constant striving to re-arrange the world to fit our view of how things should be.
Should is one of the most dangerous perceptions we can have. When we perceive things to be a certain way, and don't allow other possibilities or considerations, we often end up disappointed, frustrated, and in struggle.
It's like the person "stuck" in their miserable job - yearning to make the break and start their own business, but they never do. Why? Because the perception of safety is that a paycheck is guaranteed.
When you were born, life didn't come with a money back guarantee. Deep down, we all know nothing is certain.
Except what exists inside us.
Our Greatness.
In reality, we see time and again that our perception for safety can keep us playing and thinking small. Ultimately, it keeps us from doing what we can do.
And before we know it, that dream has died along with a big part of ourselves, in the satin lined coffin that we have decorated with our assumptions, beliefs, and insecurities.
Is your perception of safety holding you back?
"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar."
Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and poet
Change is inevitable, yet we cling to the "safety" of our knowing, our satin lined coffin of familiarity. Even if it's difficult, unfulfilling, or stifling, we cling.
We are in love with our clinging.
The Illusion of Certainty goes to the heart of this dilemma. It's really a matter of trust -- not only trusting that good things come our way, but that we are capable of attracting and thriving with the good things.
In my book, Coaching Into Greatness, I say that life doesn't come with a money back guarantee. Instead, we are to navigate with curiosity, openness, and vulnerability. A tall order indeed! This quotation was sent to me by one of my group coaching participants. She is wildy, valiantly exploring the growing edge of her life, and letting go of the Illusion of Certainty bit by bit.
What guarantee are you still waiting for?
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates
it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
-Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
We're so good at limiting and doubting ourselves. So many of us see our limits before we see our Greatness. Our self-imposed limits are like that rock pile, stacked high and wide, so palpable we are sure they exist.
And yet, a cathedral exists in us too.
A few weeks ago, I shared the Two Wolves story. Our reality is what we feed.
And our reality is what we see. Or don't see.
You're Greatness Capacity is like a cathedral inside you, waiting to be structured, planned, and built. One of the most striking, breathtaking characteristics of the greatest cathedrals are their stained glass windows. They let the sunshine in, but they also let their inner brilliance out. This exact same characteristic is seen in people with Abundance Intelligence.
What does your cathedral look like?
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a debate that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy,sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
The author of this little story is unknown. It was passed onto me by one of my great clients. What struck me instantly was the parallel to the abundance and scarcity principles in Coaching Into Greatness.
Although I never call scarcity "evil", I do say that it is quite insidious in how this mentality operates just under the surface of so many lives.
It really comes down to where you put your attention and LOVE. If you love scarcity, it will grow and overwhelm you. If you love abundance, it will grow and fulfill you (the cup is overflowing, right?)
Where are you focusing your attention and love?
The following is a great story from my friend Neil Tepper, author of Open Your I's: 10 Steps to Unleashing Your Inner Creative Power.
When
I first went out on my own –- after more than fifteen years in the corporate
arena, where I was accountable to someone else for my time and productivity --
I performed numerous marketing tasks in order to drum up consulting projects
and other work. I made phone calls, took
meetings, made more phone calls, sent out letters and resumes, attended
networking events and took more meetings. I did whatever I could think of to
let the world know that I was open for business. As every independent
businessperson knows, attracting clients is a full-time job in itself.
This story speaks so well to the conditioned pattern of Rushing. Evidence of the Illusion of Time, Rushing is characterized by the belief that there is a scarcity of time and opportunity, causing people to focus on what they think they should do, instead of what they CAN do.
"We each have our own tree to climb."
Julia Butterfly Hill, founder, Circle of Life
I had the privilege of interviewing Julia for "Coaching Into Greatness". Many of you may be familiar with her story. She spent over 2 years living in a tree to protect the famous redwood from certain destruction, and to protest the logging of old growth forests. The picture on the left shows Julia at the very top of Luna. What courage!
Here is an exclusive excerpt from Julia's interview in my book:
The gift of Hill’s self-inquiry is getting to the core essence of who she is. The investigation was, to Hill, much like using a magnifying glass to start a fire. “When we choose to really delve into ourselves,” she says, “is when we turn the magnifying glass toward the sun. That’s when it gets fierce.” We’re so afraid of this intensity, we keep the magnifying glass turned the other way. “The results,” she continues, “can only happen in the space of that intensity, so that in the process of being pulled in a million different directions and being unhappy most of my life, I can finally say ‘OK, I’m going to take it on now.’”
She did burn, but as she puts it, what burned were the illusions she had about who she was, and the illusions about not being enough. She switched from “being in the world of fear to being in the world of joy.” She’s learned to laugh more easily, and she can see more clearly the way our existing systems feed off our scarcity and fear.
Living in the tree wasn’t two years and eight days as one event, she says. “It was two years and eight days of moment by moment access of who am I choosing to be in this moment, and recognizing that all we need to be is who we are.” When asked “what can I do?” she responds: “What do you love to do? Find a way to offer some part of that. Who we are is exactly who we were meant to be.”
Hill concludes: “Everything I needed to be is already within me, but I had to be willing to embrace the real burning of the illusions; the letting go of the illusions. In the butterfly analogy, the melting of myself so that I could become who I already am -- a newer, more vibrant expression of who I am.”
Which direction is your magnifying glass aimed at?
"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves."
Eric Hoffer
Ultimately, when we are not telling the truth, who do we hurt the most? This quotation makes me think of a child, agreeing with their parents, all the time crossing his fingers behind his back.
The little white lie. It's harmless, right? People don't really get hurt by fibs. It's for their own protection. To keep them safe.
But how harmless are these little white lies? As a coach, I know how the little things can pile up, taking up space and cramming life full of doubt and distraction. The ultimate distraction is what we tell ourselves to be true, even as we know deep down inside that it is not the truth.
As we approach the new year, what are you telling yourself about your greatness, your dreams and goals, that is not the truth? What excuses are you making for not living who you are? What goals have you been hanging onto that don't serve you?
"It's done!"
Kim George
Yes, it's true! The writing of "Coaching Into Greatness: 4 Steps to Success in Business and Life" is officially complete. I mailed off the manuscript yesterday - all 364 pages x 2 to Wiley & Sons.
What an experience it has been! As I wrote each chapter on a particular Illusion, I found that Illusion surfacing in my life - as if I needed something to write about!
To be honest, I went through some ups and downs. One day I'd be writing and think "this is really something powerful" and the next day fear would creep in and I would think to myself, "what if I'm the only one that thinks this is great and everybody else thinks it sucks?" How interesting once again to see the interplay of abundance and scarcity in my own life.
Please take a moment to pause and celebrate with me at the completion of my first book. It will be out in April. Stay tuned for pre-order details and bonuses.
And thanks for being along for the ride.
If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits."
Don Ward
We never seem to have a scarcity of doubts, do we? We doubt our greatness, our abilities, our intelligence, our future, and each other.
Why do we find it so easy to doubt? At it's root, this is an inherent form of scarcity, and a classic sign of the Illusion of Not Enough - when we don't trust who we are.
What keeps us from trusting who we are? What makes us doubt that we are already great? These are powerful questions.
And yet, perhaps the most powerful question of all is, as Marianne Williamson says,
Who are you not to be Great?
We have to move from the illusion of certainty to the certainty of illusion.
Sam Keen, author
As usual, Sam Keen is right on the money with his observations. I had the privilege to hear Sam speak at this year's Omega Institute conference and chat with him afterwards. If you haven't read his books, you're missing out! My personal favorite is Learning to Fly.
I just finished writing this chapter for my upcoming book Coaching Into Greatness: 4 Steps to Success In Business and Life, and we had another terrific r&d call on measuring the Illusion of Certainty last week.
What certainties are you certain of? Have you questioned your answers lately?
"Do or do not. There is no try."
Yoda, from The Empire Strikes Back
Yoda packed a lot of power and wisdom into his tiny green frame. (Ok, I have to admit in the latest Star Wars flick that he did a little too much spinning in the air during the fighting scenes to be believeable, but go with me here.)
How often do you catch yourself using the word try? Pay attention to this over the next week or so. When you say you'll try to make the deadline, or give your friend a call, or go to the gym, what do you really mean? Are you committed?
Or are you creating a convenient little loop hole to excuse yourself from doing what you can do? As a form of scarcity, trying keeps us playing small. It keeps us locked in our comfort zone, safe to keep doing what we've always done. Trying is another way to hold the present hostage, to run away from greatness. In my experience, when I tell someone I'll try, as I'm saying it, I know I won't follow through. I'm letting myself off the hook.
