Writing As A "Charismatic Cause"

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"SIMPLY SUCCESS" - SHORT POST - March 29, 2007
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>Helping You Create What Matters MOST in Life and Work
Bruce Elkin: Life/Work Renewal Coach
Personal - Professional - Organizational
http://www.BruceElkin.com
Sent to subscribers only. Names are never shared or sold!
**************************************************

Hi all,
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Spring continues to unfold its brilliant beauty here on the island. It is such a lovely and invigorating time of the year. I truly enjoy it.

People often ask me, "Do you have your life perfectly simplified?"

I usually chuckle and tell them, "I believe the Buddhist notion that perfection is 85 percent."

If they persist, I confess that I’m still trying to craft the simplicity I most want. I am still working on creating what I call the simplicity on the other side of complexity.
That for me, that kind of higher order simplicity that can embrace and transcend life's messy complexity is best seen as a work-in-progress.

But I might even have come a step closer this week, as I re-read some notes I’d made about the “charisma of causes.”

This means focusing more on things that matter to you than on your own little (or big) ego. Things and causes that are bigger than you. And that require that stretch yourself to serve them.

So, I’d been sorting out “charismatic causes” I could commit to such as “helping others create what matters most,” “community co-creating,” and “helping organizations become more socially and ecologically responsible and sustainable.”

All good causes, in my mind. All things I have put time and energy into over the years. But something was missing. Yes, I was willing to put time in to serve these causes, but . . . what?

As I pored over my notes and overlapping Venn diagrams, trying to figure out why I was not more excited by the charisma of these causes, I realized I had left out the cause closest to my heart. (Again!)

I had left out writing, seeing it not as a worthy cause in itself, but only as a tool to further the other causes.

And my soul cried out, "What about writing? Writing well. Engaging people, entertaining them, helping them see aspects of themselves and their own lives through your stories and essays? What about that? Is not that a worthy cause?"

Whew! Glad I noticed, because that’s the cause that speaks loudest to me, and, for some reason(s) not yet known to me, I tend to undervalue it.
Maybe because I tend to get too practical sometimes, and think only with my head. I see writing as a tool to share my thoughts with clients and potential clients. I see writing as tool to get more clients, and help me sustain my modest income.

I think that is true, but I also think it goes deeper.

I think I undervalue writing because it is so personal. It requires that you put whole self on the line, out there, for people to poke at, jibe at, and, sometimes, applaud.
Writing for publication can be frightening, terrifying even.

But writing well is, for me, one of life's purest and most pleasant delights. It is the way I engage the creative process

It is the way I integrate my head, hands, and heart, and enter flow.

It is the challenge that most reveals to me what I am really made of, and what I am willing to do to become my best.

So, no more. I’m putting writing back at the top of my list. (Again.) Committing to a writer’s life. I choose to focus on it, work hard on it. I choose to see it as a worthy and charismatic cause -- the worthiest cause for me -- and go for it.

And I have no doubt that by doing so, I will make myself better able to serve my community, and work on the other causes that matter deeply to me.
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> ARE YOU DOING WHAT YOU REALLY LOVE?
Would you like to create what most deeply matters to you?
===========================================
I work with capable people who struggle with complicated life/work challenges. I help them develop the SKILLS, STRUCTURE, and SUPPORT to make the complex simple—and to turn their desires into reality!
>I can help you clarify what you love, AND create a life that shows it!

If you would like my fr.ee 7-page info package, e-mail me with "Coaching Package" as subject at Bruce@BruceElkin.com
---------------


>THIS WEEK'S QUOTES:
====================
"This is the true joy in life - that being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. That being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for it's own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it to future generations.
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Language for me is action. To speak words that have been unspoken, to imagine that which is unimaginable, is to create the place in which change (action) occurs. I do believe our acts are limited -- ultimately -- only by what we fail or succeed in conceptualizing."
-- Judith McDaniel

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."
-- Maya Angelou
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That's it for this week. Thanks for forwarding my newsletters and short posts to others. Your help is invaluable. Have a great week.
Bruce
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More On "The Secret"

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"SIMPLY SUCCESS" - SHORT POST - March 21, 2007
=======================================
>Helping You Create What Matters MOST in Life and Work
Bruce Elkin: Life/Work Renewal Coach
Personal - Professional - Organizational
http://www.BruceElkin.com
Sent to subscribers only. Names are never shared or sold!
**************************************************

Hi All,
Happy Spring to those in the North. A pleasant fall to those in the South.

