However, we do bring essential guidance to you on what is myth and what is real in self management based on Nature's Universal Laws and therefore not on trend, fashion, emotion or rhetoric. So, in this post I'm going to create a little summary for you of exactly what Managing You looks like from Nature's Viewpoint.
Now, it's important to remember that Nature's Universal Laws run the universe, every atom, molecule, galaxy and therefore every business, person, community and family lives under the same principles. We can't escape those laws, except in our heads where, literally, anything is possible. (even depression can exist in a human head in the most magnificent world we can imagine)... Our head can be so filled with ideas that make life "gooder" and equally it can be filled with garbage... and as you'll know... garbage in = garbage out.
So, lets sit back and enjoy a short ride down the Innerwealth Managing You Path... an d let Nature Be Your Guide....
1. There is no end.
You are crouched in the starting position, the race is about to start. It's the final of the Olympic 100 meters sprint. You need to get out of the starting blocks 1/1000th of a second faster than your competitors, but if you jump the start, you're disqualified. You can't think that fast so, you let go your mind and enter "The Inner Zone" a space scientists can't put their finger on, psychologists have no idea exists (even deny it) and all religions want to own... it's a deep, powerful sense of you, where nothing exists... this is productivity... a humanly accessible place... 9.2seconds later you cross the line, you cheer, wave your hands, hug those you love. Then, you start coming back, out of "The Inner Zone" and emotions overwhelm you... tears form... exhaustion sets in... you start to shake from the adrenalin that was needed. By the end of the day, and after getting your Gold Medal, you're back into re ality... happy but worried... now, a bit sad... what next?
You see there is no end. That house you want, that perfect job, that weekend retreat you want to buy, that extra pay, they must exist, there must be a next otherwise the human spirit just shrivels and dies. Most obesity comes from the lack of one or many of those wants... depression is caused by loss of wants... We're dreamers us humans... just like every leaf in nature, we have a Purpose, and our wants are all just stepping stones on the path of living it.
Nature destroys anything that doesn't fulfil it's purpose... including us... and yet we get so caught up in the End Game mindset of "when this happens all will be fine"... No No No... all will never be fine... it's not meant to be... we evolve at the border of chaos and order. No chaos? Impossible..
What we can do instead of living under the "End Game" strategy of perpetual disappointment is to do the Manage Me strategy... Innerwealth Thinking... which is to embrace the frustrations and chaos of life, everyday of our life, and therefore reduce their volume. A chaos deferred doesn't go away.. it's called a tsunami and the longer we delay dealing with chaos, challenges, confrontations, discomforts, decisions that aren't pleasant... the larger the crack we'll be dealing with when it does happen. Unlike "hippies" that think deferring challenges makes them evaporate, better to teach our kids to enjoy them in the moment. Ignorance is therefore absolutely NEVER bliss it just defers the Crack and allows it to build.
So, "It Never Ends" means that Manage Me is about realistic expectations about life and work. It must have challenge. You haven't failed if you have challenges. Your relationship isn't sick if it has challenges. Your business isn't in trouble if you have challenge. If your children are giving you challenge, that's love. If your health is up and down, celebrate... because that means you are on purpose, evol ving. If, on the other hand, all is going great, your business is great, your relationship is without challenges and your kids are perfect... someone is BS'ing you. You don't want BS' you want love and love happens at the border of Support and Challenge. If anyone tries to sell you PEACE as the absence of challenge tell them to go fly... Peace is the ability to embrace support and challenge equally. If the sun rises in the west, or the rain comes in summer, learn to accept the challenge and adapt, rather than be disappointed and frustrated that things are not the way you want them, because that doesn't work. Life never stops.. there is no end until the last breath. Embrace challenges as proof you are ALIVE.
2. Manage YOU First
Everyday my Facebook is filled with people talking about save the whales or something like that. I really appreciate their sentiment but often wonder how much of their investment is based on a "cockeyed" view of themselves, their lif e and the world around them? What many people don't recognise is that when they vent their own "twisted" perspectives onto others they do in fact cause a reaction that actually generates Balance... in other words, resistance.
Some people come to work with the best of intentions, good hearted people who think they are doing the right thing but are actually doing the wrong thing. It's hard to explain to someone that "the very ego that drove them to reach their new job, is actually stopping them from doing it."
Managing You starts with the way you sit in a chair, your posture, your breathing and metabolic rate. All of which impact your millions of choices all day. But with this in hand, Managing You quickly spreads to a multitude of other more secretive and therefore less cognitive variables. And, in the most clear way to describe this non cognitive step, it's best called your "consciousness."
Consciousness is human perception. How you see the world. others in it, your interpretations, your future, your hopes and ambitions all depend on your consciousness. And consciousness is never fixed. It's more like one of those colourful slinky springs the kids play with. You might be really smart, and therefore a long way up the slinky spring in your evolution but if you're unthankful, mean, angry and self obsessed, your slinky will be so compressed, you could fit it in your pocket. And that's called human potential wasted.
So, the smartest person, with the most knowledge might have the lowest consciousness and it's consciousness that determines great leadership, great parenting, great decision making. Some of the world's most influential leaders have not been the smartest people, and some of the world's smartest people have done the worst things imaginable. (some tyrants are known to have high IQ). Smart but Dumb.