Here's a shift to consider: What if you said, "I'll do my best." Would that change how you show up? For me personally and the clients I coach, it has made a big difference. Doing your best is a standard that can be applied in any situation regardless of circumstances. It doesn't mean you will be perfect, or the results will be ideal, it means you will do the best you can do right now, when it matters most.
You can leave trying alone, and be who you are.
What have you been trying to do for awhile now that you can let go of?
If we continue to pursue hope, then we had best become a producer of it, rather than a consumer of it.
Peter Block
This quotation is taken from Peter Block's amazing book, The Answer To How Is Yes, featured in my Great Books list. Love the book. Love this man. He is one of the most powerful minds of our time.
I'm currently writing the chapter on the Illusion of Hope for my upcoming book, Coaching Into Greatness: 4 Steps to Success in Business and Life. You can bet that I use this quotation. In fact, it opens the chapter.
What does it mean to be a "consumer of hope"? I love that phrase. To me, it gives us a taste of how hope can be a form of scarcity. When we look at the Tipping Point of hope, we find that it can actually keep people from doing what they can do. Hope can keep us waiting, rid us of our power, and keep us doing things that don't benefit us for much longer than we normally might.
What does it mean to be a "producer of hope"? People who produce hope are creators, activators, change agents -- people doing what they can do. That last phrase has become my mantra lately. The Living Into Greatness work at it's core celebrates doing what we can do. That's what it's all about. You don't have to look far to see people in the world, in your own community, doing what they can do. They are "producers of hope".
Are you a "consumer of hope" or are you a "producer of hope"?
Man: "Doc, my brother's crazy. He thinks he's a chicken."
Psychiatrist: "Well, why don't you turn him in?"
Man: "I would, but I need the eggs."
Woody Allen
How often do we feed our illusions because they serve us in some way?
In the first step of the Living Into Greatness process, I talk about Awareness. To generate Awareness, we identify the fears behind the situation or frustration. Then we evaluate the corresponding illusion and the related beliefs and assumptions. The last step in the Awareness process is a two part process regarding these fears and beliefs:
These questions are deceptively simple. Many people might write them off because of that. And yet, every single time, with the people I have coached, these two questions have shed light on how they are keeping themselves stuck. Simple, but ground breaking.
What are you feeding that would benefit from a little examination?
I was watching another outstanding edition of Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN this week when one feature story in particular struck me. They interviewed a woman in Texas who had taken in 50, yes, that's fifty, evacuees from Louisiana into her small home. With too many people, too little food, and her own health issues, the woman worried only about one thing - wanting to do more for the people in her care. When asked about taking in so many people, she responded:
"It's a blessing. It makes you think, where would I be?"
This tragedy has opened my eyes to so much that I take for granted: having a comfortable bed to sleep in, air conditioning, the health and safety of my loved ones, the companionship of my animals, peace of mind.
What are the everyday blessings you're missing in your life right now?
"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quotation reminds me of one of my favorite books, The Man Who Planted Trees,written by Jean Giono. This is a powerful little story, just 50 pages long. In it, Giono tells the story of a lone shepard who takes it upon himself to plant 100 acorns a day in the desolate region of his home. After years and years of faithful devotion, the shepard had planted 100,000 trees, 10,000 of which survived and began to thrive! Because of his efforts, the earth that was once black and charred from the soot of nearby factories is now lush and green, teeming with life. Soon people move back to the area, building homes along the streams that have rejuvenated with life. Children can be seen playing and laughing. Through one man's simple, yet profound act of love, vision, and commitment, the land was reborn.
There's a strong parallel here to the Living Into Greatness 4 step process:
The shepard was aware of the environmental need in his homeland. He was also aware of what would make him most happy in life. He accepted what he could do about the problem - he could plant 100 acorns a day. He didn't agonize over what he couldn't do, or worry about what he was doing, he chose consistent action to live into his greatness. Lastily, despite growing age, fatigue, and what would have filled many with doubt and boredom, the shepard continued to show up authentically, living the person he was, doing what he could do. The result changed the world.
How are you living today?
"To keep a lamp burning, we have to put oil in it."
