Craig Bowman

Craig Bowman

31p

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14 years ago @ FinerMinds - Real Magic By Wayne Dy... · 0 replies · +1 points

http://craig.typepad.com/common_ground/2010/01/da...

“Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.”

This isn't from Dyer's "Real Magic," but rather from Marcus Aurelius. Nevertheless, it sums up much of what's in this book. Another way of thinking about it comes from Brian's PhilosopherNote: "A key aspect of Dyer’s “Real Magic” formula is to live a life of purpose—where we’re less focused on “outcomes” and more focused on living with integrity to our highest purpose. The book is all about getting in touch with that purpose and rockin’ it from there."

One of the most Disruptive Thoughts in this book for me, was the emphasis on the dual ideas of purpose and service. For 20 years, I've been writing and thinking about the interplay between these two concepts. It has informed my Infinity Training Model (ITM) and is at the heart of the book I've been writing in my mind for the past two decades.

Dyer says it this way: “When you are able to shift your inner awareness to how you can serve others, and when you make this the central focus of your life, you will then be in a position to know true miracles in your progress toward prosperity.”

Entrepreneurial in spirit and team-based in approach, ITM is an approach to leadership development that builds upon the experiences, knowledge and skills of a diverse group of people to create a cadre of leaders committed to public service and public problem-solving. It is intended to teach the skills and concepts that they can then teach to others. This ripple effect has the potential for reaching thousands with renewed hope and an increased involvement in participatory democracy.

Philosophically, ITM recognizes the natural tension that exists between individual and community development—and by focusing on six key concepts—works to maximize personal leadership potential while making positive, community-based social change possible. ITM combines many of the country's most innovative training practices in a way that supports the development of authentic leadership and ensures community development.

More from Dyer: “When you go beyond outcome in life you find yourself unconcerned about what is in it for you. Thoughts, feelings and behavior focus more and more on the fulfillment of your purpose. You go beyond success, achievement and performance as indications of your life’s mission. Instead, every moment is lived fully and lovingly."

In Mobile, AL the other day, my cab driver was also a local Baptist minister and he and I chatted about the idea that Dyer calls "Acting As If." He had a more spiritual spin on it. I had a more secular idea. But, we both agreed with its importance in achieving the goals we set for ourselves. Then I re-read Dyer and he says the same thing. It's another disruptive thought and I really like it!

“The fact is, for myself, I know that if I believe strongly enough, and have enough confidence in myself to learn what I need, then there are very few things that I could not accomplish in a rather short period of time. Once you know you can do it, and act that way, the means will be obvious. Acting as if you were what you want to become and know you can become is the way to remove self-doubt and enter your real-magic kingdom.”

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - Paulo Coelho — Day ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Hi Chris. If you read my posts, you'll see that I mention I'm summarizing Brian's PN Note (you know, like he summarizes the authors). I also refer folks to his site to buy the series of notes. I'm a big fan and I have lots of readers on my blog that have become interested in PN as a result.

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - Secrets Of The Million... · 2 replies · +1 points

Thanks Heartrhythms. Your comment certainly makes sense. In terms of context for me, I do international development work with NGOs around the world. I've been the director of three non-profit (I prefer the term social profit) organizations, and I teach and train on fundraising skills, having raised tens of millions of dollars for causes I believe in. And I agree with you 100% when it comes to wealth generation. The problem for me with this book, was context. I only saw the idea of making more money emphasized, not the why behind it. It was like the film of "The Secret." If you want a red sports car, you can have a red sports car. Really, is that the true power behind the Law of Attraction? I hope not. Now, It isn't completely fair for me to be disappointed in the book, when I've only read the PhilosopherNote. It's possible the context is there. I hope it is. Thanks for your reply.

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - The Big Leap By Gay He... · 0 replies · +3 points

http://craig.typepad.com/common_ground/2010/01/da...

In thinking about today's PN Challenge book, I kept coming back to a few central ideas and I feel like I need to write a bit more.

For example here is a BIG DISRUPTIVE THOUGHT:

“Behind every communication problem is a SWEATY TEN-MINUTE CONVERSATION you don’t want to have. However, the moment you work up the courage to have it, you collect an instant reward in relief as well as open up a flow of communication that will allow you to resolve the situation.”