Wow! Last week's piece on The Secret generated the highest volume of email I have ever received. Thank you all so much for your comments.

FYI, six times as many folks wrote to thank me for helping them think more clearly about the ideas in The Secret than wrote to defend those ideas.

And, please do not misunderstand me. I was not trying to put down anyone who is sincerely trying to grapple with how to create the life and world they most want. If you know my work, you know I support that intention.

I was just questioning what I thought was the over-simplified approach put forward in the DVD and book, and the various approaches based on the so-called "law of attraction."

There is a lot of power in clarifying your intentions and visualizing your results so clearly that you can see and feel them as if you had already created them. But vision/intention is not all there is to creating.

“The Law of Attraction” is a useful concept. But The Secret takes this one small piece of the puzzle and makes it the whole thing. And if you think it is, you will be sorely disappointed, as was Judy, whose sad experience I described in last week's piece (and in Simplicity and Success).

Thinking that intention alone leads to results leaves out the other forces that influence whether you succeed at creating what you want, or not.

It leaves out current reality, and all the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" that have a real influence on you, and your results.

It leaves out focused action, structured to align with and support your visions of results.

You need all of these elements. And you need them put together in a particular way, in a particular structure or organizing framework.

To understand structure, think of a pile of bicycle parts with all the parts needed to make a fully functioning bike. Then think of those parts put together. What's the difference? The structure--the way the parts are put together. The arrangement between the parts is the bike's structure

So, together with clear, firmly held "intention" (clear, compelling visions of desired results), you also must pay "attention" to current reality. You must learn how to recognize and work with all the forces in play that affect you and your results. This is where Judy went wrong. She ignored reality, and it blindsided her.

Finally, you must take "action." You must practice skills, develop mastery, and learn from your own experience. Think about artists—painters, writers, musicians. They all work on their craft. The best of them develop "technique" to burn, i.e., more technique than they need to deal with whatever reality throws at them.

The real secret to creating results that matter, I think, is two fold:

1. You must integrate intention, attention, and action — desire, mindfulness, and learning. You must bring together your heart, head, and hands in service of your creations.

2. And you must practice, practice, practice until you, too, have technique to burn.

There is no easy way around this. And my problem with The Secret and many of the approaches touted in it is that it claims there is. Hold the intention. Ask, believe, and receive, and that parking spot or cancer cure or big screen TV will be yours.

Sorry, in the vast majority of cases, magically thinking that "perfect thoughts" will bring those things into being about is not going to work.

Worse, many will blame themselves for not "believing" hard enough, for not having strong enough "intentions."

Their self-esteem and confidence will decrease. They will be disempowered rather than empowered. Feeling bad about themselves, they will be even bigger prey for those who peddle simplistic approaches to success. Sad!
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Other Resources:
For insightful, and hard-hitting (but not mean spirited) critiques of The Secret, see Julian Walker's recent posts on the Zaadz site at
http://julianwalkeryoga.zaadz.com/blog/2006/12/the_secret_spiritual_
cinema

Julian is a respected yoga teacher known for his integrally-informed approach to transformation, healing, bodywork, psychotherapy, and spirituality.

You can also listen to Julian in dialogue with Ken Wilber, founder of The Integral Institute on the Integral Naked website at http://in.integralinstitute.org/

Finally, for an insightful article on "magical thinking" see this New York Time's article, "Do You Believe In Magic?" at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/health/psychology/23magic.html?ex=1327208400&en=980902a5129bebbb&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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> ARE YOU DOING WHAT YOU REALLY LOVE?
Would you like to create what most deeply matters to you?
===========================================
> Are you stuck or struggling to be:
* Clear about what you want to do and create?
* Focused, free, and able to do more with less?
* Create desired results -- in spite of problems & adversity?
* Feel free, energized, full of zest for life, work or …?
> My CREATING WHAT MATTERS MOST coaching program can help.

