Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Ignorance

Posted: 25 Aug 2008 02:12 AM CDT

What do you know?

We spend a lot of energy venerating our knowledge, but actually what we don't know is far more exciting than what we do know.

Listening to the same piece of music, watching the same film, reading the same book, walking the same route over and over again are all things that most of us would prefer to avoid.

Discovering new things, either wholly new or new elements of something, as we learn it and learn more about ourselves, is where the stimulation lies.

We enjoy discovery and learning and once we have learned what there is to learn it is time to move on.

So why do we so often repeat the same patterns and the same solutions in our lives, our work and our societies?

Do we have to know that something is right, is going to work, is "better" than what we are used to before we try it?

We know that so many of the old patterns we use in our life, work and society do not work and yet we persist.

Just because something is familiar does not make it right or optimal. It just makes if comfortable.

It is alright to settle and it is alright to compromise, it is not alright to settle for compromise.

If we want to live happy and fulfilled lives, if we want to make valuable contribution to the world through our work and if we want to leave a safer and more healthy society for our children, we must continuously challenge the solutions of the past and innovate to a new level.

We must seek out our ignorance and replace it with learning.

The irony is that somewhere deep down we know the right thing to do. And yet we find the patterns that we have created through our lives are so difficult to change.

Next time you make a decision listen carefully to that inner voice and dare to take the path towards what you don't already know, dare to take the journey where the road ends.

If you take time planning your journey it does not need to be scary.

"Adventure is just bad planning". Roald Amundsen

Right now our society needs many, many more people who are willing to go "off piste". To follow their hearts, rather than the well trodden path. To explore, experiment, challenge, rebel, invent, innovate and create. Are you the rebel?

Would you like help in breaking free of your old patterns to find your peace and potential?

The PIE Retreat, 10-12 October, is designed specifically to propel people to a level of learning they had not considered possible. It will awaken you to what you know to be possible but so often struggle to reach.

If you cannot make The PIE Retreat, you can still take advantage of my three for the price of two coaching offer during August.

If you find these e-mails valuable and energising, you may like to contribute some energy to help me continue to write them. £5 per year seems like good value.





neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile + 44 7775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk  
www.authentictransformation.co.ukk

. . .if we wait for the moment when everything,
absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
Ivan Turgenev


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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

The Lesson of the Almond Tree

Posted: 18 Aug 2008 01:24 AM CDT

As a gardener, I am very much a beginner and the garden we inherited in September was quite overgrown and neglected. Last winter we pruned some of our Almond trees. Now in the second half of August the ones we pruned are still green with vigorous young shoots and green leaves, but no Almonds.

Other trees, that have been left for years, have only old shoots and have lost most of their leaves in the summer heat and also have almost no nuts. Some of the trees that have were pruned a few years ago still have leaves, but these ones also have nuts.

The old farmers here of course knew exactly how to maintain their Almond trees for maximum harvest year after year. They would keep a close eye on the trees and would thin them every year, so that there was always a good mix or roots, foliage and nuts.

So - what is the lesson of the Almond tree?

As any gardner will tell you, the balance between roots and foliage is critical. If there is too much foliage for the root base the plant can suffer or die when there is a drought. And if a plant needs to be cut back severely, there will be no crop that year.

We can see this too in our own lives, in business and in society as a whole.

Whatever we do it is important to grow a strong and stable root base that can support us when times are lean and not to get carried away and out grow our root base when times are good.

To do this we need to focus our energy on establishing a strong, three "C's" base of Capability, Communication and Community that can sustainably support us.

As individuals this means we need to invest in understanding and developing what we are great at, our Capability, so that we can best offer value to others. We then need to find or create a platform that will help us Communicate and deliver what we are offering to our Community.

In business we need to build up a strong and reliable team of self-motivated, team player/leaders who are inspired to deliver value with great products, Capability. We need to build strong Communications networks into our Community so that we can connect products with customers.

In society similarly we need to build everyones Capability to take care of themselves and each other. We need to build our abilities to Communicate with each other and create a sense of Community to minimise the desire for conflict.

If we do outgrow our root base, pruning is painful and can result in lean years as the energy to produce the crop is restored.

If we want to avoid painful pruning, as soon as we realise that there might be a problem we need to shift our focus back to the basics of Capability, Communication and Community. And we need to work out how we can best deliver value to our community under the new conditions.

There are those who will thrive in even the worst market conditions and they do so by offering relevant value to their community.

