Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Where are you going? Posted: 25 Feb 2008 02:04 AM CST Do you treat life as a journey, with a destination or as a stroll, with no particular objective? If you do see life as a journey - what is your destination, where are you going? It is an important question. Many of us see planning our lives as an almost cynical exercise and that the only real way to live is to "just see what happens". The problem with this approach is that we tend to get swept along with the flow, someone else's flow. As Jim Rohn says - "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." Or, more succinctly, as it says on the waistband of my Howies jeans - "If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything." But of course simply treating your life as a journey is not enough on it's own. If we are going to go on a journey, we also need to know what our destination is. We need to know where we are going. Equally it is not enough to have an idea of a destination, we also have to actually be going towards it as well. So, back to the original question: Where are you going? Where are you actually going? If we look at the trajectory of our life and we project forwards from where we are now where does it end up? Does it go around in a circle? Does it get to somewhere we actually want to be? Does it end up at the destination we were hoping for? Take a quick life inventory: Is your work taking you where you want to go? Will it give you the level of wealth you desire? Will it fulfill you and give you the sense that you have contributed to society? Is your health and fitness going where you want to go? Is your waistline heading in the direction you want? Is your body going where you want it to? Is your love life and are other key relationships going to a place you want to be? Is your lifestyle heading towards the place you were hoping for? Are you learning what you need to learn and practicing what you need to practice to find a sense of spiritual fulfilment? Give yourself a score out of 10 for each of these - with 10 being peace and 1 being torment. Your lowest scores are your greatest opportunities. Here are some ways I can help you with your life project if you want a boost. The Total Potential Retreat is specifically about maximising these five areas of life. Authentic Coaching works through all of these areas to help you find peace. Seven Stages of Authenticity is a self coaching manual that provides an easy to read map for this journey. If you are a coach, consultant or artist who wants to develop and clarify your own way to inspire and support people on this journey the Authentic Transformation Advance is designed specifically for you. Remember that this is not a selfish path. As soon as enough people are able to live a life of authentic peace and fulfilment our society will be transformed to one of peace and sustainability. with love nx neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator Authentic Transformation - join the evolution UK mobile 07775 658534 UK office 0845 6800648 Spain mobile (+34) 606 204 994       Spain office (+34) 971 673 325 neil@authentictransformation.co.uk   www.authentictransformation.co.uk When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Love fear - Fear love Posted: 18 Feb 2008 02:05 AM CST I ran an Authentic Leadership workshop last week for a client. We discussed seven key words that describe authentic leadership and then an eighth. The first seven words were pretty much the kind of words you would expect: Empowerment, meaning, alignment, safe space, opportunity, courage and integrity. The first seven words were accepted without demur. The eighth word was "Love". Love as in the opposite of fear. Love as in doing things, treating people, behaving with love. Being loving with people. Loving what you do. Love polarised the audience. Some were excited at the concept that "love" could be a recommended way to lead at work. Others struggled to get beyond more personal meanings of the word. My observation, after years of research, is that the only relationships that truly work are the ones where there is love involved. This is as true for our friendships as it is for our lovers. As true for our sports and hobbies as it is for our work. As true for our colleagues as it is for our clients. Love is where a relationship shifts beyond the obvious, rational, beyond the transactional, beyond "what's in it for me?" Love is where fulfilment, enjoyment, engagement, passion and meaning start. Love is where we breakthrough from being units of production to being human. Love is where we step out from the grey, bland mass and step into a world of colour, light and flavour. Shall we change our world? Shall we let go of fear, let go of the anodyne, let go of the bland? Shall we insist on a world filled with love? All we need to do is to focus on love. Only do work that we love. Only spend money on things we love. Only spend time in places we love,with people we love. As we accept no less than love the world changes. What does it take? Like most things, all it requires is a decision. Are you ready to decide? For support in bringing love into your workplace take a look at bringing in Authentic BusinessTransformation. For support in focusing your life around what you love take a look at The Total Potential Retreat or at Authentic Coaching. Or perhaps you are the kind of person who can help others bring more love into their lives? Take a look at the Authentic Transformation Advance. With love nx neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator Authentic Transformation - join the evolution UK mobile 07775 658534 UK office 0845 6800648 Spain mobile (+34) 606 204 994       Spain office (+34) 971 673 325 neil@authentictransformation.co.uk  www.authentictransformation.co.uk "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention." anon graffitti Clerkenwell London This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Authentic Leadership Posted: 11 Feb 2008 02:05 AM CST If you consider that our world view evolves, leadership too must evolve. The