Unblock Your Power
It’s easy for us to feel powerless when so much seems upside down in our world today.
I have indeed thrown my hands up in the air on more than one occasion recently.
When everything I was working on suddenly seemed to be meaningless, I just stopped. But probably like many of you, it’s hard to stop⏤and do nothing.
While I turned more of my attention to getting the garden ready for planting, I yearned to get back to doing something more aligned with my passions.
But when everything I was working on suddenly seemed meaningless, I didn’t have an immediate answer.
What is it now time to do?
If you’ve been following this newsletter recently, you know that I’ve been quoting the work of Joseph Jaworski a lot lately. Joseph is the author of Synchronicity and highly recognized for his innovative work in leadership.
When I discovered Joseph’s book, it was a eureka moment.
I was perhaps unknowingly on a journey to escape an inauthentic life, and his book helped me see that. Synchronicity was the story of Joseph’s escape, and it has been my guide.
For a long time, I wanted to go back and reread Synchronicity. Discovering Joseph’s book and learning from him have had a significant impact on me.
Six weeks ago, I decided that I would reread Joseph’s book for the umpteenth time.
But this time, I would read the book more mindfully. I would hold the question, “What’s most intriguing here?” while reading the book.
I learned from my interviews with leaders that there is enormous power is asking this question. It brings fascinating new awareness that we otherwise miss.
When I ask this question after each of my interviews, there are always 13 fascinating insights that emerge.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the insights I’m gaining from this reading and exercise have had an impact. It has catalyzed me to write a series of articles that are unlike anything I’ve ever done before.
They are also triggering many new insights from readers who reply to share them with me.
Here’s a fascinating insight from Synchronicity that’s worth highlighting.
Deep down, most of us are resigned to being powerless. Maybe not so much in our personal lives, but the larger world.
With all the turmoil that’s swirling around us in the world today, we don’t believe we can have any influence, at least in a way that matters.
So what do we do?
We focus on smaller things that we feel we can impact. We focus on our careers, our house, our education, our fitness, and so on.
But in the larger world, we feel powerless.
Here’s what Joseph says about this:
“For the most part, this despair is undiscussable, especially among successful people. We don’t want to talk about it, because we want to maintain a facade of having our lives together. So we create all kinds of diversions. Our culture itself offers abundant diversions. It tells us that all we need to worry about is how we look. Work out, get the body in shape, dress well. Life is about appearances. Diversions also exist in the story we tell about the world—that the world is dominated by politics and self-interest.”
How to regain our power.
Joseph says that fundamental to making a shift to regain our power is to embrace the idea that life is full of possibilities. We also have access to capabilities and wisdom we have overlooked.
That certainly has been my experience too.
That realization started in 2009 when I decided that I could no longer tolerate the level of petty politics and inauthenticity that exists within many of our organizations.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was stepping on to a new path, a path that embraced a life of new possibilities. One that would help me discover that we have access to untapped capabilities that can assist us.
Capabilities that allow us to shape our future and influence that which we now feel powerless to impact.
Because remember, “A few people can have a profound effect because their consciousness is woven into all consciousness.”
In my last email, I wrote about re-discovering The Power of One Mind, and how it was influencing me and what was happening in my life.
Then a reader shared her intriguing perspective on LinkedIn after reading the article:
“I find this to be quite intriguing as it promotes the power of connectivity and oneness on a level we can all experience if we allow ourselves to flow thematically and systemically in a more natural and less rigid and controlled fashion.” ⏤ Marge Hentchel
A few people.
Many of you have replied to me in response to my last several emails and have expressed an interest in getting together with others to explore these ideas more deeply.
This week, seven of us will gather in generative dialogue. One of the questions we plan to consider from Synchronicity is the following:
“The question to be resolved is how to remove the blocks and tap into that knowledge in order to create the kind of future we all want.”
I hope to have something to share in my next email from this gathering, and I hope this provides you with a perspective and path to gain access to the power to create a better future.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you. It’s because of your support and encouragement that I do what I do. Every email from you in my inbox is exciting.
So I just wanted to take this moment to shout a HUGE thanks and to encourage you to reply to me with anything that comes up for you.
As always, to your great work life & success!
Bill
Care to Let Us Know?
What did you find most intriguing in this article?
