Your Posture, Impacts You

Be fully in the moment, open yourself to the powerful energies dancing around you.
Ernest Hemingway

We know that our posture impacts how others see us, but did you know it also may impact how we feel about ourselves? We know that a change in facial expression such as a half-smile can lighten our mood. Amy Cuddy’s research supports the idea that intentional changes in our body posture impacts our physiology, thus changing how we feel about ourselves.

Here is a short clip of Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk discussing the impact of body posing on physiology.

Amy Cuddy Shortened Ted Talk

If you are so inclined here is Amy’s Ted Talk in its’ entirety!

Body Language and Presence

Amy Cuddy discusses power poses in this video.

Power Poses

Practice using a power pose(s) throughout your day to move yourself to an emotional space of confidence, peace, power, and contentment. Does it change how you feel? Are you a powerful, peaceful person? Yes? Would you like to be even more powerful, present, and peaceful? If so, let me know!

Not Most Folks!

You can worry about most people all day but I can
promise you they are not worried about you.  Almost all growth that’s
available to you exists when you aren’t most people and when
you work hard to appeal to folks that are not most people.
Seth Godin

Have you ever had something that you wanted to do and you were very excited about it? Then you told people about it and you received pained looks, panicked expressions, head shakes, oh no, and questions such as, “Why would you want to do that?” And your excitement went flat, your balloon was flattened, the wind beneath your wings disappeared?

I was born loving horses. I wanted to ride, train, and breed horses, and it was not a career choice my parents were thrilled about me pursing… a vet, a doctor, an attorney, a business owner… yes, but a horse trainer. Well it wasn’t something they thought I could do and support myself.

Can anyone relate? I am sure some of you can.

What I didn’t know then is that growth occurs when we don’t listen to most people. Growth occurs when we go deep inside, take a step, find our path, and live true to it. Growth stops when we fail to trust our own journey, and listen to the well-meaning but un-supportive and often bad advice of others.

Find people that support that path. Find people that want to join the journey, and serve them.

Who supports your path? Do you? Who else?

Need support? Can’t find your path? Let’s talk.

And remember don’t be most people!

Potential, Ability, or Grit?

Over time, grit is what separates
fruitful lives from aimlessness.
John Ortberg
I decided that potential means naught, unless there is grit to back it up. Ability means little, unless grit is its’ companion. In the poem, The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer there are a number of lines that speak to me of grit,
“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.”
To me this is grit. I like people with grit. I love working with people with grit. Life is full of people with potential and ability but people with grit are rare gems. Give me grit over potential or ability any day.
How do I know someone has grit? They show up, consistently for others, and themselves. They reciprocate. They follow through. They stay the course even when the course gets tough. They don’t give up when obstacles get in the way. People are more important than things. They have passion that comes from a life of personal growth, mastery, and depth of heart and soul.
How about you, where do you need to reach deep, and find the grit within you to create the life you want, to be the person you need to be to achieve it?
GRRRRRRRRRit!
GRRRRRRRRRit!

 

Are Your Balloons in a Row?

The other day I noticed a man loading a large bunch of balloons into the back of his vehicle. As I watched, he would push in a couple balloons on one side and several would pop out on the other. I thought, “goodness that is what life is like when we have too many projects going on at once. As we get one thing, or balloon under control, two or three pop out the other side. Then we get preoccupied with getting those balloons back in the car, and the others pop back out! No wonder we get frustrated, and feel crazy!” Some of us say, “I am so busy!”, as euphemism for “I chose to not manage my life and be responsible for the choices that I make.”
 
We know that mastery comes at a price of sacrificing some of those projects. The sacrifice of that which is of less important, or of that which I am less passionate about for the things that matter the most to us. This sacrifice seems like it should be easy but often it means people will be upset with us, and our desire to people please wins out over our desire to do the things in life that we are most passionate about.  We can choose to be a jack of all trades, and a master of none, or we can have a passion or passions that we desire to master. If our choice is the latter, then the first steps to mastery is to simplify and put in order our life.
 
