A daily task and a simple list

A Daily Task

In the paradigm of Inner Management, after beliefs are formed thought and feeling are the dynamic duo.  This is why the action of building images with deeply associated feelings is so important.  Using this knowledge you have a small task to complete daily: from now on, if you feel bad, notice.  Check your thoughts.  Let negative go, detach from it, and let good flourish.  If you feel good, notice.  Check your thoughts or your deep state of awareness.  Let feeling good prosper as your natural expression, as the good states of being provide nourishment to the body, the minds and to life-force.  Feel the power of the minds, as every thought has a response in the body, and every feeling has an associated thought.  Align and reinforce good thought with good feeling.  Remember this too: the higher the vibrating frequency of any given thing in our universe, the closer it is to the vibration of light.  Light vanquishes all darkness, as you know.  The thoughts and feelings you want, the one’s that feel best, are of the best quality and are also closer in vibration to light.  Love and gratitude are the strongest and most positive of feelings and thought.  Feel them often as they never wear or fade – except through lack of use.

A Simple List

It is time now to make a short list of the positive emotions and feelings you enjoy most as well as the simplest, most natural and direct routes you have of achieving them through choice and action.  This is a simple list, not an elaborate one.  Using Action Tool #4, list and develop ways of tuning in to positive emotions and feeling – as much as possible without the use of ego.  List simple activities you have done in the past and can do now that bring you towards the expression of light and towards harmony.  Make this list uncomplicated, short and sweet.  Ask, what are the simplest activities you can enjoy that bring forth positive emotions?  How about talking to a positive friend, enjoying a sit in the sun, gardening, writing, a silent cup of tea, running, cooking a healthy meal…; do any of these resonate with you? Write out a short list of simple and wholesome activities that bring forth in you the natural positive emotions and feelings you enjoy most.  Undertake one or more of these activities every day, if only for a few moments.  Bring this quality of being to your life, as you deserve and were intended for the full and natural expression of life – and a quality life has an authentic simplicity at the core.  There is so much joy around us when we are able to find it.  Find yours in the simple things on your simple list; then share your joy with others.

The Subconscious

Section #27 of The Synergy in Life System

The Subconscious

Our Ego laden conscious mind spends a great deal of time navigating, assessing, reacting to, and logically engaging our perceived outward reality.  Our other mind, the subconscious mind, is largely internal and relatively unconscious.  The subconscious mind is that mechanism which is involved in reflexively moving your hand to turn the page; it beats your heart, and fires the muscles that draw in and express breath.  These are examples of action that exist in the realm of the unconscious that I will call the subconscious mind.  It is a powerhouse.  If you spend a moment to think about how our bodies naturally heal a cut, defeat a cold virus, spontaneously avoid danger, and oxygenate cells one should be greatly awed.  Think of the infinite number of actions that are performed by this consciousness with grace and ease.

The subconscious is the storehouse of memory, it is central to creativity, it plays a crucial role in learning and language, is the master of habituated action, and does more than we can possibly imagine.  Of extreme importance to our study of this powerful mind is this stunning fact: it listens closely to and acts upon input from the conscious mind, without judgment.  Having just looked at the unbridled Ego and the sway it holds with conscious thought, this should cause a cold shudder of realization.   The subconscious’s dutiful subservience to conscious thought accentuates the point that utilizing and directing conscious thoughts is necessary; directed thought is an influential mechanism for deliberately developing and unleashing the natural power of the subconscious; good input is imperative!

You likely know that scientists have proven beyond a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between a real experience and an experience imagined vividly in detail.  That is why you salivated when eating the imaginary lemon.  In a sport psychology class I once took, we studied the results of an interesting experiment that demonstrated the power of directed thought fed to the subconscious mind.  University basketball players were randomly selected and placed in three separate groups.  Each group and each player was measured at the start of the experiment to determine their success rates in shooting free-throws.  This information was used as a base-line from which improvement or lack thereof would be measured at the end of the study.  Next, each group was given a task to undertake each day for a month.  The first group would spend 20 minutes a day, outside of regular practice time, on the court practicing free-throws.  The second group would spend 20 minutes a day, outside of regular practice time, sitting relaxed in a class-room visualizing successful free-throws.  The third group did not practice free-throws physically or mentally outside of regular practice time.  The results were astounding.  When measured again after one month, the control group who did nothing beyond regular practice demonstrated little or no improvement in free throw abilities.  That makes sense, and as you would expect the group that spent twenty minutes a day on the court physically shooting for twenty minutes after each practice session demonstrated a marked improvement in their free-throw accuracy and skill.  Astonishingly, the group that sat in the classroom visualizing had the same level of improvement in accuracy and skill as the group that stayed on the court an extra twenty minutes a day!  This improvement was completely the result of high quality input being fed from the conscious to the subconscious and then to the body’s nervous system.  Astounding and powerful information for your use! 