Wow, in my work as a consultant, this is sage advice. Absolutely amazing. This is new language I'll use for the rest of my life. Think about it! How much time do we waste worrying and obsessing about difficult conversations. Remember what Dale Carnegie told us worry does to the body and mind?

Finally, I'm realizing this week that one of my issues must have to do with image—personal and professional. Apparently, the universe has decided that now is the right time for me to get the lesson. Four out of four books this week!

In "The Big Leap" Hedricks writes this about Sam Lewin: “On Judgment Day, Mr. Lewin, God will not ask, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ He will ask, ‘Why were you not Sam Lewin?’ The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal; it is to find and fully use our own gifts.”

Maybe a little more, just to be sure we're hearing this?

From Leo Buscaglia: “You are the best you. You will always be the second best anyone else.”

And R.W. Emerson: “Envy is ignorance. Imitation is suicide.”

And finally from Osho: “Each person is born with a unique individuality, and each person has a destiny of his or her own. Imitation is crime, it is criminal. If you try to become a Buddha, you may look like Buddha, you may walk like him, you may talk like him, but you will miss. You will miss all that life was ready to deliver to you. Buddha happens only once. It is not in the nature of things to repeat. Existence is so creative that it never repeats anything. You cannot find another human being in the present, in the past, or in the future who is going to resemble you exactly. It has never happened. The human being is not a mechanism like Ford cars on an assembly line. Never imitate anybody.”

Now I'm done.

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - The Big Leap By Gay He... · 0 replies · +1 points

http://craig.typepad.com/common_ground/2010/01/da...

I don't know this author, but after reading the PhilosopherNote on his book, I feel like I should. The concepts seem consistent with a lot of my values and philosophy, particularly two Disruptive Thoughts about fear that struck me as I listened, read, and considered the reading.

First of all, this quote from Fritz Perls, MD, the psychiatrist and founder of Gestalt therapy, is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

“Fear is excitement without the breath."

According to Perls, here’s what this intriguing statement means: "The very same mechanisms that produce excitement also produce fear, and any fear can be transformed into excitement by breathing fully with it. On the other hand, excitement turns into fear quickly if you hold your breath. When scared, most of us have a tendency to try to get rid of the feeling. We think we can get rid of it by denying or ignoring it, and we use holding our breath as a physical tool of denial.”

In reflecting on this idea, I couldn't help but think about the concept of Comfort Zone, which I talk about with someone almost everyday. In fact, in my workshops, I'm often reminding people to breathe. It is a mantra I find myself repeating over and over to myself and others. It also brings to mind a particular bit of wisdom passed on to me by my dear friend and mentor, George Lakey:

"Life happens on the edge of your comfort zone."

In this book, Gay Hendricks says this about breathing into it: “The best advice I can give you is to take big, easy breaths when you feel fear. Feel the fear instead of pretending it’s not there. Celebrate it with a big breath, just the way you’d celebrate your birthday by taking a big breath and blowing out all the candles on your cake. Do that, and your fear turns into excitement. Do it more, and your excitement turns into exhilaration. I fi nd it very empowering to know that I’m in charge of the exhilaration I feel as I go through life. I bet you will, too.”

… And, don’t forget Emerson’s thoughts on the subject: “Always, always, always, always, always do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

Brian from PhilosopherNotes suggests that the basic idea is very simple and very powerful when appreciated and applied: "We often have moments of inspiration or breakthroughs or “state experiences” when we see the world in a new, revolutionary way.

"And… They’re only really meaningful if, after the initial buzz wears off, we have the discipline and the diligence and the patience and the persistence (and playfulness!) to create the structures in our lives that enable that breakthrough to stabilize and integrate and become a new way of being or “stage of our development.”

Remember yesterday? Dale Carnegie said it this way: "Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied."

I think this idea is big enough to stop here for now. I may not be finished with this book though!

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - How To Stop Worrying A... · 2 replies · +4 points

http://craig.typepad.com/common_ground/2010/01/da...

I think I read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" for a college class once, but to be honest I don't know much about the guy. For this book choice, I'm coming in without expectation, but quite curious from the title.

