Plant! -- And Accept The Consequences! Written by Miami Phillips
WEEKLY WISDOM NEWSLETTER Plant! -- And Accept The Consequences! November 13, 2003 Welcome to Weekly Wisdoms. Last week I found a new way to communicate over internet with audio. After you listen, if you'd like to try it for yourself, click here for a chance to make your own free audio postcard... Too cool! Have fun! What a busy week! The lumber package for barn is on way. Malcolm is here to saw up rest of logs for siding. We are building a new riding arena. Three new potential clients. And we planted 3 acres of grass! Actually we put down twelve thousand pounds of lime, fertilizer, grass seed and clover seed. I feel like a farmer! I woke up this morning thinking about all that seed and what it might look like next year. We spent summer getting ready for this day. Land was cleared, logs carried off, limbs and stumps burned; sticks, roots and rocks collected and removed. A tractor was used for hours to turn dirt and level ground, making sure water would run off into creeks. Now there is nothing more I can do. I have to give up worrying about whether or not grass will come up, what it will look like, or if I have done it right. Now I must have faith in myself and in Universe that we have done all we can to make this dream of pastures full of thick green grass for horses a reality. And I have to wait until spring to see it! It seems to me that
| | ARE YOU A CHANGE CATALYST?Written by Manya Arond-Thomas
"Time does not exist except for change." Aristotle"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds." R. D. Laing "When two people in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary." William Wrigley, Jr. Change...................how do you react when you hear that word? Personally, I tend to have a bimodal response of excitement and apprehension. While there is a wide range of how people entertain and respond to change - from little appetite for it with very long change cycles to a significant need for change every few years - I think it's safe to say that we all prefer to be initiator of change rather than having change thrust upon us. That's why it's so important to look at one's own willingness to be a change catalyst. I find it fascinating that word "change" comes from old English "cambium" which means "becoming." For there is no life without growth or "becoming" - thus, like it or not, we must embrace and accept change unless, we want to live life in a numbed or deadened state. Discovering ways to anticipate and embrace change is a key competency of emotional intelligence. After all, whenever we don't get what we want we have to change course. The process of "becoming" is enlivening and indeed critical for life. To be human is, by definition, to continually integrate to higher levels of complexity, an ability conferred by incredible nervous system humans have evolved, with its' multiple iterations of intelligence: from residual reptilian brain (instincts) to limbic (emotional) brain to cerebral neo-cortex. If we're alive, our nervous systems are continuously driving us to higher levels of integration. If we embrace that drive, we will become a more whole person. If not, we become unhealthy (on some level) and eventually die. Harsh as that may sound, it's just a law of nature. Ask yourself: "How alive do I feel?" "Am I present to possibilities of moment or am I dwelling on what isn't happening or what I wish would happen?" Change catalysts generate movement. Movement is life, even if it's not always in right direction. Movement is better than stuck-ness. "Becoming" and change produce movement that is guided by purpose, moment that is on purpose, movement that is driven by intention. Movement without purpose is only activity while movement with purpose is change. Here are some ways to know if you're a change catalyst: 1. Do you take your discontent as information that something needs to change? 2. Do you take your complaints and transform them into constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement? 3. Do you personally lead change initiatives or wait for others to do it? 4. Do you continue to advocate change even if you meet resistance or opposition? 5. Are you willing to tolerate discomfort that occurs in transition from old to new?
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