“History is not simply the study of the past, it’s an explanation of the present.”

“The next time you fear the result of an ACTION you are preparing to take, look at it and see if it doesn’t actually conform to one of those 6 A’s.  And remember that everyone else has the same fears, and we’re all helping each other through this existence that we share.  And when people seem difficult to work with, it comes down to one of those too.  So now you can see their motivations as well as yours, and your awareness grows further.  And with more awareness comes more power, freedom, control, foresight, and pretty much everything else that is socially constructive.”

“I think that’s awesome.  And you can really tell that this sensibility shapes his core values and approach to entrepreneurship at its source of origin.  He has an almost child-like sincerity about it, in the best way.

I responded that I, too, have a word like that.  A business jargon word that obscures the often simple and direct inner source of its being, and that word is…”

“Did you think you were past these feelings, this kind of challenge? You may never be, and that’s okay. Because you can’t foresee everything. And the human condition is imperfect. Sometimes it feels this way. Sometimes things don’t go right. Stuff gets complicated. People and situations are unpredictable. You don't catch certain things until it's a little too late. You can see this honestly and not be a victim. If you’re a leader you acknowledge and own these truths. You say “I know, that happens sometimes. I choose to lead anyway, even though these situations cause me to doubt myself.” That’s not the same as failure, and people still admire you, look up to you, look to you, value your feedback and perspective. You have to keep your head up and work with what you’ve been given. I still deserve to be successful, as long as I learn, grow, and show up better on the other side of this.”

“It makes no sense to think BEFORE you feel.  Because how do you even know what to think about unless you know how you want to feel?

Yes, I’ve concluded, through a careful thinking process BTW, that all thinking should be done in service to feeling.  And I’m a thinker, so that should tell you how much I mean what I say here.

Thinking is useless without taking stock of your current feelings and asking which you would like instead.”

“Our cognition is complex, and one of the results of that complexity is the curiosity and drive to understand the process of cognition itself. Humans are the meta species, in so many ways.

Part of that analysis has included a broad dichotomy between thinking and feeling. Certain mental processes seem to involve rationality, and others the valuation of pure experience. If you know Myers-Briggs or related Jungian personality approaches this probably sounds familiar. We all rely on both of these constantly.

Here’s what I’ve come to see though. We tend to collectively overvalue thinking.

Say WHAAAAAAT?!”

“The host notes that he always feels better after spending time on Wikipedia, which he can't say for some of the other mega-successful web properties that fill our digital landscape. I had never thought about it, but I absolutely agree. Every Wikipedia rabbit trail session leaves me feeling peaceful, illuminated, and full of wonder. Wikipedia is a gift, and one that helps us to collectively focus, affirm, celebrate, share, and enjoy our love of knowledge and wisdom. I found the whole interview worthwhile, and I hope you do too.”

“My dream was correct.  Just once I would like to experience a moment unhaunted by competition and loss.  But it isn’t possible.  It can’t be.  All that makes the human condition valuable and worthwhile is haunted by competition and loss.  It has always been and must always be.

Meditate on this and you will cherish that which you love all the more deeply, and also value the friction of competition and how it refines you all the more as well.”

“It’s been a fascinating journey of creation and discovery, one that I could never have predicted even a decade ago, but I have no doubt I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be and doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. I wake up every day inspired and driven to deepen current relationships, build new ones, and spread my message to a wider audience. It’s joyful and flexible, which tells me that it’s right. And if this is speaking to you, that’s something I can help you find too.”

“The pattern always looks the same, isn’t it?  We wonder what we will do with our time as information technology transforms our cognition and relieves the work burden.  But we keep filling it, don’t we?  We’re not living in the end of Wall-E yet, nor do I think we ever will be, so long as we don’t face some kind of extinction crisis brought about by careening exponential growth.”

“At the end, one of my friends in the group told me she couldn’t believe a computer generated that.  “It sounds EXACTLY like you wrote it.”  One thing I don’t know is whether that particular program studies my writing style, or just pulls from the greater internet.  Either way, I took it as a strange sort of compliment, although I’m not sure why.”

“Liminal simply means “in the midst of transition”.

And transitions can be tough.  We all know what they’re like.  And for some reason we tend to avoid them when we see them coming or find ourselves amidst them.  But they are unavoidable.  We ALL must go through times of transition whether we want to or not.  And we growth-oriented people must PURSUE them, even though they are uncomfortable. Many of us know when we’re being called to something deeper, grander, and better.”

Most people know what FRICTION is, but here’s Google’s definition: “the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another.”

Life is full of friction, and always will be.  We can get better at overcoming it.  Many, many sources of friction offer resistance to our goals, and they can all be overcome.  In fact, our goals are not meaningful if they do not offer some kind of resistance to our spirit. That’s one way to think of it.

VISCOSITY is a bit less widely-known, but by no means obscure.  Simply put, it’s a liquid’s resistance to flow.  Oil has a higher viscosity than water.  Caramel and tar higher still.  Liquid nitrogen has a very low viscosity.  Have you ever seen it move across a surface?  It flows very easily. I still remember a delightful day like this in high school chemistry class…

“…this tells me that each moment of human life is an investment.  We’re confined to the Realm of Action, taking actions in every moment and unable to stop doing so.  To improve our results, we need to examine our motivations.  And that’s where the 4 M’s come in.  They represent our respective individual motivational calculations, and we each need to optimize them in our own ways.  That’s one of the facets that I help leaders and creatives to work with in an intentional way.

“Motivation” is not one of the 4 M’s.  It’s the Meta-M.  All 4 M’s affect our motivation, and the resulting blend is the ROI of each action we take.

If you have a problem with any of them, the whole system is out of balance and demands to be recalibrated.

The 4 M’s are…”

“A couple weeks ago a client of mine, with whom I greatly enjoy working, told me that one of the special qualities they discern in my coaching is that I am concerned, not only with my clients’ bank account, but their “emotional account” as well.  That was the word they used.  Emotional account.

Which indicates that particular client saw emotional wellbeing as part of the ROI from working with me.

What are all the ways YOU measure ROI?

To me there’s 4, and I call them the “4 M’s”.  I think they’re what you are after, as well as every organization and community that you are a part of.  If there’s a problem with any of them, there’s a problem with all of them.  And these are imbalances I can help you see and articulate.”

“And it’s actually funny that those are the words we often use…become “more of who you were meant to be.”  Or, if you’re religious, you might say become “more of who God created you to be.”  Ultimately I think it’s the same idea.  Why would you need to figure out how to become more of what you already are?  Nothing else is like that.

We humans have an odd condition - we need to figure out who we are, what we’re here to do, and then become more and more of that.  And then we resonate more fully on numerous levels.  And that allows us continue the process, achieving greater levels of authenticity.

And I notice that authenticity is more challenging, complicated, counterintuitive, and even contradictory, than most people realize. 

Some of the ways…”