I work with capable people who struggle with complicated life/work challenges. I help them develop the SKILLS, STRUCTURE, and SUPPORT to make the complex simple—and to turn their desires into reality!
>I can help you clarify what you love-AND create a life that shows it!

My practice is still full, but I have a waiting list and it looks as though a couple of spaces will open up in April, and a couple more in May. If you would like my fr.ee 7-page info package, e-mail me with "Coaching Package" as subject at Bruce@BruceElkin.com
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>THIS WEEK'S QUOTES:
====================
"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work."
- Peter Drucker

"As thinking beings we have a responsibility to observe carefully and act with intention. When one does that, patterns emerge in the dynamics. These emerging learnings can be used to shape behavior and questions for the next moment in time."
- Glenda Eoyang

"I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."
- W. Clement Stone

"Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold - but so does a hard-boiled egg."
-- Unknown

"A vision without a task is but a dream
A task without a vision is drudgery
A task with a vision is the hope of the world."
-- Inscription on a church in Sussex, England circa 1730
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That's it for this week.

Be Careful About "The Secret"

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"SIMPLY SUCCESS" - SHORT POST - March 15, 2007
=======================================
>Helping You Create What Matters MOST in Life and Work
Bruce Elkin: Life/Work Renewal Coach
Personal - Professional - Organizational
http://www.BruceElkin.com
Sent to subscribers only. Names are never shared or sold!
**************************************************

Hi All,
Sunny, bright, and brisk here in Victoria. Lovely! Daffodils and crocuses in bright profusion; cherry trees in full bloom. Ah, spring!

Today, I wanted to insert a note of caution about the frenzy that seems to be building about the book and video The Secret. In many ways, the message therein is just the old "think and grow rich" dicta, recycled.

Twenty-some years ago, Shakti Gawain stirred up hopes and dreams with her "Visualization" book. Just "hold the vision" and the Universe will deliver.
Today, Rhonda Byrne says, "Ask. Believe. Receive."

Doesn’t that seem a bit too simple? Even simplistic? It does to me.

Indeed, two years ago Shakti Gawain recanted her approach and apologized to readers and followers for leading them down a false trail. She admitted that as well as a clear vision, you must also take action. You need to work on that vision to make it a reality.

But there is more to creating what truly matters to you than just vision and action. To know what action to take, you must also ground your vision in current reality—an accurate, objective description of where you are now, relative to your desire result.

Together, vision, current reality, and action—heart, head, and hands—come together to set up a useful framework, and a powerful form of energy, we call "creative tension."

When you set up creative tension, you tap into two of the most powerful forces in the Universe -- LOVE (a vision of what you'd truly love to create), and TRUTH (an honest, objective appraisal of the current state of your result, and yourself).

Holding Vision and Reality in mind at the same time sets up creative tension, and a container, a possibility space, in which to create results. It is creative tension that primarily powers the actions of creators and leads to successful results.

But what can happen if you buy into the magical thinking of "if you visualize it, it will come"?

Here's a little morality tale, excerpted from the chapter on Current Reality in my book Simplicity and success.

Include but Don’t Exaggerate the Positive Aspects of Reality.
***
When assessing current reality, don’t make it out to be better than it is, at least not by much. Although research shows that slightly “positive illusions” can be helpful in producing desired results, exaggerating the positive can distort reality. It makes it difficult to build a solid base upon which to create results. Worse, illusions sometimes become delusions.

Judy had recently divorced and was working full-time for the first time in her life. She asked to be included in an upcoming workshop but repeatedly put off my request for a deposit. Finally, I asked her if she had money problems.

“No,” she scoffed, “I never have trouble with money. I just visualize what I need and it manifests.”

I doubted this was an objective assessment of reality, but Judy assured me it was. However, two days before the registration deadline, Judy’s deposit had not arrived and others wanted her space, so I called her.

