Imagine Michael Phelps in Rio for the summer Olympic games. He’s in the pool, competing for another gold medal, all the time thinking about what he wants for dinner. The thought of it puts a smile on my face, because I know how unreal that image is. Not only is Michael Phelps mentally present when he is in the pool (as well as when he is preparing to get into the water). He is physically present. He is attuned to every movement of his body, every breath, how his body contacts the water that surrounds him.
Yet we tend to be more like that imaginary Michael Phelps than the real one as we face the challenges of change (or even as we go through our day-to-day lives). In last week’s post I discussed the importance of mental presence, and provided sample practices to help cultivate it. This week, I turn my attention to body presence. [Read more…]
Resilience is the ability to adapt to high levels of disruptive change while maintaining high levels of well-being and productivity. It is the result of applying a set of change muscles that help you use your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy most effectively when you encounter challenges. Understanding what resilience is and how it works is a very helpful tool for change leaders, change agents, and anyone going through change. (Hmmm…that might be everybody!)
Our beliefs are our truths. They are the way things are. They are “facts,” often taken for granted. Much like those truths in the Declaration of Independence, we hold our truths to be “self-evident.” They are unquestioned. They are what we believe. They are Truth (with a capital T).
For the most part, our habits are more visible to others than they are to ourselves. They are, by definition, “routine.” We don’t think about them before we do them; we aren’t aware that we are doing them; and too often we don’t notice that we have done them. Others may anticipate them… “This is when she always turns her notepad over and looks with disdain across her desk.” They certainly recognize them… “Here he goes again. One. Two. Three. Beet red and now the fist pounds the table.” But, for the most part it is only afterwards that we think, “I need to stop doing that,” if we even know that we just did it.
We act like there is work, and there is our other (some call it our “real”) life. In this scenario, events that occur in one have nothing to do with the other. The reality, however, is very different.