I've always been a bit of a worrier. For example, in junior high our band sold fruit every year to pay for equipment. It was a contest, and believe me when I tell you that even then, I liked to win! I'd plan my strategy and manage my list of buyers months ahead. I'd have a million questions and for weeks my life was consumed by band fruit. One year even my band director told me to relax, yelling at me that I was going to get a hernia if I didn't. Really?

Nevertheless, I need the ideas in this book. In fact, this little tidbit from Carnegie is particularly timely for me and more than one of my clients at the moment:

“Experience has proved to me, time after time, the enormous value of arriving at a decision. It is the failure to arrive at a fixed purpose, the inability to stop going around and round in maddening circles, that drives men to nervous breakdowns and living hells. I find that fifty per cent of my worries vanishes once I arrive at a clear, definite decision; and another forty per cent usually vanishes once I start to carry out that decision.

So, I banish about 90% of my worries by taking these four steps:

1. Writing down precisely what I am worried about.

2. Writing down what I can do about it.

3. Deciding what to do.

4. Starting immediately to carry out that decision.”

Now that is some darn good advice!

Remember my goal of focusing on Disruptive Thoughts? Carnegie makes a big deal out of an old adage recognizing that "some readers are going to snort at the idea of making so much over a hackneyed proverb like ‘Don’t cry over spilt milk.’ I know it is trite, commonplace, a platitude," he says. "I know you have heard it a thousand times. But I also know that these hackneyed proverbs contain the very essence of the distilled wisdom of all ages."

For me the disruptive thought isn't the quote, but the idea that sometimes the simplest ideas are the ones that carry the most meaning. If we're open, even the things we've heard a thousand times can take on new meaning.

My mom, for example, ends every conversation with me with the words "Be Happy."

She's said it to me a million times since I was a kid. But, it is only recently, that I've come to understand the power those two words have had on me and my life and the way I look at the world. I am happy and I am positive and I do see the glass half full. I think I'm one of the lucky ones.

Milton says it this way: "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”

And both Brian (from PhilosopherNotes) and I LOVED this from Carnegie: “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied; and the purpose of this book is to remind you of what you already know and to kick you in the shins [or wherever else you need it] and inspire you to do something about applying it.”

Well, how about one more disruptive thought? It's a doozey!

From Dale Carnegie: “I realize now that people are not thinking about you and me or caring what is said about us. They are thinking about themselves—before breakfast, after breakfast, and right on until ten minutes past midnight. They would be a thousand times more concerned about a slight headache of their own than they would about the news of your death or mine.” Whoa.

And Tim Ferriss in his book, "The 4-Hour Workweek," says something like: “Don’t worry about what other people think. They don’t think that often, anyway.”

Three out of three books this week reminding us not too dwell on the opinions of others—must be a lesson I need to learn.

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - The 7 Habits of Highly... · 4 replies · +5 points

If you are more than 25-years-old and you haven't made the time to read "The 7 Habits," what's wrong with you? This is only the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century, with more than 15 million copies sold!

If you haven't read it, the habits are: 1) Be Proactive; 2) Begin With the End in Mind; 3) Put First Things First; 4) Think Win/Win; 5) Seek First to Understand; 6) Synergy; and 7) Sharpen the Saw.

As with yesterday's selection, "The Four Agreements," rather than go into detail about what each of those means, I'm going to focus on a couple of the Disruptive Thoughts that struck me as I listened, read, and considered Brian Johnson's PhilosophersNotes summary. With this book especially, however, I can't help but share the ways in which my life has changed as a result of reading Covey's masterpiece more than 15 years ago.

It was 1994 and I was fortunate enough to be selected to participate in Youth Service America's New Generation Training Program (NGTP). I lived in Washington, DC then, as now, but the three sessions of my class met in San Francisco. It was one of those opportunities that was useful in the moment, but whose powerful impact really only became clear years later. Among many incredible experiences that year, was the chance to read, study, and use Covey's book as a framework for our personal and professional growth and development. NGTP gave all of us so much and asked only a couple of things in return.