Manage You... means to express whatever wisdom and smarts you have in the best possible way.. and that means consc iousness. In a business a conscious person stands out. They are not running for stress breaks, not busting to get away for the weekend to retire from the drudgery of work, not carrying emotional and mental baggage home for "work life balance" which is just another name for "dump it on the family." Consciousness comes down to perspective and a healthy perspective doesn't defer balance or stress management, not one minute let alone a week or a year.
The person with the highest consciousness sees the most balance in things. I know this sounds absolutely stupid and simplistic with all the rockets science of psycho-analysis and brain research, it seems a damnation of abomination that balanced thinking could have any right to be put up there as the single greatest determinant of a great and inspired life. However, when a person thinks out of harmony with nature, they're in deep trouble, and the first law of nature is Balance.
Just try these ideas.... "Stress is lopside d perception"... "Expectations block love"... "looking for support without challenge is the mission of the Ego"... "Depression is caused by addiction to elation".... "Inspiration happens at the border of order and chaos".... "Infatuation breeds Resentment (explains relationship troubles), and the list goes on...
Manage You means managing, first and foremost, your thinking. All our thoughts manifest themselves and ultimately drive our behaviour. If you want to generate the most effective outcomes from the time you invest in work, love, parenting and sport, the second step begins with managing your mind. (first is your body). We encourage our clients to learn what's myth, what's emotion, what's real and learn to enjoy all three without mistaking one for the other.
Manage You has a third step.. Your spirit.. And although your spirit can't be managed it can be fed. To feed your spirit you need dreams, visions, wants, hopes, desires, ambitions.. not fake ones, a real bucket list that encapsulates the seven areas of life. This is called TURNING Up. and at Innerwealth we use VIP (Vision, Inspiration, Purpose) process to help this along.
3. Focus on Cause
If you want to change the destiny of a person, yourself or your children, you need to change the stories you tell.
Those stories are not so much the fairytale books, although it might include them but rather, it's the stories you tell about your life, your journey, your past.
Nothing affects the child more than the unlived life of the parent... and the unlived life of the parent can be changed by changing their stories.
Have you heard people say things like this "I went to a meditation class to help me deal with my past" or some hybrid form of that? Well that's fantastic because that person is trying to change something, but what if their "Past" is a story and the only thing that really needs to change, is that story? Then all the meditation under the s un is not going to fix things because the story is the problem.
In corporate training programs people are encouraged to embrace different ideas. But what if their stories, backgrounds, ideas, ideals and personal choices don't change? Can people really go deeper without addressing the cause of their behaviour? Of course not and this is why so little of corporate life really taps human potential.
I am astonished by the incompetence of Corporate Training... it's limited by mandate to seek the approval of the audience and is therefore hamstrung to deal only with what an audience can accept or agree with. No change, just massage.
This is also the case with therapies and yoga classes. We are all free to come and go from our daily routines and we do, as a Western world of free choices take great pride in finding things we like and rejecting things we don't. It's human and natural to do this. The result is a shallowness that automatically limits conversations, inte ractions, friendships and relationships. How can we have intimacy if, when the second comes that our "Radio Active" points get touched we fly into defence or attack?
So much time is wasted focussed on effect of things. Instead, Innerwealth Manage YOU recommends change at the cause level. Find the cause and change it, don't worry so much about fixing the effect. For example: I've got some arthritis in my fingers... I went to the doctor who prescribed creams and pills to reduce the swelling and lessen the pain. But the cause of my arthritic fingers is more likely to be diet related, so, why not do both? Ease the swelling with cream means focus on Effect... Change my diet and supplement my nutrition means fix the cause. One is a cover up, the other attacks the roots.
In our lives we need to retell old stories that have the Pain still in tact, because that "pain" makes for major entertainment. Or the "pleasure" stories that really motivate people. ALl those stories a re half stories, and absolutely entertaining to the ego and emotions. But they are not true stories and can, as a cause, skew our life choices 180 degrees from our real life journey.
One lady in an office was just a nightmare. She was flamboyant and outspoken, entertaining and attractive but she just couldn't recruit others to be a part of whatever she put her hand to. People ran from her even though she spent a fortune on her cosmetic surgeries and clothes from top designer brands, proving she wanted and needed attention desperately, she caused the complete opposite. He boss complained about the problems, the fragmented team, the disconnection she created. He complained about the effect of her work style, never addressing the cause. What do you imagine it was? Remember, in nature, nobody ever does to you more than you do to yourself..
Yes, the rejection she experienced from others, just mirrored her own self hate.. That's cause, that's easy fixed. As long as the effort is swung from fixing the effect to finding and dealing with cause.
Conclusions
There's more to this Managing You than meets the eye, but if we're out of harmony with Nature's Universal laws, playing End Games, Expecting Myths to come true, or focussing of the effect of things rather than the cause, we're likely to be achieving things with much more hard work and mental anguish than necessary. Surely, all our missions are the same in this regard: "we all want to enjoy life" and living with consciousness, vision, and sustainably real perspectives is a great leap toward a very natural and great lifestyle.
Chris Walker http://www.chriswalker.com.au/ is a visionary business consultant and of the world's leading facilitators of Personal/Professional Development. Author, consultant and professional speaker, his considered a leader in the field of human potential and lifestyles for success. His VIP and Mastery Programs have been attended by thousands of ind ividuals around the world seeking tools to live life and manage their careers to their fullest potential. http://www.chriswalker.com.au/