This study proves that the conscious mind has an important role when working in a positive and directed manner with the subconscious.  That is why belief is so important to this system.  The conscious mind provides input to the subconscious in the form of both structured and unstructured thought, and the subconscious will accept the beliefs and conclusions of the conscious mind without judgment, act upon them and feed that information to the body and to our life-force mechanism; therefore, good input must be deliberate and purposeful because the Whole Self will react to and resonate with what we think about most.  It just makes good sense.

The subconscious has an important role in working both with the conscious mind, the body and our life-force.  The subconscious will work feverishly to look for and find the name that is resting on the tip of your tongue; it will bring forth information and memory to the application of a task at hand; it can become a source of creative energy and inspiration; it will regulate the body’s functioning and guide habituated action; and, it will react to thoughts and emotions created in the conscious.  The final point is the most important, and is worth stating in the positive: when it is given the right guidance and is motivated by healthy inputs from the conscious, the subconscious will avail its own massive power to provide insight, intuition, inspiring and creative thoughts, and it will work towards the realization of the input provided; further, it will gather with and through life-force and Universal Consciousness everything needed to realize your desires; it will pass along healthy inputs and help to nourish and develop the body, and it will do so with grace, ease, and power.  It simply craves the thought structures provided by the conscious mind and will act on them immediately and completely. The subconscious is the primary bridge to body and individual life-force and thereby indirectly to the powerful generative energy of life-force reverberating throughout the entire universe.  The installation of consciously generated healthy input will have profound effects upon the Whole Self, and it will be due largely to the work the powerful subconscious does with what it is given.  Let’s look at the relation that the body has to the whole.

We are like batteries… ! (?)

Human beings are great energy getters — great energy users. 

Like a battery, however, we do not store energy well over the long term. 

It is like this: we eat and sleep and rest to gain energy — when we are active we use energy.  If we practice a disciplined management of the FLOW of our energy between intake and activity, we can create greater and greater capacity for the storage and use of energy.   If we simply store and conserve energy, however, we do NOT get a good return on our investment.

Have you ever had a flashlight sit for a year?  Is it as bright one year later as it was the day it was purchased?  We know from common experience that it will not be as bright.  It loses energy in its lack of use.  The energy dissipates and is lost and is never available for a useful purpose: in this case, the illumination of dark places.

Imagine just sleeping and eating for a year.  Would you be ready to run several marathons and lift copious weights for days and days as a result?  Of course not!  The return on conservation of energy over the long term is not good.

This doesn’t meant that rest and relaxation are not useful and helpful, but we are at our best and our most effective and efficient when we manage our energy in the short term and build our capacity to USE energy.  We are most effective as short-term energy gainers and as energy users.

If you have been reading other entries in this blog, you know that we are energy creators as well…

Create something with purpose,

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.

Connections and High Performance

You know about systems of government, circulatory systems, systems of thought, the educational system….  On and on it goes.

When someone or some group maximizes the potential of one or many systems in concert to create amazing results, they are synergizing their systems for high performance.

The Synergy in Life System and the central concepts of GreenSeed Consulting have come to be as a result of my experience, training, observation, and thought in several diverse areas. These are: systems of team play used in sport; systems of thought from both psychology and philosophy; systems of individual human performance from the study of physiology; systems of education; physical and mental systems from martial arts… and systems of management and leadership. 

