Normally we think to align or balance self before taking any concrete actions. Early morning meditation/yoga, healthy consumption, music, reading/writing something inspirational, are some examples. More objectively, it is action that brings us to these self-empowering aligning activities in the first place. A combination of initiative, effort and concentration that allows us to break through the occasional difficulties and awkwardness... as with learning to read, write or ride a bike.
This requires a willingness to endure and experience whatever arises, inwardly in the realm of thought and emotion as well as outwardly in facing and figuring out the task at hand. The understanding is that benevolent and divine grace descends the higher realms onto the physical, only when full attention and concentrated intention is given to the present task at hand. First the friction, then fusion, then unlimited bountiful creation. Total absorption, leverage, alignment, and grace in action comes with simply showing up (being there), diving in and persevering to get the job done.
Gradually, overtime, the sense of alignment and flow comes more effortlessly, naturally, as certain muscles and skills are built and developed in an unending evolutionary creative process. There exists prior to action a spontaneously aligned meditative state (Being), a fresh beginners mind that is open receptive aware, accepting and surrendered to the reality of what is. It is this inner calm center that initially provides us the pure potential state necessary for facing the daunting tasks at hand and all that one must master in a single work day, including negative thoughts and difficult emotions. However, it must be remembered that all worldly activity comes naturally and easily only with a great deal of initiative, attention, hard work and practice.
Joel David Zenie
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Emperor
Seek not to rule nor to be ruled over by others. Every man is his own authority who makes his own rules, boundaries and parameters; but only after choosing to stand alone and reject all outside authorities.
JDZ
The Art of War History Channel Part 1
"Know your enemy and know yourself and in 100 battles you will never be in peril"
"To win 100 battles is not the height of skill, to subdue the enemy without fighting is"
"Avoid what is strong.. Attack what is weak"
SUN TZU
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Peaceful Warrior Edit (Part 2 of 3)
"A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability... he's about absolute vulnerability, and that's the only true courage"
"A warrior acts, only a fool reacts"
"There is no stopping nor starting, only doing"
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Finding your own North Star
Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean Everybody Isn't Out To Get You
Don't look now, but a lot of very powerful people are trying to stop you from reaching your North Star. Unless we deal with them, you might as well call off the whole trip. The conspirators who marshaled against you are the very people who exiled your essential self in the first place, the ones who put your overgrown social self in complete command of your life. Right this minute, they are rallying to keep you from making positive changes. Who are they? Everybody, that's who. People in general. Society at large. The whole six-billion-member kit and kaboodle we call the human race.
You think I sound a teensy bit paranoid? Hey, I didn't come up with this on my own. I have many, many informed sources. My clients have a very firm grasp of what Everybody thinks, and they share the information with me almost every day..
Ah, yes. Everybody seems to know what Everybody thinks. It's fascinating to get a bunch of people together to ask about Everybody, because, though each individual is convinced that he or she has a finger on the pulse of some universal Zeitgiest each of their Everybodies turns out to be a very small slice of the human pie. Your view of Everybody is completely different from my view of Everybody, which completely from, say, Saddam Hussein's view of Everybody.
In fact, everybody's Everybody is composed of just a few key people. Our social nature makes us long to fit in with a larger group, but it's difficult to hold the tastes and opinions of more than five or six individuals in your mind. So the resourceful social self creates a kind of shorthand: it picks up on a few people's attitudes, emblazons them on your brain, and extrapolates this image until it covers the entire known universe. The vague compilation of folks you call Everybody is what psychologists call "the generalized other".
No matter how deeply your essential self longs to find the real love, the real mission, the real meaning of your life, your social self will not let you embrace these things as long as Everybody disapproves. The social self isn't opposed to your reaching your North Star, per se: it just won't allow you to proceed toward it until you get Everybody's permission. Actually, the social self would prefer that you don't do anything, anything at all, until Everybody kneels down and begs you to do it.
The social self wigs out when you begin to listen to the essential self, because the latter immediately begins to suggest that you do things your Everybody might not like...
Essential Self: I hate this job.
Social Self: Don't you dare quit! Do you know how that will look on your resume? Everybody will think you're a complete failure.