What are you passionate about?  Are you living your priorities? Where can you simplify your life? Where can you create more order in your life? 
Mastery - Robert Greene
Mastery – Robert Greene

Be the Fool

George Leonard, bestselling author, dubbed “a learner” by a mountain man is invited to his home in the Los Padres mountain wilderness near Big Sur to instruct the mountain man on how to become a learner. Arriving at this remote location the mountain man walks Leonard through his sculptures, chronologically and indicates to Leonard where he had lost his spark, and stopped being a learner. “Tell me. How can I be a learner?”, says the mountain man. Leonard exhausted from the long and dangerous drive his mind blank hears himself responding, “It’s simple. To be a learner, you’ve got to be willing to be a fool.”

 

Later, Leonard goes on to explain to the readers of his book, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment that he is referring to the spirit of a medieval court jester. The ability to create a fertile void, to empty oneself of all knowing and thus allow creativity to spring forth from a place of emptiness within us.

 

Are you willing to empty yourself of all knowing? Are you willing to play the fool? Are you willing to create a fertile void from which you can create the life that you want? If not now, then when? When will you stop living your life as if you will live forever?

 

Jackie of All Trades, Mastery of None

“A friend of mine, twenty-nine and still looking for a cause, a purpose in life, said, ‘Our generation has been raised on the idea of keeping our options open. But if you keep all your options open, you can’t do a damned thing.’ It’s a problem: How can any one option, any one goal match up to the possibilities contained in all the others? … Ultimately, liberation comes through the acceptance of limits. You can’t do everything, but you can do one thing, and then another and another,” writes George Leonard in his book, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment. 
 
Rereading Leonard’s Mastery, I have found the pure pleasure in slowing down. Doing one thing exceedingly well in this moment, and the next, and the next. Pure focus, pure practice. Turning off the noise bringing my attention to perfecting in this moment whatever it is I am doing. Choosing to not be “busy.” I chose only a few very important things to say, “yes” to in my life.
I listen, I share, I listen some more. I ride, I reflect, I ride some more. I write, I review, I write some more.
What are the most important things in your life? Slow down to speed up. Your partner, your children, your work, your life. Be present to it, practice it, one step and then the next step.
Building a business? Start with one person, connect with them. Listen to them. Invite them. Assist them through the use of your service or product. Nourish the relationship. Propose for them to work with you only if it will serve them.
Mastery. Seek it. Treasure it. Enjoy each and every moment of it.
Synopsis of George Leonard’s Mastery …
Brian Johnson's Synopsis of George Leonard's book Mastery

 

The Quest for Mastery

“Mastery is not about perfection. It’s about a process … The master is the one that stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.“

George Leonard

What you seek and what you get are often different? Why, because you have mastered habits that help you meet your basic needs, yet do not substantially fulfill you. Consider how you meet your basic need for security, novelty, significance, and connection? Do you meet these needs at the expense of sacrificing your personal growth and contributing to the greater world?
Do you meet these basic needs through habits or addiction such as people pleasing, workaholism, perfectionism, relationships, or a better known addiction such as food, drugs, or alcohol. Do you seek fulfillment in your life, yet you fall short despite your best efforts? Why is that? Why is it you cannot do what you know you need to do? What gets in the way? You do!
You have mastered habits that are getting in your way! You cling to habits that fill your basic needs but hold you back from the continued personal growth you need to master through day to day practice, year after year to be your best self, an awesome life, and to maximize your ability to contribute beyond yourselves to the larger world.  How are you holding yourself back? How are the habits you have mastered getting in the way of having the fulfilling life that you want?
 What new habits do you need to master? How will you implement these new habits? How will you meet your basic needs while mastering the skills you need to live a fulfilled life? Write it down. What gets in the way? What needs to be mastered? How do you align your behaviors so that all your needs get met and you master the habits and skills you need to have the awesome life you want?
 Master the habits that will meet your basic needs and fulfillment needs both. Consider, reflect, practice, and observe, refine, and begin again. Get rid of habits that do not serve you! Seek and implement habits that do! You will find the life you want!
Copyrighted 2014