Mother Teresa
Greatness is living your life in a way that reflects that you already have everything you need.This quotation makes me think of one of the arguments that frequently comes up around the concept of greatness.
In discussing this with a few people, I've sometimes gotten a cynical remark. "Well, if I'm already great, what's the point of doing anything?"
The point is that although greatness is innate, it's no excuse to rest on our laurels. There's a reason I call it Living Into Your Greatness. When we keep our greatness to ourselves, not only do we deprive ourselves of actualizing the best of who we are, we deprive the world.
Each time you choose to play a smaller game, to sit on the sidelines, you're robbing someone else of the opportunity to experience who you are. Ultimately, that is the one true gift we can give. And yet, so many of us never unwrap the present.
"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better."
Sydney J. Harris
How true this quotation is! How many times do we long for something to be different, but lack the energy or inspiration to make it happen? To find out why we're stuck, we have to go deeper.
Most people live on the surface of their lives, playing just small enough of a game to avoid what's keeping them from doing what they can do. I call these people Surface Dwellers. They're seemingly content to go through life, loving routine, seeking comfort in familiar people, places, and things.
And yet, if they were to begin to go below the surface of their symptoms and frustrations, they'd discover what has really been driving them.
Conditioning Patterns which are made up of Conditioned Beliefs.
This is the work that we are exploring with Living Into Greatness. It is the process of going deeper to discover what keeps you stuck.
"Something we were witholding made us weak until we found out it was ourselves."
Robert Frost
What is it about Greatness that makes it so difficult for many of us to embrace and accept? Most people spend their lives searching and striving for that thing or person that is going to make everything easier, better, complete, you name it. At the same time, when we search for the answer outside of ourselves, we deny a greater truth inside of ourselves. We deny that we have the answer all along.
We are the answer we've been looking for.
Greatness is not something that exists outside of ourselves. It's not contingent upon who we know or what we do. Yes, these things are important. Yes, they add value. But the big idea here is that you are already great. The need to go about fixing yourself and making things right is an illusion. And it is the awareness of that illusion that is the first step to greatness. When we see through our smoke screens, we can see more clearly who we already are.
"Be Yourself. It's all that you can do."
- from the cd, Out of Exile, by Audioslave
Okay, so maybe it's not the most profound quote you've ever heard, but this song rocks. More importantly, every time I listen to it, I'm convinced this is the perfect theme song for Living Into Greatness.
Do you ever listen to a song and get chills running through your body? Well that's what happens to me every time I listen to "Be Yourself".
Kind of a departure from what you usually read here, but departure's are good. Come to one of my r&d classes and maybe you'll hear me tell the story of how this song played a big role in bringing my book to life.
"Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself."
Miles Davis
On the Living Into Greatness R&D calls, I frequently talk about patterns of conditioning -- the stories, perceptions, and assumptions of the people and the world around us which gradually have become the lens through which we view the world.
The Living Into Greatness process is about stripping away all the non-essentials in your life -- the attitudes, core beliefs, assumptions and expectations that cloud your view of the world, so that you can finally begin to discover your inherent greatness.
What music is locked away deep inside you waiting to be heard?
"Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there."
Susanne K. Langer
Living Into Greatness is all about awareness -- awareness that you are already great, that you already have everything you need.
The reality is that each of us was born great. We weren't born miserable and unhappy and angry. As children, we were naturally filled with joy and curiosity and connection. It's the conditioning of life that creates a smoke screen. Over time, we begin to feel that other people's stories -- our parents, our teachers, society -- are really our story. We believe this so readily that it actually becomes our story.
When we begin to do the work of creating awareness, we are often surprised at our discoveries. And yet, as the quotation says, those discoveries have really been a part of us all along.
What do you want to re-discover?
"Time is what keeps the light from reaching us."
Meister Eckhart
If we view greatness as light, and living into greatness as a process, then our ability to live fully in the present moment is the only true opportunity we have for awareness and to do the very thing we CAN do.
"In our spiritual work we need not create anything new. All we need is to illuminate that which is already hidden within us."
The Rebbe of Kotsk
I found this quote in an ezine from the Omega Institute. It fits perfectly with the Living Into Greatness philosophy. How empowering to know that you already have everything you need, and it's just a matter of re-discovering who you are and what you have!