I got no answer and no machine. This was strange, as Judy was in a business that required that she be in telephone contact at all times. I called throughout the weekend. Still no answer and no machine. I started to worry.

Monday, I called again. When Judy answered, she was sobbing and almost incoherent. I could tell she’d been drinking. When she’d calmed down enough to make sense, she told me she was completely broke.

The bank had repossessed her car and foreclosed on her house. She’d exceeded her limits on both credit cards. Friday morning, she’d gone to the bank to request an emergency loan. The bank manager had not only turned her down, she’d recommended that Judy seek debt and personal counseling.

She referred Judy to Social Assistance for emergency financial help. Judy was stunned. When she told her teenage daughters she was going to Social Assistance, they packed their things and went to stay with their father.

Bewildered and overwhelmed, Judy had started drinking Friday afternoon and hadn’t stopped all weekend.

“How could this happen?” she sobbed over the phone. “Every day, in every way, I tried to succeed. I held the vision. I saw myself manifesting money. How could this happen?”

It happened because Judy exaggerated the positive aspects of her financial reality. In her Pollyannaish attempts to put a positive spin on her situation, she so distorted reality that she truly believed she could create money merely by visualizing it — even as her deteriorating finances told her she could not.

It’s fine to be slightly optimistic about reality, but distorting it to make it look better than it is can backfire as it did on Judy.

So, take from approaches such as The Secret what you find helpful, but try not to get swept away by the emotional fervor surrounding it. You do not want to end up as Judy did.
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>THIS WEEK'S QUOTES:
====================
"Every day that you attempt to see things as they are in truth is a supremely successful day."
-- Vernon Howard

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work."
-- Peter Drucker

"I don't worry about the storms, I am learning to sail my own ship."
-- Louisa May Alcott

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
-- William Jennings Bryan

"Intuition does not always appear as the ingenious breakthrough or something grandiose. Intuitive thoughts, feelings, and solutions often manifest themselves as good old common sense. Common sense is efficient."
-- Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer
------------------------

> Check out my book SIMPLICITY & SUCCESS: Creating the Life You Long For.
This life-changing book will help you create both simplicity and success, and just about anything that matters to you in life, work, and relationships.

"Bruce Elkin does a great job showing that voluntary simplicity doesn't
mean doing without -- rather, simple living is about fine-tuning your life
to achieve your most important dreams."
- Janet Luhrs, The Simple Living Guide
Info at http://www.bruceelkin.com/simplicity-book.html
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Integrating Values and Priorities

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"SIMPLY SUCCESS" - SHORT POST - March 7, 2007
=======================================
>Helping You Create What Matters MOST in Life and Work
Bruce Elkin: Life/Work Renewal Coach
Personal - Professional - Organizational
http://www.BruceElkin.com
Sent to subscribers only. Names are never shared or sold!
**************************************************

Happy International Women's Day!

Thanks for the great feedback on the whale slideshow and talking wombat. I am delighted you liked them, and appreciate those who told me so.

It is sometimes a bit of a challenge to know what to write in these short posts. Indeed, it is often a challenge to know what to write, period.

I've been struggling with sorting out my own writing priorities for the last few months. So, how do I do it?

I start with my overall vision and values. That sets the wide-frame context for what comes next.

I value simplicity. I value success on my own terms. I value sustainability in my life and world. I value integrating the key aspects of my life.

I value serving other people, helping them to master their own creative process, to and create what truly matters to them.

I also value writing for its own sake, as an art and craft I aspire to master.

So, within this context, 4 major writing projects want my focus and attention. First, I got excited about writing a series of personal essays -- memoirs about my adventures in the Bow Valley in the Rockies -- and trying to qualify for a place in the Banff Mountain Writing Program next fall.

But when I started working on that project, I felt the pull to finish my Emotional Mastery revision, and to make it more personal and accessible to others. So I turned my attention to that.

"Yes, but," a little voice inside me said, "When are you going to revise Simplicity and Success and try to get a better publisher for it? Good question. And what about the Sustainable Success ebook? Hmm?

I went back and forth between these four projects for nearly 3 months, doing a little her and a little there, but not feeling productive or satisfied.

