Noetic Nomad in search of … consistency

Noetic Nomad in search of … consistency

I must confess, I’m a strong pull to the right brain big picture thinker. My organization skills are very predictable, but they lack consistency. Things like ‘planning’ and ‘strategy’ and ‘organization’ look very different for me than they do for other people. I have piles, bags, and boxes full of old paperwork. My chaos makes my ‘A’ brained family members crazy. They’re tidy, paperless wonderland of a file system is, well, a bit of a wonderland to me. I often wonder why after all these years, I just can’t shift my way of doing things to how the Covey’s and Robbin’s of the world do things. I wish for that New Year’s Resolution to become more consistent, more in order, more sensical than Seussical in how I prefer a space if I’m working in it. Uniquely You Then, I go to one of my projects and I realize, I like my books over there, my piles of reference over here. I enjoy the spread of paints, or posters, the wild colors, and crisp newly sharpened pencils spread out into a pattern that ignites my synapses alive for the creation of a new thing, be it book or art or insight into a shift in what will make my business better. I’ve read articles about how the messier we are, the higher order thinking we’re doing. We’re in flow with the thoughts, so don’t have as much time to tidy up the desk. We’re organized in our own unique way, that isn’t better or worse, but instead, just different. When you ask a traditionally organized person to find a certain...
Moments of Envy- Into Positive Action

Moments of Envy- Into Positive Action

This blog will look at the emotion of envy. We have all had times when we look at what other people have achieved and feel that pang of envy. We try and brush off our feelings, even feel ashamed of ourselves. We might even hope that everything goes wrong for that person who is ‘perfect’! But could we instead turn this experience into a positive force? What is envy? One dictionary version is “to wish that you had something that another person has”. The Old English origin is to ‘regard maliciously, hold a grudge’. Holding a grudge doesn’t seem to be a particularly healthy way to respond, will only increase feelings of isolation and failure. Epidemic of envy In our technologically driven world today we are constantly aware of what other people have, do, achieve. We forget we are only seeing part of their story, the part that the other person wants us to see. Like in films we see sound bites of the truth and convince ourselves that it is the whole of their story. Seeing the positive Tim Lomas in his book ‘The Positive Power of Negative Emotions’ (2016) describes the benefits of envy in terms of ’emulative envy’. In this we do not resent other people for what they have or achieve, we instead admire them. We become inspired by them and use their success to fuel our own actions towards what we want to achieve. Understanding how ’emulative envy’ can benefit us The reason we feel envious is because the other person has something that matters to us, that we would like. This then has...
When To Hold On And When To Let Go

When To Hold On And When To Let Go

A few months ago, I wrote about how I read to a boy who was sitting in the seat behind me on a plane as we waited for a dark storm to pass by as we waited on the tarmac. This time I shall share a story of a more harrowing experience than sitting inside a stationary plane as a storm passed. It was quite a harrowing experience that I, along with 239 other passengers, had as the pilot attempted to land the plane amidst 40 MPH wind gusts in Las Vegas. The pilot tried to land two times but a third attempt wouldn’t happen…well at least not until the next day. The pilot decided to re-route us to Palm Springs, California. Count your blessings I only heard one person complain and she was quite certain her birthday celebration would most definitely be ruined. I thought to myself “Well, at least you will have a birthday to celebrate.” When we were all waiting for our luggage in Palm Springs, I happened to strike up a conversation with a retired flight attendant. I said, “Boy, I am glad there wasn’t a third attempt to land. I imagined the plane skidding on its belly.” She said, “Oh, we would have snapped in half! I’ve flown for 30 years and I know what could have happened.” I was more than ok with being re-routed instead of landing with the potential of us crashing. I know that may sound dramatic but I later heard stories of people who were on planes that did land in those winds. It was said that passengers were...
You Do Not Have To Struggle To Reach Success

You Do Not Have To Struggle To Reach Success

Many of us believe that to achieve something great we have to struggle. Along my entrepreneurial journey I became immersed in this paradigm. Everyone was talking about how hard it is to build a business (or achieve any big dream). I was always hearing stories of immense struggle, grind and ‘no pain no gain’. Many motivational speeches are based on this premise. I started to believe that my struggles were a non-negotiable part of the path I had chosen. I was feeling overwhelmed, confused, exhausted, anxious, insecure and frankly, unhappy. But, apparently everyone feels these things on the path to success. It’s normal and you just have to keep going, right? Wrong. The dangerous misconception In the normalisation and even glamorisation of ‘struggle’, the loose use of this word is risky. It can send people down an unhealthy path. People often aren’t aware of, or at least aren’t articulating the difference between ‘struggle’ and ‘challenge’. These words are used interchangeably but, the difference between them is the difference between a person breaking through or breaking down. Struggle: ‘to make forceful efforts to get free of restraint’ Imagine a ball and chain on your ankle. You struggle for days, maybe even weeks and months trying to get free of it. How does that make you feel? Do you enjoy it? Does it make you inspired and energised, excited and powerful? Or, do you feel desperate, exhausted and powerless? The latter is how I was feeling on my journey. I was in a state of chronic stress caused by the belief that I had to struggle in order to achieve. Stress...
Noetic Nomad in search of … consistency

Noetic Nomad in search of … nothing

For everything there is a season, and a season for everything. We live in a place where the very thought of doing absolutely nothing for any length of time is beyond our imagination, but also perhaps a dream come true. There is a great deal of life available in the nothingness that we too often overlook. Thoughts can heal our hearts. Silence can soothe our soul. Listening to the sound of our own breathing is now understood more widely to bring us back to our core. Unknowing We don’t have to describe it, and often can’t describe it fully. To me, the nothingness in the most profound times have a smell, a color, a sound that can’t be explained to others. The seeds of ancestry are but a whisper in our genetic ear for example. But, we’ve learned how we carry the memories and emotions of our ancestors in our DNA. We don’t have to fully know the science behind that knowledge in order to feel a connection to it. In that void of the unknown, knowledge quietly sits, in waiting for us to discover it for ourselves. Quiet We learn the most about ourselves in our quietest hours. Right before falling asleep. Upon awakening. What thoughts run through your mind? What honest truth whispers in your ear? Those thoughts or emotions you’d never reveal to the world. Do you worry that someone will know something about you that you wanted to keep private? What you think about most, owns you. What you can’t stop thinking about controls you. Are you scared of those thoughts or feelings? Is that...