Close your eyes. Walk to the doorway of your mind. Open it.
On the other side, lying on your death bed is your 99 year old self.
You approach and feel the wisdom of a life well lived.
Ask your 99 year old self, your quest-ion.
What do you value? This question that you need to ask yourself is one of the most important questions whose answer that you need to be clear about in your life. Throughout your life you want to do many things and it is those things that are aligned to your values that will bring you true fulfillment.
I am not asking to just write down what you value. I’m asking you to ask yourself the question of what do I value? What makes my spirit dance? What makes what I’m doing larger than life?
So get out a piece of paper and pencil. Answer this question.
Imagine you are walking in the field full of flowers. The air is full of the smell of life. The sky is blue as you have ever hoped to see. The sun beams gently onto your face.
You look out into the distance and see a glimmering light.You walk lightly through the field and find where the light is coming from. It is a box made of glass and it is the sun reflecting off of it somehow that is causing the glimmering.
You pick up the glass box and it looks like there’s nothing inside because you can see through the glass. You undo the simple latch which is merely a little hook that connects the top from the bottom. You open the top of the glass box and smile.
The box is not empty at all.
You reach inside the box and gently pick up the photograph that sits inside. Your smile grows even wider as you look closer at the photograph and you begin to laugh or perhaps you feel a tear coming into your eyes.
There is no hand of confusion in yourself as to why this photograph is in this glass box in this field of flowers on this beautiful day with the blue sky so perfect and the smell of life in the air. It all makes sense.
You stare intently at this photograph which is like a doorway into your source. The field and sky around you begin to blur and you hear familiar sounds, see familiar spaces, smell the memories of a moment well lived. The photograph wisps into the scenery.
You look up. You are back at a moment in your life when you were aligned with all there is and ever will be. You were on and everything made sense. Your smile on your face exemplifies the contentment of your spirit. You are fulfilled.
Feel this moment in your whole body. This is who you are. These are your values dancing in your soul.
One undervalued and underused role of the leader is to interpret what is happening to people. When something happens often times people are surprised and caught off guard. Also, many times people have never experienced the incident or event before or to that scale.
So leaders need to help people interpret what does this mean or perhaps provide questions to get people to think productively. Sometimes leaders need to tell people how they are feeling and what is going on in their minds. Do you feel angry? Are you scared? This helps people relate to the leader.
The leader though needs to say what they think. I was confused about what happened. I am guessing many of you were too. As I was driving home I realized that ……… What this means to me is………. I personally am getting more excited now. Yes I was angry at first, and maybe am still a little. However, I am now more excited than anything else.
Yes, leaders sometimes need to help interpret what is happening. Sometimes, they even need to suggest ways to feel or respond. More to come!
We end up not getting what we want most because we are so focused on what we want now.
Make a list of what you want MOST.
Here is a sample.
A strong heart
Muscular arms
Enough money to retire when I am 67 1/2
Good friends
My kids to be leaders
A vacation in Alaska paid in cash
Ok take each one and bring it back to now. I want to eat vegetables. I want to do Kung Fu. I want to save 10% of my pay into an IRA. I want to spend time with my friends by doing a project for habitat for humanity. I want to be a Boy Scout leader for my son or Girl Scout leader for my daughter. I want to set aside $100 per month for my trip.
Yes this is what I want to do NOW.
The other what I want to do now just evaporates once I do it. No greater most. Just a greedy, impatient now.
NOW=MOST
now=illusions
So what do you want NOW?
Congratulations. Thanks for reading.
Your homework is to ask yourself
What do I want MOST? Let that create the NOW.