NEWSLETTER VOLUME 2, #1
Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,
NEWSLETTER VOLUME 2, #1
Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,
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Prosperity in Nature
Monkeys plan where their next meal is coming from. The four Simian species who live in Costa Rica expect to eat well and organize themselves accordingly. "Congo" (the Howler Monkey), Titi (or the Squirrel Monkey), white-faced "Capuchins" and Spider Monkeys all enjoy an incredible bounty, but they don't rely on Providence; they all developed an incredible capacity to adapt in order to prosper from Nature's abundance.
Science carefully studied those 4 genetic "cousins" of ours, to find that their main threat is deforestation - the loss of habitat - caused by man. Creator's plan includes plenty for all, but the "hairless apes" are denatured and spoil the garden.
Our monkey cousins' great flexibility assures them a prosperous life. They have varied diets and will comfortably move 4-5 kilometers a day to shop around for bargains. They can spend an entire month only eating fruit, or seeds, or insects, or leaves. The great variety in their diet allows them to manage a non-competitive overlap between species or communities in a territory.
Daily activities are dictated by the seasons and the weather, but generally they forage and eat from sunrise to 10h00, then play and rest 'till mid-afternoon and nosh again from 3PM until sunset, when they knock off for the day. The business of filling their needs takes a mostly stress-less 6 hours. If - because of weather or a major disturbance - a food source becomes scarce, then tribes will break down into smaller groups; one will only eat one kind of food and leave the balance of the forest to others. They thus demonstrate Nature's first creative management rule: "altruistic self-interest".
If human beings were to act this way, the cycles of recession and abundance we suffer would be replaced by a millennium of plenty for everyone. Why it'll take years of production just to attain equity, let alone prosperity. Consider how more than 2 billion people woke up without fresh water in close proximity or the promise of a decent meal this morning, to realize that "prosperity" can mean vastly different things to different people.
Because a prosperous life in the information age should have no boundaries, understand that prosperity is first of all an attitude. Then it is the quality of transactional energy and how it is put into motion. Creative energy-in-motion (or creative e-motion) offers the key to self-fulfillment; acting on the following list of 7 ideas from top7.com will help anyone prosper:
1. Get very specific and clear about what prosperity means to you. WRITE what you want on a "wish list". Plaster your home and work environment with ideas and images that support your list, and then be real flexible how to actualize it.2. Eliminate all DOUBT about your chances for success. Anticipate prosperity and look for it in many ways and places. Give off positive e-motion and recognize how success is a way, not a destination.
3. Remember that you get what you focus on most.
4. Remove negative habits from your business attitude, set policies that shape ethical behavior and take care of the details. DO NOT accept negative answers from your collaborators, as that poison will dilute your success.
5. Be certain that you and your collaborators always give clients 110% of what they think they are paying for.
6. Take consistent intelligent actions to increase your sales or exposure.
7. Stay focused on the purpose you set for yourself, slow down to speed up, and touch bases with your "wish list" at least once a day. Follow the path of your heart.
If Monkeys can retire in a tropical paradise, why shouldn't we "deep-thinkers"?
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In large measure, creativity means "materializing" an idea. As such a very beneficial skill allows you to plan out strategies that evolve into a creative whole. This ability means seeing "how things are", "how they can change" and "how they should end up". The technique to do this is called «storyboarding». Think how the layout for a comic strip in the newspaper unfolds over time and you'll get idea behind «storyboards». Leonardo Da Vinci regularly used them to plan out the steps in a process and Walt Disney mastered the art.
By putting ideas into a storyboard, you can see all kinds of possible connections. You can also let others see how ideas relate to one another and how all the pieces can come together. When things are clear, the contributors to a storyboard become immersed in a situation, solution or scenario and can figure out where it'll take them. To learn more about the strategy, click here.
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This month Suzy and I are leading a "team-building week" in the jungles of Costa Rica with the management of DINEC INC., of Louiseville, Quebec. See the learning agenda and find out how the participants will gain important insights and a clear understanding of their creative potential.
They'll also explore the concept of "self-organizing teams" and find out how to organize for higher efficiency and performance. They'll discover Nature's slant on ideas like synergy and interdependence and find out about the dynamic needed to communicate and work effectively and creatively with others. Check out the itinerary of this fact and fun filled adventure by clicking here.
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The best thing about the web is having useful, accurate information at your fingertips. The following selections will put you in touch with a rather wide of ideas.
The "Fact Monster" is exactly that - and a great place to browse. Click http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia.html to see for yourself. For all your science questions click - http://www.treasure-troves.com/ . Everything you want to know about technology but don't know who to ask is answered at http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/ and all things philosophical are found at http://plato.stanford.edu/.
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"I believe that my creative mind is my greatest weapon." -- Tiger Woods
"Leap and the net will appear." -- Julia Cameron
"You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction." -- George Horace Lorimer
"Show class, have pride and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself." -- Coach "Bear" Bryant
"Don't ask for an easier life; ask to be a stronger person." -- Kristen Goeser
Watch out for emergencies, they are your big chance. -- Fritz Reimer
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"No one really changes..." - someone wrote the consultant in a scathing email - "...and there is no such thing as 'becoming'. People are born who they are and they turn our predictably. The whole idea of training to become a better person is a sham!"
In answer, the consultant told about an interesting study he'd encountered in the literature: "Years ago..." - he wrote back - "...a young college professor gave a group of graduate students a fascinating assignment. He told them to go into the town's slums, to select 200 boys, between the ages of 12 and 16, to investigate and write a report on their backgrounds and environments and to then predict their chances for the future.
The students found and interviewed the boys, consulted social statistics, compiled much data and then concluded that 90 percent of the boys would spend some time in jail.
Twenty-five years later that same professor gave another group of graduate students the job of testing the first group's predictions. They went back to the studied area and found that most of the boys - by now men - were still there. A few had died and some had moved away but they managed to trace 180 of the original 200.
They completed their study and were stunned to find that only four of the group had ever been in jail. The professor wanted to know why these men, who lived in a breeding place for crime, had such a surprisingly good record.
Looking into it, the researchers found only one common link in those 180 stories; they were told by every man: "Well, there was this one teacher..."
They pressed further and found that in more than 85% of the cases it was the same teacher - a woman at the community high school. The researchers then found her, now living in a home for retired people, and visited her. How had she exerted such remarkable influence over that group of children? - they asked. Could she give them a good reason why these boys turned out OK and why they remembered her?
"No", she answered, "...no I really can't say anything particular."
And then, thinking back over the years and smiling fondly, she added - more to herself than her questioners: "You know, I just loved those boys... I truly loved every one of them."