by Helena Escalante | Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Resources
TODAY’S IDEA: 12 Books of Greatness – Day 1
I’m sure you’re familiar with the song Twelve Days of Christmas—here’s a lovely rendition interpreted by The Muppets. (Note: the image is not great, but it’s still very cute and funny!)
The 12 days of Christmas refers to the period of celebration (secular and religious) from December 25 through January 5. And because it coincides with the period of time that I’m going to be out on vacation visiting my family, I thought I’d make a miniseries for you during this time with posts from 12 Books of Greatness.
I strongly believe that greatness starts within us, so all of the posts that I chose for these 12 days come from books that are tremendously insightful. My hope is that reading these posts will give you plenty of ideas and “a-ha!” moments to end 2018 strong and start 2019 on a high note!
Happy holidays and happy reading!! 🙂
Helena
Your Chief Bookworm Officer
12 Books of Greatness – Day 1
The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
By Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.
Know someone who would like this book or this miniseries on 12 Books of Greatness? Please share it with them via email, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 27 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Great Ones Think Big
— From 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class: The Thought Processes, Habits and Philosophies of the Great Ones by Steve Siebold
“The life each of us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking. To have life more abundant, we must think in limitless terms of abundance.” – Thomas Dreier
In 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class, Steve Siebold makes an important assertion about successful people (whom he calls world class), “Their philosophy seems to be, ‘If you’re going to be thinking, you may as well think big.’ Their love- and abundance-based consciousness is the engine that drives their big thoughts and creative ideas.”
In contrast, Siebold states that “average performers think about how to survive with the least amount of pain and struggle,” instead of planning a brilliant future by thinking big.
The author suggests asking the people around you what they think about at any given time. He says, “You might be surprised to learn how many think about just getting by. The world class refers to this as ‘selling yourself short.’”
Siebold highlights the differences in mindset: “One group views the world as a scary place, and the other sees it as an exciting adventure with endless possibilities. [Most people] see life as a threat; the great ones see it as a game.”
In sum, Siebold says, the difference in mindset and worldview is so dramatically different between these two groups, that when you talk to them “it’s as though you’re speaking to people from different planets.”
“The great ones are fearless and focused on manifesting their ultimate dreams… [and their] abundance-based consciousness drives them to think and dream bigger with each passing success.”
ACTION
TODAY: This action comes directly from the book: “Review your vision for your life and think about your greatest dreams. Are you selling yourself short? Are you thinking too small? Are you letting fear hold you back from the abundance of life? Do you really have what it takes to hit it big? (Hint: yes!) Rewrite your vision today and go bigger than ever. Trust in your ability to find a way to make your dream come true. You can do it!”
FUTURE: Two great books to expand your mind to keep thinking big and see opportunity and possibility everywhere are: (1) The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz. Here are some posts I’ve written about it. This book was written in 1959, but the advice is as valid now as it was back then. (2) The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. This book is one of my absolute favorites and I can’t recommend it enough. Here are the posts I’ve written about it. If you like audio books, you’ll love listening to it: the music is beautiful, as Ben Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
Please share this post with the great ones around you, and ask them to share their worldview, it’s always wonderful to learn how they see the world! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 6 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Exchange an AND for a BUT to open up possibilities
— From The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rozamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.
Let’s assume that you are trying to escape the cold winter and you take a vacation to a nice, warm beach. But once you get there, instead of sunshine, you have non-stop rain. Ugh! What to do?
Whether professionally or personally, when things don’t go as planned, we tend to react either with “hopeless resignation” or “spluttering resistance,” or we get upset somewhere in between that spectrum. Roz and Benjamin Zander suggest, instead, developing the practice of “being present to the way things are, including our feelings about the way things are.”
But what exactly does that mean?
“Being present to the way things are is not the same as accepting things as they are” with utmost resignation and hopelessness. Neither does it mean “you should drown out your negative feelings or pretend you like something you really can’t stand.” Much less that “you should work to achieve some ‘higher plane of existence’ so you can ‘transcend negativity’.”