kind of leadership that was appropriate in Roman times, 'warrior emperor', is very different from the kind of leadership that was appropriate in the industrial revolution, 'patrician and controlling'. The kind of leadership that was appropriate in the freebooting 1980's and 1990's, 'creative and individualistic' is very different from the kind of leadership that is appropriate to lead with the multi-layered commercial, social, spiritual and environmental challenges we face today. What kind of leadership is appropriate today as we shift from post modern to whatever is next, from industrial to knowledge based business, from control to empowered? What kind of leader is going to inspire today's more self- actualised and caring staff for whom ethics and meaning are as important as the size of their pay packet? Our traditional view of leadership is that leaders are appointed to a hierarchical position at the top of a pyramid, which is generally part of a series of interlocking pyramids that ascend to a rather blurry space at the top called "shareholders" or the "electorate". We seem to be addicted to the concept of hierarchy even in families, very often. In our society there appears to be an almost universal acceptance that hierarchy is the only valid social structure. However hierarchy creates some fundamental challenges, in that while it works well in very focussed circumstances, crisis and disaster for example, it works less well in many other situations. There are three fundamental challenges with hierarchy: 1: Leadership - inevitably where a fixed hierarchy is adhered to (e.g in a business, a country or a family) you do not get the most appropriate leader most of the time. We all have strengths and weaknesses and a single person cannot possibly be the best leader in every situation. 2: Workload - As we take responsibility for more people's lives, either as employees or an electorate, we increase our workload. Pretty quickly the workload becomes so intense that we spend all of our time dealing with minutiae and have no time, energy or brain space for creativity, strategy or work/life balance. 3: Dependency - where people abdicate their own responsibility to another on a permanent or semi permanent basis. Dependency inevitably diminishes the identity of the individual by allowing them to limit their responsibility. We all blame politicians for failing to deal with the issue of the day (climate change, crime, terrorism, education, health and so on) rather than realising our responsibility and doing something about it. If we are to have fully functional, optimised communities, in business, government or any other organisation the culture, structure and leadership must be designed to enable every member to contribute to the maximum. The most inspiring and influential leaders are rarely appointed or elected, they emerge when their passion and their abilities coincide with an issue that creates enough energy (usually in the form of anger) to step up and make a difference. Mohandas Gandhi, Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela (only later elected), Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Geldof for example. There is a sweet spot where our passions and abilities coincide with an energising issue, if we can pursue this purpose and dedicate our lives to it we can achieve the most amazing things. This is authentic leadership and is totally different from the hierarchical leadership that we are most familiar with. Authentic leaders emerge when their passion and abilities coincide with an opportunity for improvement. Authentic leaders are focussed on their purpose rather than their ego. A non hierarchical community is not without leaders, it is full of leaders. Leadership flows dynamically around the community in the way that it flows around the football pitch during a match. Leadership vests transiently with an individual because of location, ability, knowledge and so on. When a significant issue faces a community the opportunity always exists for a leader supported by the community, as opposed to one supported by their boss, to emerge. Authentic leaders are responsible to their community not to their boss. Authentic leaders guide their community without seeking to control it. For authentic leaders success lies in the empowerment of their community and of individuals within it, not in self aggrandisement. Were are you going to step up and lead? Where are the opportunities that you see for improvement in your work or in our society where you could step up and lead? For help in clarifying your leadership opportunity and style come on the Authentic Transformation Advance For help in finding you own leadership potential, come on the Total Potential Retreat. with love nx neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator Authentic Transformation - join the evolution UK mobile 07775 658534 UK office 0845 6800648 Spain mobile (+34) 606 204 994  Spain office (+34) 971 673 325 neil@authentictransformation.co.uk   www.authentictransformation.co.uk When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.   - CP Snow This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

What are we going to do about it? Posted: 04 Feb 2008 02:13 AM CST A while back I wrote about the triple challenge that we are facing as a society.  