It was the study of systems of management that started me looking closely at the profound connections within and between systems.  I knew from experience that all systems have aims or objectives and that creating synergy within and between systems is where high performance is born.  When you look at it in a general sense, everyone knows this but just might not use the same vocabulary to explain high performance.  For me, it was when I started to study the area of Systems Thinking — interestingly, it has roots in electrical engineering — that the power of finding and creating connections within and between systems began to establish as at first a thought and now as a FACT in my mind.

For example, there are connections between systems of play in sport and the systems of physiological training used with the athletes on a team; they also require systems of thought that are geared to performance… and this requires a vision or a system of philosophy.  That same team requires training and learning derived from and brought forth through systems of education…. On it goes. It’s all connected.

How about your group or team?  Are there connections within and between systems?  How about you?  Do you have a system of thought that creates a state of high performance? 

What lays at the base of all the systems that exist in our world?  What is the connection that underlies all things?  Energy.  That is a statement of scientific fact.  Energy is our one substance.  Create a philosophy or psychology that is hopeful and has an aim, and you will create a resonant physiology of health — based on your use of and direction of energy.  Create a system of education that is natural, flowing, and in concert with psychology, physiology, social systems tendencies etc. and you will have a recipe for potential high performance because of the use of and direction of energy.  Everything is connected in energy, through aims and objectives, and most importantly through our ability to synergize individual and corporate systems to meet those aims and objectives.  That’s high performance!  This is fascinating.

Want to read more?  click here.

What is Systems and Synergy.

There are always good questions and comments regarding Systems and Synergy.  Orlando recently checked in with a nice comment.  In my daily life, people keep asking me questions like: ”So, just what is this systems and synergy you write about.”  I always try to explain with… well, too many words. Then I realized just the other day that to have a practiced, concise answer to this good question is not slick or glib.  I realized that a precise and concise answer is important and necessary.  Here is the answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Self-Made = Success

Leaders are self-made practical learners.  Click the link.  Its a great, short article on the development of leaders… the self-development that makes success. 

If you are plunking around the internet looking for places to develop yourself, this is a link for you.  Good quality, well-intentioned information.

All the best

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed

Consider this…

The Institute for Global Ethics has conducted research around the world attempting to find out if there are a CORE set of values common to all people.  Their findings are … there are.  If this is true — and when you have visited their site and read their research, there is no reason to think otherwise — then this knowledge represents a powerful knowing.  It points to a similarity amongst all good people.  If we all have a similar basis for our values, then our understanding of one another can be placed upon a stable foundation — one that we can see and understand in one another.

And while this similarity holds for all people across the globe, it also holds for people near you.  And knowing this gives you a powerful tool for creating positive change and making positive influence.  Do you want to know what they are…?

There’s compassion, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect.  All cultures value these regardless of creed or color or religious background.  So, if your actions and the actions of groups you work with are focussed upon using these core values in reaching your goals, aims, and objectives then anything you attempt to accomplish will be guided by natural ‘laws’ of being human.  That’s powerful!  Agree to keep these words central to your team, your group, your family and you are agreeing to synergize your energy through positive, natural, and globally acceptable actions that are based upon core values to being human.  This is truly profound. 

New book coming out soon… Look for it!  This one is focussed on the communication patterns and synergy of groups.  THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased The Synergy in Life System.  The PDF’s are rolling out hot.  Its great to serve!

Douglas

Beyond Ego-centrism !

Big word — ego-centrism.  It explains young kids.  They believe themselves to be the center of their own worlds.  Their egos are central to their experience.  Somewhere during the toddler years, almost every child has a profound experience of realization.  They realize that they are not in fact the center of the universe.  That they and others share a larger system in a dynamic dance.  Mankind had a similar – albeit slow — realization when the theories of Copernicus in the 1500’s were supported by Galileo in the 1600’s hundreds through the use of the telescope and mathematics.  It was at this time that mankind slowly began to accept that the earth is NOT the center of the universe.  An interesting parallel. 

A funny thing happens when children realize that there are in fact other people that have needs and wants that might conflict with or compete with their own.  They start to group.  A new phase starts and this new phase is punctuated by the coming together with others in ways that allow groups to identify themselves.  It is an extension of ego-centrism that I call social ego-centrism.  The structure of singular ego doesn’t go away, but is largely consumed by and morphed into a group ego.  This group then thinks that they — their likes and dislikes, their drama, triumph, and difficulty — are the center of the universe.  It is from this construct that we see prejudice, distrust of others that are unlike ourselves, stereotypes, and many other less than helpful mindsets that impede growth, development, and performance. 