“It simply means being present without resistance: being present to what is happening and present to your reactions, no matter how intense. And to get this done, merely exchanging an and for a but may do the trick.”
Look at these two ways of seeing the same thing differently:
(1) We are at the beach BUT it’s raining. This isn’t what we planned; it’s very disappointing. BUT, this is the way things are.
In this scenario, we’re stuck at the beach and stuck in our minds too, and we can’t help but resist, protest, complain, and huff and puff.
Now compare it to:
(2) We are at the beach AND it’s raining. This isn’t what we planned; it’s very disappointing. AND, this is the way things are.
In this other scenario, we’re at a rainy beach, yet we are not stuck in our minds, nor is there a need to complain. We let the rain be without resisting and thus, “are now free to turn to the question, ‘What do we want to do from here?’ And then all sorts of pathways begin to appear: the possibility of resting; having the best food… reading or conversation; going to the movies or walking in the rain; or catching the next flight [out].” Exchange an AND for a BUT to open up possibilities.
When things go wrong, or simply not as planned, we can throw a fit, curse our bad luck, or decide to find an easier path with less resistance and struggle. When you come to terms with what’s ahead of you and move on, you start walking down a path filled with possibility.
ACTION
TODAY: What didn’t go as planned? What are you struggling with? What is the story you’re telling yourself? Where can you exchange an AND for a BUT to lower resistance and open up possibility? We submitted a proposal AND didn’t win the contract. Or I needed to talk to my colleague AND he didn’t have time. Or I placed the order AND the shipment did not arrive on time. Remember that there’s no such thing as a shortage of ideas when you look for possibilities after you ask What do we want to do from here?
FUTURE: Take this one step further when you are feeling afraid or challenged. Seth Godin in his book Footprints on the Moon gives this example: “I want to write a new article, BUT I’m afraid,” versus “I want to write a new article, AND I’m afraid.” By acknowledging the fear, you take the first step towards dancing with it, and figuring out the many possibilities of what you want to do next.
Know someone who could use more ANDs and less BUTs? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Goals, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 43 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
Give Yourself an A.
— From The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rozamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.
Because we live in an ultracompetitive society, we are constantly comparing our results to others and others’ results to ours. The result? Disappointment that we don’t measure up or that others don’t measure up to our standards, with the consequent anxiety, despair, and a bunch of other symptoms caused by this unnecessary stress. However, Ben and Roz Zander in The Art of Possibility rightly state that all of the labels we assign are merely human inventions, “so we might as well choose to invent something that brightens our life and the lives of the people around us.”
As such, they describe a fascinating tactic, the practice of giving an A*: “It’s a shift in attitude that makes it possible for you to speak freely about your own thoughts and feelings while, at the same time, you support others to be all they dream of being. The practice of giving an A transports your relationship from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility.”
You can give yourself an A, and you can also give it to “anyone in any walk of life—to a waitress, to your employer, to your mother-in-law, to the members of the opposite team, and to the drivers in traffic… This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.”
Ben Zander, who serves as musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (on the date of publication of this post) says that he gives all students in his class an A at the beginning of the course in exchange for writing him a letter (within the following two weeks and postdated at the end of the course) in which each student should detail “the story of what will have happened to [him/her by the end of the course] that is in line with this extraordinary grade. [The students] are to place themselves in the future, looking back, and to report on all the insights they acquired and milestones they attained during the year as if those accomplishments were already in the past.” In the letter, Zander wants them to highlight, and is especially interested in, “the person [the student] will have become [by the end of the course]… the attitude, feelings, and worldview of that person who will have done all she wished to do or become everything he wanted to be.”
“I tell them I want them to fall passionately in love with the person they are describing in their letter.”
So why not give ourselves an A today and see what happens? And how about giving it to the people that surround us? Let’s give it a try, for all we know, we may make our corner of the world a much better place!