The 'Blue' challenge of terrorism and the ownership of meaning, the 'orange' challenge of peak oil and the 'green' challenge of climate change. We don't know the future, but we can be fairly certain that if we are unable to respond to the 'Blue' challenge there will be a rise in conflict and crimes of hate. If we are unable to respond to the 'Orange' challenge, there will be a deterioration in our standard of living. And if we are unable to respond to the 'Green' challenge there will be a tremendous hardship for those least able to respond - wildlife and those without the resources to move or protect themselves. If we are unable to respond the relatively comfortable life that we in the west have known for the last 50 years will be over. It will be replaced by poverty and conflict. The point about this triple challenge is that it is a challenge of PERSONAL responsibility. It is not about waiting for politicians and business people to sort it out. It is about us sorting this out. It is about YOU sorting this out. We have a choice, we can either step up. Or we can watch and wait for someone else to take responsibility. If you are ready to take responsibility - here is what you need to do. Blue Challenge: The Blue challenge is about the ownership of meaning. Meaning is enormously powerful and has been used, with great success, to manipulate people for millennia. It has been used in religion, it has been used by dictators and it has even been used in reverse to create the nihilistic consumer culture of today. The paradox of the blue challenge is that meaning cannot be owned. It is entirely individual, but it is possible to persuade people, using fear, that there is one true path and to get them to fight for it. The solution to the Blue challenge is to be loving. Be loving with your partner and your children. Be loving with everyone you meet. Whenever you meet fear and anger respond by spreading love and peace. Bring whatever influence you can to encourage the media to be more loving and less fearful. Look for the love in every situation you encounter and focus on it. Orange Challenge: The Orange challenge is about peak oil. There is a myth that the relative affluence many of us enjoy is the consequence of the hard work and ingenuity of the people of the west. There is some truth in this, but it is entirely underpinned by the availability of cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels. Oil is a limited resource and it is running out. It may remain relatively cheap for another ten years or another fifty, but at some point in the not too distant future, it will become seriously expensive. The availability of cheap oil has stifled investment in alternatives. It has been simply uneconomic to invest in alternative energy sources while oil is so cheap. The reality is that virtually all energy on earth comes from the Sun - including oil, gas, coal, hydro and wind, the exception is tidal energy which is largely driven by the moon. The Sun pours a simply staggering amount of energy onto the earth (about 7000 times the amount of our total annual consumption) and we need to make the shift from the inefficient and polluting use of ancient sunlight (in the form of fossil fuels), to using the current sunlight to power our lives. It is like making the shift from living off our savings to living from a sustainable income. The challenge is that historical investment models dislike the use of current sunlight for two reasons. 1 - energy from ancient sunlight remains relatively cheap. 2 - you cannot own or profit from current sunlight energy in the same way because it is everywhere and not controllable. The solution to the Orange challenge is to invest in renewable energy. In spite of the propaganda from the fossil and nuclear lobbies the current energy of the sun is easily sufficient for our needs, if we are prepared to be creative and committed. There are some amazing new technologies such as Concentrated Solar, that make significant amounts of solar energy useable. Invest both in your own micro energy generation and in renewable energy generally. Companies in the UK like - Good Energy, Solar Century and Green Energy can all help. Treat renewable energy as part of your pension, make your home and business a power station that generates more electricity than you consume. You will be in good company - see what Google are doing. If that is difficult - invest in other renewable energy businesses and/or become their customers. The Green Challenge: The Green Challenge is primarily about the pollution caused by abuse of all of the ancient sunlight reserves. Oil, coal and gas are our inheritance and it is our responsibility to use it wisely. Wisely means using this wealth to help our society get to sustainability at a higher level. So far - we have mostly squandered it in an orgy of societal indulgence. Keeping ourselves safe and comfortable, inspiring ourselves and interacting with other cultures are good uses of our inheritance. Learning, developing, connecting and inspiring are positive and help us move forwards. Truly wasteful uses are war (see the Blue Challenge), commuting and distraction. We must find more efficient ways to do the useful things (the Carbon Coach can help with this) and actually stop doing the wasteful things. I used to believe that war was where we got to when we had exhausted all other possibilities. Now I realise that on the whole it is either to do with bullying or toddler tantrums. In other words we go to war when our 'leaders' revert to playground behaviour. The way to avoid war is for us all to be more loving and more peaceful. Most office work has more to do with control than it does with effectiveness. We do not need to commute to use a phone or answer e-mails. We only need to travel when we need to collaborate with others in the same location. Let's adjust our working habits so that we only travel when it is appropriate to do so. Distraction is the media, gadgets, travel and other aspects of our culture that we consume simply to avoid facing up to our responsibilities. The opportunity lies in shifting away from distraction and towards inspiration. And of course the really big thing is to prepare our children for adulthood in a way that means that they already know these things. Ways in which I can help: I can help you make your business more authentic, which will make it both more responsible and more inspiring. Join me for the Authentic Business Phone in this Thursday to discover the secrets of Authentic Business. Join the Authentic Transformation Advance in Mallorca or California to find your way to make a living by inspiring authenticity in others. Join the Total Potential Retreat to find out how you can bring more love into your life. With love nx This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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