The question that arises from this discourse is: “in your family, social group, or work-group do you transcend social ego-centrism and discover the liberated capacity for high performance, or do you live within your universe center, unable to see the systems you exist within?”    Gaining objectivity is the gaining of perspective that leads to the ability to change, adapt, leverage for power, and design systems for positive gain.  Living in the center of social ego-centrism is living lost in a tiny yet encompassing universe that generates, feeds upon, and supports itself in impotent ways.

Can your group see itself?

Finding ‘UP’ through Systems Thinking

If you are sick, you really don’t have to do anything… at the very least, people don’t expect much of you.  That’s fair because most people feel a little low now and then and getting cut a little slack can go a long way to recovery.

BUT

What if there is no direction for a recovery?  To recover, you are returning to a state of balance and if you don’t know what or where that balance is you don’t know what direction to head for an optimal state of being. Kind of like jumping from a height into a lake and losing the ‘UP’direction for a moment.  That’s a bad moment.  It feels very out of control.   Now, what about organizations?  What if they are ’sick’ and no one expects much of them because they don’t have the talent, the funding, the facilities, the management team, the support, the recognition….  What if your organization is sick and you are floating along with no where to recover to?  No ‘up’.

What if?

You have to know where you are going in order to get there…. That’s what forecasting is all about and planning.  Do they work?  If the road you are driving on leads to a cliff, then all the planning in the world, all the best talent on board, the best equipment etcetera will not mean much by the time you reach the end of the journey!  Forecasts and planning must be made in health and plan for health.  A sick organization is not the best planner.  Its like a sick person.  It just wants to get better and lays low and does its best to recover.  Luckily for individuals, we are — most of us — able to return to relative health after being ill.  Thankfully, gratefully, we return to health.  An organziation doesn’t have such sophisticated organizing power as does the magnificent human body… so, it needs to see itself as a system — and within the system that it inhabits — before it can find its up.

The systems thinking exercise in objectivity is done through symbolic conversation.  Using symbols to ‘tell the story’ of the organization helps everyone first SEE what the parts make and then realize — collectively — just WHAT the organization is.  After this, purpose and direction are determined.  And THEN strategies can be implemented — but ONLY those that make sense in terms of the system’s organization, structure and capacity.  And, all along the way the tools of systems — the symbolic language of organizing — are used for deep conversation and clarification.  They are used to CREATE the organization’s picture and its story.  Complete a systems thinking exercise in objectivity and you are ready to apply energy and find the correct times and places to influence for gain, for good, for improvement.  Its the only way that works.  It is the way.

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.

Systems Thinking in Daily Life: A to B

Proactive systems thinking is the best kind of systems thinking.  If you can make a change in a process or situation or system so that you don’t have to ‘react’ later on, then you are using systems thinking to your best advantage.  Sure, systems thinking can be used to ferret out problems and solve problems, but its that ‘problem’ word that we would like to get rid of because if you are not dealing with problems, then you are able to focus more of your energy on opportunities.

In the diagram above a simple visual aids in explaining the benefit of understanding your system and using that knowledge to apply change effort strategically.  Here’s the basic idea:  you want to move the line from 1 to 8 over time.  The angle of change that you can employ is limited to one grid of ascension per grid of time.  So for you math types, its a rise and run equation.  For every cell moved along the ‘x’ axis you are able to move one grid upwards on the ‘y’ axis.  This is really simple but powerful.  Look.

 In instance ‘A’ they waited until the fourth unit of time before implementing the change at the prescribed angle.

In instance ‘B’ the change was made in the second unit of time to impliment the change at the prescribed angle.

Look at the difference!  In ‘B’, using the EXACT same angle of change as in ‘A’ you finish at 6 rather than 4!  Simple?  Yes.  So simple that people forget about the power of proactive change?  In way too many instances people do not examine their systems and find areas of influence.  Far too often, people wait until a problem occurs, thus using vital energy that COULD be used for increasing positive possibility.  All the best. 