ACTION
TODAY: Write yourself a letter explaining why you’re giving yourself an A, and date it a year from today. Describe who you will have become and why a year from now. Fall passionately in love with the person you are describing in the letter. Go make it happen!
FUTURE: Every time you find yourself unnecessarily stressed or in a pickle about something, give yourself and the people involved in it an A (no letters involved here, you can simply give them an A in your mind). See how your attitude changes. Ask yourself, “What happens if we pretend that this isn’t hard?” It’s game changing!
In my mind and in my heart you are all As, and my wish for you is to always dwell in possibility and marvel at yourself and others. I am so grateful for you being with me on this journey: EntreGurus is celebrating one month, and we have so much more to share, woo-hoo!!
Please let me know in the comments the ideas that EntreGurus has sparked in you! And a favor, please: help me share these ideas with more people via email, Facebook or Twitter. Thank you!
NOTES:
* For our international gurupies**: Grades in school in the United States are measured in a scale of A to F, with A being the highest and best grade a student can get. In other countries this would be the equivalent of 10 or 100. Simply substitute the A in this case for the highest and best grade that students can get in your country and this tactic will immediately resonate with you!
** Gurupie = blend of guru and groupie = how we fondly refer to the EntreGurus’ community, because we all follow the ideas of the gurus.
by Helena Escalante | Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
Rule Number 6.
–From The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rozamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.
I must preface this post by saying that this book is one of my favorites and I think it should be in the hands of every person in the whole wide world! I cannot recommend it enough. Also, the audio book is a treasure, because it’s filled with beautiful music thanks to Ben Zander, who serves as musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (on the date of publication of this post).
There is no better way to explain today’s idea, Rule Number 6, than to quote this masterful story directly from the book:
«Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule Number 6,” whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: “Marie, please remember Rule Number 6.” Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: “My dear friend, I’ve seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?” “Very simple,” replies the resident prime minister. “Rule Number 6 is ‘Don’t take yourself so g—damn seriously.'” “Ah,” says his visitor, “that is a fine rule.” After a moment of pondering, he inquires, “And what, may I ask, are the other rules?”
“There aren’t any.”»
Don’t you just LOVE Rule Number 6? I know I do. Whenever I’m all worked up about something, I think of Rule Number 6 and I laugh out loud, even if I’m by myself (thank goodness my dog doesn’t speak, otherwise the stories about me he would tell!).
Rule Number 6 snaps me immediately out of whatever funk I’m in. It makes me look for another angle to solve a problem or a different way to make things happen. It also helps me make a positive experience out of whatever may be happening at that moment (and that I consider too important and too serious).
Another way in which I’ve come to apply Rule Number 6 is by thinking this: if I may be able to look back in the future and laugh at what I’m going through right now, what prevents me from laughing at it this very moment? How can I make that mindshift now and shorten the time it takes to get to the laughter and the lessons learned? Easier said than done, but a worthwhile exercise every time I’ve tried.
ACTION:
(NOTE: One of our gurupies* had a great idea: to give actions in bite-size pieces; some sort of “Today’s action is….” for those of you that don’t have much time. I think this is brilliant and I’m implementing it right away. Also, for those of you that may want to continue applying the action in the future, I’m also including things you can do if you want to explore a bit more. Let me know how you like this new approach, and of course, I welcome ALL your ideas and suggestions with open arms!)
TODAY: Share the story of Rule Number 6 with your world; I’m sure they’ll love it. Make a point of keeping it in mind throughout the day and seeing the many ways in which you can apply it (or in which it could serve others to apply it!).
FUTURE: Ask your family, friends and colleagues to remind you of Rule Number 6 when you need it. Ask if you can do the same for them. It will eventually become a habit to invoke Rule Number 6 and find new ways of seeing things. You’ll be less stressed and much happier.
Happy RuleNumberSixing! 😀
* Gurupie = blend of guru and groupie = how we fondly refer to the EntreGurus’ community, because we all follow the ideas of the gurus.
