December 8, 2004 |
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Approx. Read Time: 12 minutes
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 Welcome Back! To our regular readers, it's great to be with you again. Thanks for inviting us into your busy days. To our new subscribers, we're glad to serve you. Welcome to the Activate Potential family of authentically powerful achievers. In each issue of BIG Ideas, we'll challenge conventional thinking. We'll toss a firecracker into the world of reflexive thinking and "it's just the way it is." If you go to ActivatePotential.com and read the Daily Journal, you'll see several entries that exemplify what I mean. In particular, read the entry entitled, Change is Easy. That one stirred up a hornet's nest from readers, including several successful entrepreneurs. Every idea and every suggestion is offered with one thought in mind; we are more powerful than we ever imagined. We need only to remember our biggest, most magnificent and exciting ideas and ideals and align our instant-to-instant actions with those high standards. This publication will tackle hardcore business and personal leadership issues. We will put forth ideas to transform what your staffs and clients experience. We'll talk about why it's so important to reach mightily to create and deliver true transformations to everyone you serve. BIG Ideas? Heck yeah. They're the only ones we care about. As poet and business consultant, David Whyte says, "Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you." Any thought that does not bring us Aliiiiiiiiiive, is too small for this newsletter, its contributors and its readers. Welcome to BIG Ideas. Let's enjoy the high road together. back to top Feature Article: Wasting December"Hi David. I can't stay long. This is such a busy time, what with Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year and all," my friend Steve said as he took a call on his cell phone. Margaret the Executive told the same tale about 'how crazy things are with year end and the holidays and all.' She delayed a project she'd been planning for months until January. I wondered what would be different then, what with recuperating from the holidays and New Year and all. Ah, yes, the slippery slope from Labor Day to New Year. Seems people get to late November feeling suddenly behind the annual eight ball; whatever hasn’t been done can’t be started. There’s little time to sit and connect. It’s just too crazy this time of year. Life is out of control and anything new (and a few current things) has to wait until January. But, don’t the holidays come the same time every year? Why are so many so frazzled by them…every - single - year? In urban and suburban America we live hurried lives. We boast about how busy we are. We spend our time together over coffee and dinner bragging about how little time we have instead of connecting on subjects of true meaning. We carry on as if we have no options. In half a dozen years in the UK I learned the urbanites there are similar. Yet, the wisest people I know move more deliberately and seem to flow with nature - two keys to harmonious days. By mid-autumn in the northern hemisphere, the natural world has prepared itself for the coming season. Watch the squirrels respond to autumn. They fill their larders for the draw down of winter. Watch the birds. They migrate ahead of the major shift in climate. Squirrels and birds prepare. They don’t get surprised. What do we do? We charge ahead as if nothing is changing. Do we make hay while the sun shines and change with the seasons or do we race along as if summer never ends? Any month is good for reflection and preparation, but let's focus on December. December can be for evaluating what was sown and harvested in the past eleven months. It can be used to ready the metaphorical ground for future planting. Spiritual devotees use December purposefully to transition into another lap of months. With foresight they ease into the period when their internal sap runs more slowly. We could prepare better for a new year by slowing down instead of maintaining or increasing speed. When we ignore the natural slowness of winter we fool ourselves into thinking we can sustain full-throttle living all year long. Were Steve and Margaret slowing down? Not really. They seem little changed since the expansive days of spring. They seem as harried in December as they were in May. Steve and Margaret feel frazzled by year’s end because they prepared for it poorly, if at all. I have some ideas for shifts of mindset and behavior so next December can be a time of new perspectives, maturity and inspiration, not more frenzy and exhaustion. First, prepare yourself for the next cycle of life by watching nature. When summer yields to autumn and the air begins to cool, begin your reflection and planning. If December is so nuts it’s impossible to do anything differently, begin your evaluation and change effort in a less manic month. Start your annual planning cycle in October, perhaps. When December comes, you’ll be some way down the road and won’t arrive at the threshold with the same old habits you used last time around the sun. Second, develop a personal fiscal year. Instead of using January 1 as the start of a new year, start yours on December or November first so the holidays can’t undermine your reflection and planning work. Use the celebratory vibe of the season to your advantage. What better way to initiate yourself into a new way of behaving and being than with a feast? Have a theme dinner. “Susan’s Transformation Dinner.” You may get odd looks, but I guarantee people will want to know what’s gotten into you. Plus, you’ll learn quickly who’s supportive and who’s not. Third, plan one day a week to sit for two hours in a natural setting. No city parks. Go to where the land is unmanaged and flowers are unacquainted with terra cotta pots or watering cans. Witness, hear and smell nature. If it’s too cold to sit, walk. And remember, the goal is not to get through it. It’s to be in it. Hear the leaves, branches or snow crunch underfoot. Watch the sun’s rays carve the forest. Watch the true masters of flight make pilots envious and humble aeronautical engineers. I bet when you get home you feel a paradoxically solid and light. Notice how loud your everyday environment is? December is great for befriending stillness and quiet. Fourth, learn more about nature. Discover your favorite bird, whale or spider. Choose an animal totem. What can you learn about life by observing and studying them? What have indigenous peoples learned from their animal guides? Society would have us believe nature is to be controlled, or feared. We enjoy it when it’s sweet and calm and call it bad when it’s storming. What can you learn from an unexpected storm, or one you know is coming? What does it teach about maturity? We spray our lawns to kill insects when lawns without insects are unnatural. Well, many civilized ways are unnatural. Allow the natural world to refresh your mind. Do something out of character in December. If you’re a quiet lover, be bold and dance wildly for your sweet in front of the fire. Sing to your partner at karaoke. If you’re a bold extravert, plan a quiet night in with yourself or a loved one. Go beyond yourself. Unplug the phone and take a bubble bath. (You too guys!) Make sculptures with the bubbles. When it feels uncomfortable, keep going. Doing unusual things opens inner doors to landscapes you didn’t know existed. Remember, habits are good for comfort, not necessarily growth. Lastly, sloooooow down. Let your sap run more slowly. December overwhelm has a lot to do with your decisions. You can’t get far into spiritual and personal development literature before learning that chilling out is a prerequisite to bigger perspectives. Take one night every two weeks and do silent, solo things. No radio. No loud conversations. No television. No music. No phone, internet or DVDs. Observe the moon. Do nothing. Don’t talk. Walk someplace at a third of your normal pace. Look at the angles of roofs. Squint at pretty lights. Sit in silence reading a book. Avoid consumer magazines as they’re just as noisy as television. Read about that hobby you’ve long delayed taking up because “there’s just isn’t time.” Don’t waste December. Year-end can be a time for new insights. Make December a most purposeful transition. Upgrade your life with reflection, intention and directed action. Go beyond usual things. Get uncomfortable. Spy new horizons. Go deeper than the cultural carnival into realms that were here before the malls and office buildings were built and will last long after they crumble. Be deliberate. The next time around really could be different. back to top Letters to the Editor Dear David, Just a brief note to let you know I've been enjoying your journal entries and that I've pulled a quote from your site for the Fast Company, Philadelphia Company of Friends newsletter. Keep up the good work. V. M. – Philadelphia  Dear David, I work in a major health care company. A colleague forwarded the link to your website. I think your website is phenomenal and your journal entries are inspiring. As I read each one, I get this feeling inside that makes me smile and think there are other people in the world who understand life. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and dreams with us. S.O. – Northern New Jersey back to top |