Remember the lesson of the Almond tree - focus on developing the roots of Capability, Communication and Community while always keeping a balance between the foliage and the roots.

If you would like help with any of this for your self or your business you might like to take advantage of my August three for two offer, come to the amazing PIE Retreat or have a chat with me about some training or consultancy for your team.

With love

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk 
 www.authentictransformation.co.uk

"Fear leads to hate
Hate leads to anger
Anger leads to suffering"
 
- Yoda

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Pacing

Posted: 11 Aug 2008 12:45 AM CDT

I am enjoying the summer lull and getting in some fairly serious cycling. For the first time in a while I am feeling quite fit.

My baseline route takes about an hour and includes a couple of climbs. My riding on this route tends to be like a time trial, the time it takes and my average heart rate give me an indication of my fitness.

One of the lessons this practice makes obvious (although not necessarily easy) is that of pacing. If I go too fast at the beginning it makes the later parts certainly harder and probably slower.

Another lesson is that after a hard effort, to go over a climb for example, if I allow some time going more gently for my heart rate to come down and to recover before the next hard effort, I will also go faster over the whole ride.

Many of us run our lives a little like a time trial too, we race around trying to squeeze in as much as possible, both at work and at home. Inevitably as different demands are made on us and we attempt cram more and more in, without letting anyone down, some things get lost on the way.

If I can have the discipline when cycling to pace myself carefully over the early part of the ride, and to allow time to recover after a hard effort I know, I can go faster with less discomfort.

In the same way if we can pace ourselves in our lives making a little extra time for recovery, for reflection and for planning we can actually get more done and with less discomfort.

We may feel guilty that we are not being as "busy" as we should be, but surely it is more to do with effectiveness than busyness? And busyness is not the same as effectiveness.

As three time Tour de France winner, Greg Le Mond said, "cycling doesn't get any easier (as you get fitter), you just go faster."

If you would like some help with reflection and planning for your life and work, perhaps you could take advantage of my three for the price of two August offer and I can help you.

If you want make some really focussed time for reflection you might like to join us for The PIE Retreat in October. See Neil talking about PIE on MNBTV.

If you find these e-mails valuable and energising, you may like to contribute some energy to help me continue to write them. £5 per year seems like good value.


with love

nx


neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk 
 www.authentictransformation.co.uk
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
  - George Orwell


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Monday, August 04, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Reflection

Posted: 04 Aug 2008 01:13 AM CDT

It's August :-) One of our two annual "ceasefires" where working life slows down to a more moderate pace and we have the opportunity to relax a little.

It is lovely to spend some of this time distracting ourselves from any discomfort in our lives with holidays and summer fun.

If you do have discomfort in your life or business another good use of this time is to take the opportunity to make plans and changes to ease or erase the discomfort.

We can start with a quick life or business inventory to check in with score the important aspects of your life out of 10, where 10 is exactly as you would like things to be and 0 is absolutely not.

The main areas in our personal life are: love and relationships, work and wealth, fitness and health, lifestyle and location, spirituality and meaning.

The main areas in our business life are: communication and relationships, management and profitability, future strategy, location and facilities, purpose and motivation.

You may also want to subdivide some of these areas into specific opportunities you have to make improvements, like particular relationships or areas of health. All of the areas where you have scored less than 10 are opportunities, and the ones with the lowest scores are where improvements will make the biggest difference.

Now arrange the list with the lowest scores at the top. Take the first item on the list (the one with the lowest score). Imagine what 10 would be like. What it would feel like, what would it look like, where would it be, who would it be and so on. Articulate it as clearly as you possibly can, use pictures, use sounds, use anything that makes it clearer for you.

Now identify anything that stands in the way of that 10 feeling happening and develop a strategy for moving the obstacles out of the way and allowing that 10 to happen all of the time.

If one of the obstacles turns out to be this process or any part of it, or the questions are difficult to answer, you might like to take advantage of my three for the price of two August offer and I can help you.

If you want to really stretch for the 10 in all areas of life you might like to join us for The PIE Retreat in October.

If you find these e-mails valuable and energising, you may like to contribute some energy to help me continue to write them. £5 per year seems like good value.



With love

nx

ps - You may notice a some changes going on with my web sites over the next couple of weeks. This is because I am separating the personal side of Authentic Transformation from the business side. The personal side will come under www.neilcrofts.com and the business side under www.authenticis.com If you want a preview you can see the beta sites already live.


neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk  
www.authentictransformation.co.uk

It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
--Sir Edmund Hillary

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