Then, the almost-sudden upsurge of interest in "going Green" and working to deal with climate change brought all my values into alignment.

realized the best way to honour all of the values above would be to combine Sustainable Success and Simplicity and Success into one book project to be called Simplicity, Success, and Sustainability.

Then, having clarified my vision of what I wanted to create, and looking carefully at my current projects (my current reality), a path became clear.

Finish revising Sustainable Success, then use the best sample chapters from it and Simplicity and Success (revised and updated), and then craft an engaging book proposal for Simplicity, Success, and Sustainability.

Now, instead of a little here, a little there, and a lot of gaps filled with worry in between, I've identified my primary choice -- the new book. And I've clarified the secondary choices -- revise ebook, write proposal, submit to agents and editors --that will support my primary choice.

By integrating my competing desires, I set up a path of least resistance from where I am to where I want to be. And the process flows. Me too. I'm making progress. I'm having a great time learning and growing. And it all feels great.

And, oh yeah, I now find I have time to work on the memoirs in the evening without putting a lot of pressure on myself. If I don't get into the program this year, next year might even be a better time for me all around.

You gotta love the creative process when you get it working right for you.
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>THIS WEEK'S QUOTES:
====================
"You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with
twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your
life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can
take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you
receive."
- Thomas Arnold Bennett

"When we are writing, or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colors are brighter, sounds are clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize."
- Madeleine L'Engle

"True spirituality is to be aware that if we are interdependent with everything and everyone else, then even our smallest, least significant thought, word and action have real consequences throughout the universe."
- Sogyal Rinpoche

"We decided that is was no good asking what is the meaning of life, because life isn't an answer, life is a question, and you, yourself are the answer."
- Ursula K. Le Guin
------------------------

Thanks for forwarding my newsletters and short posts to others. Your help is invaluable. Have a great week.
Bruce
**************************************************
> BRUCE ELKIN:
Personal, Professional, and Organization Renewal Coach
>Call: 250.388.7210 www.BruceElkin.com Or Skype Me!
**************************************************

Caring for Our Earth

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"SIMPLY SUCCESS" - SHORT POST - February 28, 2007
=======================================
>Helping You Create What Matters MOST in Life and Work
Bruce Elkin: Life/Work Renewal Coach
Personal - Professional - Organizational
http://www.BruceElkin.com
Sent to subscribers only. Names are never shared or sold!
**************************************************

Hi ,
Words, words, words… I'm always sending you words.
Now, I like words, as you might have guessed, but sometimes images speak louder than words.

So, this week, I thought I'd send you some absolutely entrancing images of whales in the wild, and a short cartoon with a related point.

Thanks to Caspar Davis for forwarding these amazing whale photos. They are from Chris Hyde's web site:
http://www.wildthingsphotography.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=0&a=0&at=0

And, then, click here for a pointed message from a talking wombat.
Yes, a talking wombat - http://www.globalcommunity.org/flash/wombat.shtml

Thanks to Charles Holmes of the Dalai Lama Centre
http://www.dalailamacentre.org
for this humorous look at a serious subject.

That's it. Enjoy the images.
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>THIS WEEK'S QUOTES:
====================
"We evolved as creatures knitted into the fabric of nature, and without its intimate truths, we can find ourselves unraveling."
- Diane Ackerman

"When we try to pick out anything else in the Universe, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."
- John Muir

"I am drawn to the wild not because it is wild but because it is sensible, logical, ordered, stable, resilient. Wild nature is everything we're struggling to regain."
- Carl Safina

"As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can. As long as the
Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit, I can, because I'm the
Earth. I won't give up until the Earth gives up."
-Alice Walker

"Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English
language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and
enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in
having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things."
- Elise Boulding
------------------------

Thanks for forwarding my newsletters and short posts to others. Your help is invaluable. Have a great week.
Bruce
**************************************************
> BRUCE ELKIN:
Personal, Professional, and Organization Renewal Coach
>Call: 250.388.7210 www.BruceElkin.com Or Skype Me!
**************************************************