On the verge of great change

“On the verge of great change, things seem to get worse because we finally can see our past errors more clearly than ever. When we feel stuck, going nowhere - even starting to slip backward - we may actually be backing up and better positioning ourselves to get a running start.”

-- Unknown

I sent this quote out two years ago today, and it's a worthy repeat, given the work I'm seeing several of you doing out there who are afraid you're slipping backwards in the face of big changes in your lives. You are just getting crystal clear about what hasn't worked before and doesn't work now; you're backing up to get that running start. I'm experiencing that very phenomenon with the start-up of my running after a long, lethargic layoff. It's only been two weeks, and I'm in agony, so I'm getting really clear about what I let happen to myself, and it's not pretty. But I feel about ready to turn the corner and get that running start. Doing the Rocky steps tomorrow will help.

Speaking of slipping, I'm looking out the window of my hotel room in Wilmington, DE, watching heavy snow come down. It looks like Jake is going to see the first significant snow of his life tonight when I pick him and his Mom up at the Newark Airport. It also looks like he might be having his first of many snowball fights with his brothers, Jim & Mark. Please say a safe travel prayer for my family today, and I'll check in tomorrow from snowy Philadelphia.

Quiet leadership

"One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize and eliminate the 'seeds' of problems long before they grow into costly emergencies."

-- Arnold Glasgow

Great leaders are not always those brash and charasmatic heroes who throw themselves into the breach to overcome disaster just in the nick of time; they are often the calm and quiet communicators, listeners, observers, role models, and students of human and organizational behavior who know how to challenge and inspire people to greatness, feed their self-esteem, and weed out potential problems at the root, well before disaster strikes. These leaders get much less recognition in the world, because they don't seek or need it. What they are committed to is enabling great lives, for themselves, their families, and all of their people and their families. It is not about the credit or the fame or the money; it's about living their lives with spiritual integrity and operating their businesses effectively and responsibly. Whether you talk about Collins' "level 5 leaders," or Greenleaf's "servant leadership," or Millman's "peaceful warrior," or Senge's leadership "personal mastery," it's all the same - these are leaders who have learned how to love life and other people, having learned how to find great compassion for and quiet comfort in themselves.

"If compassionate toward yourself, you can reconcile the world."

Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War

Coming home

"I've come home, after a journey of the Heart,

Holding His Wisdom safe in my soul.

And from there I will never again depart,

For in His Light I am whole."

~ a small piece of a poem called "Coming Home," by Ametisti Sylvianne Rameau

About 5 years ago, during a visit to Austin and over a breakfast with a new lawyer friend I'm very happy to still see on a monthly basis (yes, that's you, M.P.), this friend asked me a simple and very meaningful question, "What are you up to, Jim?". At the time, I was up to the creation of this dream called Revolution Consulting, but more importantly, and what came out of my mouth before I even gave it any thought, was that I was "finding my way home." I was finding my way home to God and my life's purpose through the heart of my own family history and life story. Well, I took one step closer to home yesterday when I began a Life Coaching relationship with K.S., a senior pastor of a large church north of town, and his partner and wife, C.S. I met with them at their beautiful church facility, a sprawling testimony to their calling and their faith, and the time went by (5 hours, in fact) like the blink of an eye. I felt so at home in their presence. We formed an effortless learning collaboration, and I felt such a deep and real connection with them and with the vision that brought us together. Thank you, K. & C., for your warmth, your openness, and your faith in me in welcoming me into your lives in this way. I look forward to our work together with great anticipation and excitement. And thank you again, D.M., for having such a bold global vision and for sharing it with me in such a trusting way, and for bringing me together with such magnificent people for such a worthy cause, nothing short of global reconciliation and reunion with God and one another. You have now invited me into your church, your home, your family, your business, and even into the place where you support those who so selflessly serve others in need. I feel very humbled by it all, but I am very clear about what you and God expect of me in all of this. I get the full message, and I am so on board. It's nice to be coming home.

Why India?