Remember, your social self is just trying to keep you from getting hurt. Everything it says may be partially true. What your social self doesn't know is that 1) very few people actually feel this way; 2) these people are not like to be the best source of information about your ideal life; and 3) there may be a whole bunch of other people who would actually praise and accept you for doing exactly what feels best to your essential self. By installing a hypercritical social group as your definition of Everybody, your social self may well be keeping you from the Everybody who will applaud and support your quest for your North Star.
The way to solve this problem isn't to reject or condemn your social self; it's just doing its well-meaning best. No, we're going to give the social self exactly what it wants - Everybody's approval - while also allowing you to take directions from your essential self. This is the only way to find your North Star, but you may not like how we have to go about it. See, you want the Everybody you have now, the people whose influence landed you in your present life, to approve of your essential self. This will happen right after Hell becomes the official Olympic ice-dancing venue, and you may have that kind of time, but I don't. I'd rather take the quick approach by exchanging your present generalized other for a whole new Everybody.
Finding your own North Star (pp.59-61) by Martha Beck
Don't look now, but a lot of very powerful people are trying to stop you from reaching your North Star. Unless we deal with them, you might as well call off the whole trip. The conspirators who marshaled against you are the very people who exiled your essential self in the first place, the ones who put your overgrown social self in complete command of your life. Right this minute, they are rallying to keep you from making positive changes. Who are they? Everybody, that's who. People in general. Society at large. The whole six-billion-member kit and kaboodle we call the human race.
You think I sound a teensy bit paranoid? Hey, I didn't come up with this on my own. I have many, many informed sources. My clients have a very firm grasp of what Everybody thinks, and they share the information with me almost every day..
Ah, yes. Everybody seems to know what Everybody thinks. It's fascinating to get a bunch of people together to ask about Everybody, because, though each individual is convinced that he or she has a finger on the pulse of some universal Zeitgiest each of their Everybodies turns out to be a very small slice of the human pie. Your view of Everybody is completely different from my view of Everybody, which completely from, say, Saddam Hussein's view of Everybody.
In fact, everybody's Everybody is composed of just a few key people. Our social nature makes us long to fit in with a larger group, but it's difficult to hold the tastes and opinions of more than five or six individuals in your mind. So the resourceful social self creates a kind of shorthand: it picks up on a few people's attitudes, emblazons them on your brain, and extrapolates this image until it covers the entire known universe. The vague compilation of folks you call Everybody is what psychologists call "the generalized other".
No matter how deeply your essential self longs to find the real love, the real mission, the real meaning of your life, your social self will not let you embrace these things as long as Everybody disapproves. The social self isn't opposed to your reaching your North Star, per se: it just won't allow you to proceed toward it until you get Everybody's permission. Actually, the social self would prefer that you don't do anything, anything at all, until Everybody kneels down and begs you to do it.
The social self wigs out when you begin to listen to the essential self, because the latter immediately begins to suggest that you do things your Everybody might not like...
Essential Self: I hate this job.
Social Self: Don't you dare quit! Do you know how that will look on your resume? Everybody will think you're a complete failure.
Remember, your social self is just trying to keep you from getting hurt. Everything it says may be partially true. What your social self doesn't know is that 1) very few people actually feel this way; 2) these people are not like to be the best source of information about your ideal life; and 3) there may be a whole bunch of other people who would actually praise and accept you for doing exactly what feels best to your essential self. By installing a hypercritical social group as your definition of Everybody, your social self may well be keeping you from the Everybody who will applaud and support your quest for your North Star.
The way to solve this problem isn't to reject or condemn your social self; it's just doing its well-meaning best. No, we're going to give the social self exactly what it wants - Everybody's approval - while also allowing you to take directions from your essential self. This is the only way to find your North Star, but you may not like how we have to go about it. See, you want the Everybody you have now, the people whose influence landed you in your present life, to approve of your essential self. This will happen right after Hell becomes the official Olympic ice-dancing venue, and you may have that kind of time, but I don't. I'd rather take the quick approach by exchanging your present generalized other for a whole new Everybody.
