Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


On The Shoulders Of Giants

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 12:03 AM PST

Last week I was back in Denmark for my annual "lecture" at the KaosPilots business school. I love these trips, they are intense, but the students are great to work with; fun, interested, passionate - and always asking the best questions.

The school is thriving, with more students than ever and many improvements and developments under way.

It is students like these who show us most clearly the reality of evolution today in our society. The physical signs are less obvious, but intellectually and emotionally the process is accelerating.

The combination of minimal national boundaries, internet age access to information and an inspiring curriculum means that these students understanding of the world, our society and of business is far in advance of previous generations.

Many of them will go on to teach the next generation, whether in businesses or in business schools, and help them to take the story a stage further.

The multiple crises we experience compound the motivation to find new and more sustainable responses and solutions, to our challenges.

Our job (the previous generations) is mostly to get out of their way, and where possible, to offer opportunities and resources to allow them to pursue their dreams and ideals authentically.

What is happening in the world is very far from all bad, in spite of the way it is portrayed in the mainstream media. Actually human society has made incredible progress in many areas. Hans Rosling communicates our progress brilliantly.

If we can focus our energies we will also make progress in other areas. Humans have incredible energy, creativity and potential to do good for the world. Destructiveness in not human nature, it is the product of a confused and frightened minority.

The vast majority of people want peaceful, loving and meaningful lives that do as little harm to others as they can. Given the damage that has been done, we also need to focus on restoration and we can do that too.

We are already standing on the shoulders of giants. Great thinkers, doers and leaders, both those who have been celebrated and those we know personally clearly show us the way. We can learn both from the successes and the traumas and allow them to guide us towards the future we seek.

Magic Monday - the compilation of six years of the best of these Monday morning e-mails is available as an e-book. (There will be a print edition when I can make the time).

Also, working with my wonderful friend Dawn Waldron, we have written a new, thorough and really easy to use Life Purpose work book.

You can get your copies here.

If you would like help in finding your authenticity, give me a call.

Join us on our Authentic Business Radio show every Thursday at 5pm UK, 6pm Euro or 12.00 EST.

Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link

You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com

Become a fan on Facebook

Follow on Twitter

With love

nx


Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+34 646391384
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


It is your time and your responsibility

Posted: 15 Jan 2011 11:47 AM PST

Last week Barak Obama went to Tuscon to commemorate the victims and survivors of the previous weeks shooting. His speech was moving and inspiring, it was also a profound call to action for all of us.

Referencing 9 year old Christina Taylor Green, who died in the shooting, Obama said:

"I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations."

Unsurprisingly given the context, Obama specified America and children, but if we broaden it out, isn't this the truth:

We should do everything we can to make sure our society lives up to our own childhood expectations and those of the next generation.

What are the implications of this?

We should avoid any actions we are not proud of.

AND

When our moment comes to make a difference and a contribution we MUST take it.

We must not be deterred from our course by other people's fears.

We must not fall short because of our own unwillingness to step up.

We must find the courage, determination and communication to lead. To embolden ourselves to perform at our best and inspire those around us to their own greatest endeavour.

When enough of us are willing to step up to our full achievement, to go beyond what we might rationally consider possible, we change the world.

It is those who make these choices who change the world and make it live up to the dreams of children.

When your moment comes, don't hesitate. It is your moment.

At last, another book - Magic Monday - the compilation of six years of the best of these Monday morning e-mails is available as an e-book. (There will be a print edition when I can make the time).

Also, working with my wonderful friend Dawn Waldron, we have written a new, thorough and really easy to use Life Purpose work book.

You can get your copies here.

Best of TED this week: Birke Baehr with the brilliant clarity and wisdom of youth about our food systems. Watch his TED talk, put it on your web site, link to it and talk about it to everyone you meet. I have put it on www.neilcrofts.com

If you would like help in finding your authenticity, give me a call.

Join us on our Authentic Business Radio show every Thursday at 5pm UK, 6pm Euro or 12.00 EST.

Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link

You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com

Become a fan on Facebook

Follow on Twitter

With love

nx


Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+34 646391384
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


Happy New Year

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 12:55 AM PST

We have a little New Year's ritual. Whoever we are with, we all sit down and draw a picture of our intentions for the coming year.

In the past I have been quite specific about wanting to achieve particular goals. This year, I chose to take a higher level focus on the overall experience I would like to have. You can see the image on the blog page and also on Facebook.

The image is made up of seven concentric hearts the innermost is beige and the outermost is both yellow and turquoise. The colours are a reference to Spiral Dynamics (one of the things I teach) and my intention to learn to integrate all levels this year.

On the Red layer of the heart are the words "Love" and "Peace". These words and the heart are mostly about how I want to feel on the inside. Both would be good externally in the world as well, and that requires enough of us to have an inner experience of peace and love.

Love remains an unfashionable word in the business world but, we all know from our own experience, that the only positive relationships that are sustained are the ones where there is love involved.

We talk about wanting "loyalty", "trust" and "care" in our businesses and these things only come when you go beyond transactional relationships. Transactional relationships are only as good as the last performance.

Loyalty requires unconditionality and that can only exist through love or addiction. Addiction is destructive, so love is the way to create loyal, trusting and caring relationships.

Peace is about inner peace. I have come a long way since the time when my head was full of white noise and the only way to quieten the noise was through extreme activity. These days peace is a much more common experience, but I still experience doubt and anxiety.

Peace comes partly from being able to detach from events and observe them as interesting learning experiences, rather than getting too caught up in them. And partly from creating peaceful circumstances.

Like many people, most of my anxiety is to do with money. Turning that anxiety to peace means having a good strategy for income and being detached from any fear around it.

In the past seekers of inner peace would detach themselves from this stress in a very physical way, in a monastery or similar. Today the challenge is to find inner peace whilst also being part of society.

In the outermost heart the words "health" and "wealth" appear on the yellow side and "happiness" on the turquoise. In Spiral Dynamics terms, yellow is at "Second Tier" consciousness, where the primary motivation is love and the approach is more strategic than creative.

Health and wealth appear in the yellow area, because both require a strategic approach.

Health needs a good combination of diet, exercise, rest and minimising negative stress.

Wealth needs a focus on the area where we are at our most valuable, finding those who value and are willing to pay for it and delivering great value.

Happiness appears in the turquoise side because it is a more creative act. Happiness is not passive, it is active. We create happiness by taking responsibility for our own happiness and by creating happiness for those around us. We need to know what makes us and those around us authentically happy and focus our time and energy on those things, while allowing the distractions and junk to fall away.

Having a Happy New Year is a choice not a chance.

Best of TED this week: Birke Baehr with the brilliant clarity and wisdom of youth about our food systems. Watch his TED talk, put it on your web site, link to it and talk about it to everyone you meet. I have put it on www.neilcrofts.com

If you would like help in finding your authenticity, give me a call.

Join us on our Authentic Business Radio show every Thursday at 5pm UK, 6pm Euro or 12.00 EST.

Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link - http://bit.ly/dTCgQu

You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com

Become a fan on Facebook

Follow on Twitter

With love

nx


Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+34 646391384
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts