Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM  

Does your life and/or career feel like a bullet train traveling at breakneck speed?  Is your vision for the future suspended in midair as you use up all your time and energy just surviving the present?  Are you confronted with so many urgent demands each day that you have less time and enthusiasm for the real priorities of your life?

One of the principles of spiritually intelligent leadership highlighted in last month’s newsletter was that of “being vision- and value-led.”  This means acting in accordance with our core values and purpose as we serve and make a difference in the lives of other people.

In work and life, however, we are constantly challenged by increased expectations of productivity and performance which can cause us to live reactively instead of purposefully.  So at what point does the human being get lost in the human doing and what would it take to seek a more fulfilling life?

Here’s this month’s feature ...

Are You an Accomplished Fugitive? by Michael Mayberry

From --  On Purpose: A Journal about Taking Charge of Your Life/Work, Vol. 8, No. 1, pages 3 - 4

Highlights from the article:

• The speed of living and working in today’s world has accelerated to heights never before imagined.  We’re at risk of becoming casualties of this torrid pace when who we are and what we really care about are waylaid in the acceleration of life.
    

• Here’s a wake up call ... “Human beings have always employed an enormous amount of clever devices for running away from themselves ... We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within ... by middle life, most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.” - John Gardner
    

• Becoming an accomplished fugitive happens not by a chosen plan, but by an unchosen lifestyle.  It happens when we’re only aware of our lives on the surface level, when we’re primarily concerned with how things appear on the outside, ignoring what’s going on inside.  It happens when we’re accomplished in measuring our lives on the doing and having levels but when we fail to take a deeper look at who we will become if we continue the same old patterns of living and working.
    

• More than ever, people are seeking lifestyle choices that allow them to spend more of their time and energy on the issues of their lives that matter most.  The benefit of slowing down to take a deeper look at ourselves is the discovery of a wonderful world of opportunity and possibility awaiting those who address the bigger questions.
    

• Unfortunately, many of us wait for the perfect “how” before we begin to act on a clear “why.”  Creating and acting on a life/work style that provides success with fulfillment is an ongoing process of error-making and error-correcting.  In this process, awareness is important, clarity is necessary, and courage is critical.  Without courage we become fugitives from a lifestyle that expresses our true talents, values, and passions.
    

• Join the anti-fugitive revolution!  You deserve to be present in your own life!

For the full text article, go to ...
http://www.inventuregroup.com/documents/pdf/vol8-1.pdf

Is Your Safety Net Your Dragnet?

Have you ever held on to something for way too long because you were afraid to take the plunge into the unknown?  You kept playing it safe even though you knew that now was the time to make a change.

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power," says Alan Cohen.

Playing it safe leaves you powerless.  You've given in to having security versus having the life you want.  Your safety net has become your dragnet.  It drags you down, sucks your energy, and becomes a hindrance to you living your full life.  You never are able to realize your dreams because you're playing it safe. 

But, what if you’re dissatisfied with being dissatisfied and are ready to take the plunge?  To get started, answer these questions:

1. What is keeping me from taking the plunge?  What are my reasons?

2. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to me if I gave up my safety net?

3. What is the best possible thing that could happen to me if I gave up my safety net?

4. What will my life be like if I remain in my status quo?

5. How will my life be when I am living my dream?

Remove the safety net that’s become your dragnet and you'll find yourself energized.  You’ll stand in your own strengths with more self-confidence.  You'll gain new perspectives and experience growth you've only dreamed about. 

What could you accomplish if you gave up your safety net?

Source: The Balance Beam: A newsletter about balance and life by Stephanie Houseman, DMD - November 28, 2006

Next Month

Each of us has a unique “genius”.  Your genius can be thought of in a practical way: as the exceptional power that comes most naturally to you, as the process in which you engage so spontaneously and easily that you do not notice it, and as the business you are in as a person.  The key question is, “Is your genius on purpose?”

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