One of things we promised was to create our own personal mission statement and to review and reflect on it once a year for the rest of our lives. In the social profit sector we are all familiar with organizational mission statements. The personal version has the same intent: to define your core values and help you achieve your dreams. This is a cornerstone of Covey's teaching.

At the beginning of every new year, I review my statement, evaluating my actions against what I know to be important to me. It gets me back on track, if I've drifted. A couple of times I've made changes to my statement, but they have always been minor and usually reflected newly discovered passions or powerful new dreams. I've created a workshop from this process and used it with groups of young people all around the world. I hope after reading my mission, you'll take the time to create your own. Tell your life story. Act boldly to achieve your dreams.

My mission statement begins like this:

To love often and much—people and ideas and life itself;
To take risks every day which challenge me to face my fears;
To see my dreams as the foundation of my future, and my passions as mortar for the bricks;
To remember that only I am me, that I am special, and that others are too;
To learn and grow each day from every moment and every experience . . .

Whenever I share my mission with others, it helps keep me on track. Feel free to read my whole statement here: Craig's Life & Love.pdf

Craig's Life & Love.pdf Honestly, with "The 7 Habits," I could probably write for hours about all of the ways my life has changed by embracing the ideas Covey explains. I really hope you'll read it for the first time, or read it again. Let me leave you with a couple of great quotes that capture some of that wisdom.

First, Oliver Wendell Holmes reminds us that “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

And one of my favorites from E.B. White: “I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.” Makes you smile, right?!

14 years ago @ FinerMinds - The Four Agreements by... · 0 replies · +1 points

http://craig.typepad.com/common_ground/2010/01/da...

What a great book with which to begin this adventure! I read "The Four Agreements" years ago and even have a great set of meditation cards based on the book, but it has been awhile since I really thought about its important lessons.

If you haven't read it, the agreements are: 1) Be Impeccable with Your Word; 2) Don’t Take Anything Personally; 3) Don’t Make Assumptions; and 4) Always Do Your Best."

Rather than go into detail about what each of those means, I think I'd rather share a few of the Disruptive Thoughts that struck me as I listened, read, and considered Brian Johnson's PhilosophersNotes summary.

First, I had forgotten Ruiz' thoughts about how we domesticate our children in "the same way that we train any domesticated animal: through a system of reward and punishment." In the workshops I lead on oppression and discrimination, I talk about the socialization of our kids in much the same way. Do you remember the old musical, "South Pacific?" There is a lyric in one of those famous songs that says "You've got to be taught to hate and to fear. You've got to be taught form year to year. You've got to be taught before its too late—before you are six, or seven, or eight—to hate all of the people your relatives hate."

That hits me every time.

We have to unlearn that terrible stuff, or at least challenge ourselves to think about whether we really believe some of the crazy messages we learned as kids. A lot of those ideas were put into our minds by well-meaning adults whose ability to transcend their own social conditioning was limited by the context of their time in history. In his PN summary, Brian reminds us of Carlos Castaneda's (the author of "The Wheel of Time") advice that "the purpose of the warrior (the ideal person in the Toltec tradition) is to transcend social conditioning as we discover our own personal power ..."

As I was considering some of the other big ideas in this book, it struck me that one of the reasons I'm here in Bolivia right now is to help an organization through a difficult change process. The last few days have been a testament to how hard people will work when they believe in something. As the author Don Miguel Ruiz says, “When you transform your whole dream, magic just happens in your life. What you need comes to you easily because spirit moves freely through you. This is the mastery of intent, the mastery of spirit, the mastery of love, the mastery of gratitude, and the mastery of life. This is the goal of the Toltec. This is the path to personal freedom.”

He added another disruptive thought to my consultant ego: “Nothing other people do [or don't do] is because of you. It is because of themselves.”

Whoa, I needed that.

Lastly, in talking about the book, Brian Johnson defines "the Greek ideal of Areté (pronounced “are-uh-tay”) to mean 'excellence' or 'virtue' but with a deeper meaning, something closer to 'striving to do your best moment to moment to moment.'"

If you look up, you'll see the tag line I've used for our work at Common Ground for close to 20 years: "Learning and Growing Each Day From Every Moment and Every Experience." Pretty cool.