Douglas Leadbetter  M.Ed.

Systems Thinking in Daily Life: variation

You must read this post! It contains important information about your application of simple systems concepts to daily living both as an individual and as a member of a group. The assumption made throughout this post is that you would like to increase the occurrence of positive moments, actions, and directions for yourself and for your group(s). If this statement rings true for you, then have a look at how understanding variation gives you power.

Everything in our world is subject to variation. This is easiest to see in organic organisms in cycles such as sleep, growth, decay, times of high energy and times of low energy. The variation of inorganic organisms with the rhythms of electron orbits and string vibration is not as important to this topic, so we’ll leave that for another time. We are living organisms that have variation in our daily cycles of life. The key question to this post is “can we affect these variations to lessen the bad and increase the good?” YES!

Let’s first look at a hypothetical variation graph. This one will represent the variation we see in ourselves and groups with highs and lows in our states of mind, our peak functioning, our effectiveness, success… etc.

In this simple representation of variation, the vertical or ‘y’ axis represents highs and lows. The upper peak of each of the curves represent positive, and the lower peaks represent less positive or negative. The horizontal or ‘x’ axis represents time. So, in a simple analysis of this particular graph we can see that the curved line represents movement between positive and negative states over time. The constant horizontal arrow represents the midline or base state.

So, how do we get more of the ‘good’ and less of the ‘bad’?  One secret for both individuals and for groups lies in the arrow.  The arrow is the midline of contentment… or simply, being.  Think about the diagram and think about yourself.  When you are on a ‘high’ it feels pretty good.  You are elated, full of energy, electric.  When you are on a low, it doesn’t feel good; lows are just low and not any fun at all.  The midline though… it’s quiet contentment.  Just being is a nice place to be.

Think about this in a group.  Have you ever been in a group where a member is trying to hard to ‘make’ something happen?  They are trying to make things fun or they are trying to show themselves off… or, or, or.  You know what this feels like.  It’s tense.  Maybe you are lucky enough to have been or be part of a team or a work-group where everyone is content… wow!  That’s the place where things get done!  A contented person will work harder, longer, care more, and do more for the company or group and for their co-workers.  Read the studies on successful corporations, and you will see that this has been proved as truth over and over again. 

So, the question now remains, “how do we get to the arrow?”  Or a question like that would do.  Well, as individuals we try to simply ‘be’.  I explain this in great detail in my book.  There’s a bit of letting go and there’s a bit of constructing thought.  There’s a dynamic tension, but its attainable and in quite practical ways.  In groups, you need to define what a simple contentment looks and feels like.  Everyone wants to come to work to do a good job, feel good about their work, and go home feeling they have done a good day of work.  The problem is in the systems we set up around us.  There are things that frustrate and confound in every organization and without a good or even a professional facilitator to help you address your situation objectively,  you are often doomed to steep in your own self-created mess.

Seeing systems is half the solution.  Truly.  The other half is in learning how to direct the natural flow of systems.  Not so much trying to control, but working to steer and direct.  Its a soft science kind of like the soft martial arts that would rather redirect the energy of another and not meet it head on.  Why ‘take on’ your systems when you can influence them? 

There’s another place to focus upon for both groups and individuals and that is in the ascending curve just as it passes the midline of the arrow.  At that moment, one should work towards building the next success.  Build on the upswing.  Direct thought and action to the attainment of positive success at the upswing and you can move from one success to the next. Charles Handy, in The Empty Raincoat discusses this with charming alacrity as it applies to business success.  It applies to individuals as well.  Athletes do it all the time.  When they have achieved one level of a training cycle and got that success under control they reach for another, higher level of success.  If an athlete spends too much ‘down time’ they lose all their gains and have to fight twice as hard to train their way out.  No, the smart ones build success upon success.  A jet airliner spends a lot of fuel to get off the ground, but once up they use far less.  Its like that in our understanding of variation.  Think about, construct and direct success as you experience success and continually reach for the next success.  This is a powerful mental model for you to begin using.  Comments?  Tell me about a time you have used any part of these ideas.  Tell everyone about using them successfully in the next few weeks.  It works.  That’s all.