I want to know what is happening inside me, and/or inside the heart of India, that has so many warm and wonderful people from that country reaching out to say hello, to express their appreciation for my messages, to connect with me at a very intimate and real level. I know my messages travel around the world these days; I can tell from the occasional message I'll receive from all kinds of places far and near, but India is different. I receive about a message a day, all different, from all parts of the country, from people I've never met. It is so beautiful. If "life is in the questions," as I just shared with Varshaa, who reached out this morning, then my question for today is "Why India?"

And Chinmay (an art student in India who I really enjoy chatting with), you asked me yesterday to share this message with the entire community, so here it is exactly as you wrote it:

hi jim,
i only wanted to stand respect to this spirit of ours which makes us rich
without anything else...and fulfilled wiithout having it all and stand upon
without saying anything...i respect it in me and i respect it in all of you out
there whove discovered it within them and those who have yet to...
jim,please send this to all on your list...
bye,
love,
chinmay

And now for something really amazing and strangely synchronous. On a whim, while reflecting on the above, I did a search on the internet on "global human connectedness" and found the passage below. The most amazing thing, besides the fact that it answered my question in a way, or at least began to, was that it was written by the past president of the college where I received my undergraduate degree in 1976, Ursinus College, in good old Collegeville, PA. His name is Dick Richter. I haven't heard a word about him in over 25 years, and here he is answering a burning question for me today. Unbelievable!

"By shrinking time and space around the globe through electronic communication, humankind has created a novel set of circumstances that demands rationalization. This set of circumstances is altering the way individual subjects imagine their very identities, for it is altering the terms of their social and environmental existence. These alterations are also squeezing nation states and ethnic cultures into new relations with new refrains of meaning.
There is thus an inevitability to the dialogue about the emergence of a globalization system. Faced with unprecedented conditions, people all over the earth are looking for a vision and a vocabulary to describe what they are feeling about these conditions. They are looking for ways to deal with it. Out of that felt need for a new vision and better understanding has come the idea of globalization as a period of human history and a system of interconnectedness at every human level."

-- Richard P. Richter

So, I now have a little better understanding about "Why India?" It's a shared search for vision and vocabulary about our human feelings and how they draw us together. Thank you, Dick, and Ursinus College, for paying such unexpected delayed dividends on my journey through life.

Awakening to your perfection

"You awaken to your own perfection through your relentless commitment to seeing the perfection of others."

I facilitated a Marriage Commitment Group Meeting yesterday in which we took turns supporting the unique, personal needs of each individual in the group, with the understanding that this would benefit every one of the 7 marriages represented. It was based on the premise put forward last week about a group's agenda being forwarded most powerfully when individuals' deepest personal needs are met. The experience I got in observing each person supporting others in the group is best described in the above quote. The support I requested: to be held relentlessly accountable for training for and running the 2004 Houston Marathon next January. The benefit to me and my marriage: I never have more energy, time, and vitality than the times when I've been Marathon training, and my wife and sons deserve that version of me this year. My biggest fear: there's not enough time to do this. All 12 of us got our turn on the hot seat, and it was beautiful to see B.B., K.B., T.B., T.C., R.D., D.L., M.L., D.M., J.R., M.R., and P.W. get a glimpse of how perfect they are when they are seeing each other's perfection. We missed you, A. & C.H., but you were with us through it all, and we love you.

Accepting life as it is

"I do not know the future,
But I know the God Who knows.
And in His perfect wisdom,
Unknowing, I repose."

-- Author Unknown

Inexplicable life, that incredible ride that can bring about such peace and calm in one moment, and then you turn on the television to watch a morning children's show with your little boy, and ... disaster streaking across the sky. As I watched the newscast of the breaking apart of the Space Shuttle Columbia upon its return to Earth and the death of its seven astronauts, I felt sick, and with the monotone of the voices talking about it signifying to Jake that something was deadly wrong, he laid across my lap totally still with his face buried in the sofa cushion.

We cannot know what's in store for us from one moment to the next. Ironically, although we have the ability to plan and execute amazing things in this physical world, and then to observe these things unfolding just as they're happening - all over the world, all at once - we still cannot prevent certain inexplicable things from happening. At times like this, all we can do is to accept life exactly as it is, trusting that He knows what He's doing, and that we are being looked after and cared for in the Master Plan. I wish this same repose for the families of the astronauts today and for everyone that works for NASA and the Space Shuttle Program.