Finding your own North Star (pp.59-61) by Martha Beck
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Workflow Management -- Five Steps of Success
Because the work at hand is a process not an outcome, a journey not a destination, I call David Allen's work flow model 5 steps of (not to) success. As important as having certain outcomes or ends in mind, the process and journey is even more so. This is why "stress free productivity" is the central message of interest here. Having already comprehended GTD in the literal sense, now a more meaningful understanding of all this is dawning. Here I will sum up these 5 steps in as illuminating yet concise manner as possible:
3-ORGANIZE & STRUCTURE - Details of Implementation: Having a Plan and acknowledging the practical physical details necessary for creative implementing and manifesting into meaningful desirable outcomes. Daily Task Lists (Next Actions, Phone Calls, Errands, Appointments, etc), Master Task List, Schedule of Appointments and Work Obligations. Projects List, Areas of Focus (Mind Rooms), Long Term Goals and Visions, Someday/Maybe Wish Lists.
4-REVIEW & RESPOND - The trickiest part because it is about REMEMBERING, not just updating and refining the lists but knowing the right CUE to ACT (the next step). Proper review not only establishes everything neatly and to perfection on paper or digital calendars, via daily, weekly and monthly reviews of all lists, but more importantly PREPARES YOU TO ACT at the appropriate time and place, as if one was going on stage in theatrical performance (and sometimes before a large audience!).
5-ACTION & WILLINGNESS - If it means starting exactly where you are here/now and noticing directly in front of you what needs clearing, cleaning, collecting, processing, etc, then DO IT. Although the most streamlined and well prepared actions arise out of proper organization and review, there are immediate responses to the environment that are also within the individual's responsibility to take action, spur of the moment situations that crop up during the day. There is also the action of DEFINING WORK, which is essentially what David Allen's system for "Getting Things Done" is for. The final follow through is in the ACTION, the forward moving progression by which the idea becomes an actuality.
*If there is a Sixth Step I would equate with the Sixth Sense... this is Intuition and Inner Guidance system, beyond the purely concrete and practical aspects, which is really no other than your own core VALUES.
JDZ
1-CLEAN, CLEAR, COLLECT or TOSS OUT all loose ends. Use in-baskets, notepads, email and voice mail, etc: In essence, ELIMINATE all stuff that is taking up valuable space (including body toxins, via exercise/sauna). Clear the decks and neaten up the area so I am ready and able to work.
2-PROCESS & FOCUS Intentions - What is this thing in my in-basket? What is the desired/intended outcome for it and the next action steps necessary toward completion. Get an increasingly more in-focus sense or vision of what it is I am doing, step by step accomplishment that begins with bringing immediate tasks and goals to conscious aware.
3-ORGANIZE & STRUCTURE - Details of Implementation: Having a Plan and acknowledging the practical physical details necessary for creative implementing and manifesting into meaningful desirable outcomes. Daily Task Lists (Next Actions, Phone Calls, Errands, Appointments, etc), Master Task List, Schedule of Appointments and Work Obligations. Projects List, Areas of Focus (Mind Rooms), Long Term Goals and Visions, Someday/Maybe Wish Lists.
4-REVIEW & RESPOND - The trickiest part because it is about REMEMBERING, not just updating and refining the lists but knowing the right CUE to ACT (the next step). Proper review not only establishes everything neatly and to perfection on paper or digital calendars, via daily, weekly and monthly reviews of all lists, but more importantly PREPARES YOU TO ACT at the appropriate time and place, as if one was going on stage in theatrical performance (and sometimes before a large audience!).
5-ACTION & WILLINGNESS - If it means starting exactly where you are here/now and noticing directly in front of you what needs clearing, cleaning, collecting, processing, etc, then DO IT. Although the most streamlined and well prepared actions arise out of proper organization and review, there are immediate responses to the environment that are also within the individual's responsibility to take action, spur of the moment situations that crop up during the day. There is also the action of DEFINING WORK, which is essentially what David Allen's system for "Getting Things Done" is for. The final follow through is in the ACTION, the forward moving progression by which the idea becomes an actuality.
*If there is a Sixth Step I would equate with the Sixth Sense... this is Intuition and Inner Guidance system, beyond the purely concrete and practical aspects, which is really no other than your own core VALUES.
JDZ
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