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Those words "NOT HELPFUL" have stuck in my mind for two years now after watching an interview with Jai Pausch, wife of deceased author of The Last Lecture Randy Pausch. Diane Sawyer had asked how she remained optimistic despite the overwhelming reality of having three small children and a husband with advanced stage Pancreatic Cancer. She said that with lots of help, coaching and counseling she had learned to be conscious of unproductive thoughts BEFORE they became overwhelming emotions.*
Before you label this just more "power of positive thinking nonsense" consider these questions:
- Would you excuse the actions of someone who threatened your job, endangered your family or damaged your personal health?
- If not, why do we harbor, repeat, and attend to conversations that do irreparable damage to all our lives every day?
We do it because we think we must. We do it because we believe in scarcity, blame and separation. We do it mostly because we no longer believe in ourselves. It is not that we don't have egos, titles, labels, pasts, futures, yours, mine, theirs, ours, stuff and accomplishments. It is that we have forgotten who we are without these things. Who would you be if, as Nelson Mandela said "You are powerful beyond measure"? The only difference between reading this quote and being this person is the understanding that it is already true. We are far more powerful than we can ever imagine. Jai Pausch and many others have been plunged into this awareness through the acute nature of their experiences, while others through the insidious drain of self induced discontent.
This I believe is the key to our future. Not just to healthcare, but to the world as a whole. To be conscious of unproductive thoughts BEFORE they became overwhelming emotions. It is the foundation of the greatest spiritual writings, the secret to all lasting transformation and the only thing I have felt worthy of teaching for many years now. We are all teachers all the time, and whatever we teach is that which we learn. I used to teach what others would consider to be hard skills, but in the twenty years I have been in this profession I realize the hardest skill of all is that of managing ourselves. 2,700 years ago Lao Tzu wrote;
"He who controls others may be powerful,
but he who has mastered himself is mightier still"
Randy Morgan CSP
Morgan Systems International
P.O. Box 2133
Boise, ID 83701
1-800-893-9002 ext. 201
1-208-429-0029
www.AffectiveResults.com
randy@AffectiveResults.com
Leadership Lessons Through the Lens of Laughter
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