My mission is to be more #selfaware and I’m launching workshops that use social learning as a means to become more self-aware and invite people in their 20’s and 30’s along for the journey. Get on board and start #unpacking4impact.
Realizing how quickly baggage builds up in life and in a career is a bit disconcerting. Layers and layers build. How people speak to you. How people listen to you. What you see as your accomplishments and your failures. What lessons you learn along the way. Are you able to see all the lessons in time to adjust in ways that help you both remain in a productive mindset AND continue to take the necessary risks to expand thinking and a healthy perspective?
Life is difficult, This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult.
-M. Scott Peck
Peck starts his book “The Road Less Traveled” with these words and since first reading his book in the early 80’s, it’s always remained in my consciousness. When I quote it, which is often, I usually paraphrase it as, ‘Life is difficult and when you accept that life is difficult it no longer is so difficult.’ There are only a few quotes that have resonated so deeply for me. I was astonished that someone wrote such an uplifting book and would start out with this dark perspective. In my late teens and early 20’s that quote seemed really negative. Today in my mid 50’s, not so much. Now I see how healthy optimism actually sounds very realistic to those who have lived a rich life while sounding dark to those who are still wearing the hopeful, rose-coloured glasses of youth.
Upon first starting work on and delivering the Workshop System I’m launching for the public in October, I started with the topic of the Social Brain and how it influences our behaviour. I then moved to the underlying motivation that is the feeling of belonging. I was naturally drawn then to Angela Duckworth’s work on GRIT which landed me squarely in the research on resilience. I still found myself hung up on how the brain research connected to it all which took me to the study of quantum physics and one of the physicists who captured my attention in grade 12 Physics Class (and almost made me want to study physics because so many theoretical physicists sound more like philosophers): Max Planck.
Max Planck inspired me to question what I see AND to learn how to look.
Max Planck’s quote is the foundation of my workshop system and it’s through this lens that I landed on #selfawareness as a fundamental hashtag and my central mission. Out of #selfawareness, mindset, attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and therefore results can be defined and refined. Starting here, self-awareness, and focusing here seems like a great place regardless of your age, experience and desired outcomes.
Taking this leap, and it does feel like a leap, has opened up an opportunity to address a personal truth and expand my #selfawareness. I have known people through my life who are just COOL, you know they have that “IT” – my first brother-in-law (Vic) was one of those people. I remember when a few week’s before he married my oldest sister, he and I boarded a bus to go down to Estes Park Colorado for a youth retreat. Some of my friends from high school were part of the trip and they helped me make a point of staying away from Vic as much as I could. Truth be told, I didn’t like him and wasn’t ready for my family to add a new member. I was 17! He made every effort to connect with me but I was having none of it! But, I watched him. I could see how cool he was even at the ripe old age of 24. Everyone loved him. So even when I don’t want to see that “IT” in some one specific, I know how to recognize it.
I DON’T HAVE THAT “IT”. I AM NOT COOL. I AM AN ACQUIRED TASTE. The good news for me in my career is that once you’ve worked with me and talked with me or have an opportunity to see how I advocate for the right things and push in support of the great ideas of others AND especially in the classroom when I’m facilitating learning or mentoring 1:1, when I’m engaging your curiousity and inspiring your learning, MY VALUE SHINES. I’m not an easy person AND I know that. I own that. I use that to help others. I’ve also learned as you will hear in my BIG WHY story below, that I will always have a lot to learn – we all do, and will, as long as we live.
I asked myself, as I considered my mission to work with people in their 20’s and 30’s and slowly move away from working with leaders and organizations, ALL of whom I love and admire, what was I moving toward? What was drawing me in? I immediately thought about what had brought me the most joy and sense of purpose in my career. The answer was clear: social learning. I then asked myself who I could learn from in the broadest sense of the word AND the answer became clearer as I pondered it. I wrote about it in a recent post and talked about the sign posts in one of my podcast episodes (episode 161). (I talk about Clay Christensen’s treatise on seeking and focusing on purpose in this same episode – that’s worth a read.) Pondering the sign posts reminded me again of the Max Planck quote and the flood gates for seeing things differently opened with a gush of energy.
Learning to read the sign posts that focused my mission.
This journey to engage and work with people in your 20’s and 30’s is a bit daunting – I don’t speak your language or know your life experience. I find it fascinating and I am curious AND I know I will sound like a silly old person to you some times AND YET, I know I want to learn from you and I want to share my wisdom and experience and contacts with you. I think it’s a fair trade and I hope you will see the value for you.
The workshop system begins in October and Early Bird Pricing to participate is still available – You’ll find details on the EventBrite page. I’ve been meeting with a few generous 20-something and 30-something individuals to receive feedback on my website and my message AND one thing I’ve heard a few times is that I need to share more details – WHO KNEW! As surprised as I was to hear that, for once in my life, I was being too succinct (that’s how I chose to hear it – lol), I immediately went to work to build more details into a one and two page document. A one pager that provides an overview of the purpose of the system and my approach along with some details of the first workshop – IBI workshops AND a two page outline of the first workshop that provides a section by section review of what we’ll cover – IB workshop 1 in system.
You are welcome to register TODAY. If you need some time to get to know me I understand AND appreciate your desire to be discerning. AGAIN one of my Millennial clients suggested you may feel this way AND encouraged me to set up regular ASK ROX RoundTables. I loved the idea so the first one is Tuesday the 28th of August and then a second on September 6th – both are in the ANNEX in #Toronto. Registration is FREE and the link is HERE. I will be hosting monthly digital ASK ROX RTs starting in September on ZOOM and those dates through December will be added on the Eventbrite page this week.
Reach out if you have questions AND I look forward to meeting many of you along the journey.