Provision #581: Inside Out

by Bob Tschannen-Moran

LifeTrek Laser Provision

Real change is possible, but only if we start from the inside out. Instead of scurrying around reacting to all the squeaky wheels, it's better to get centered before proceeding. To come from that place, it helps to start the day with deliberative rituals. The more we take time to think, imagine, write, breathe, dream, notice, meditate, walk, and otherwise connect with what's stirring on the inside, the more impact we will have on the outside. If you want to develop a rhythm in your life between contemplation and action, then I encourage you to read on. It's not impossible, even in our busy-busy world.

LifeTrek Provision

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the waiting desk?

So pay attention to the "urgency that calls you to your one love," especially when you first wake up. Then, and only then, is the small opening wide enough for you to crawl through. Don't jump immediately into outside-in activities like surfing the net, reading the news, checking email, listening to the radio, or watching television. Such activities have their time and place, but not when we first wake up.

Instead, take time to think, imagine, write, breathe, dream, notice, meditate, walk, and otherwise connect with what's stirring on the inside. Two things are always there: an awareness of how things are and a vision of how things might be. Those are the two ingredients, awareness and vision, that coaches work with in assisting our clients to move forward. You can just as easily use them on your own, however, as long as you take the time to pay attention to them.

Awareness. Awareness is different from opinion. Opinion is laced with judgments and evaluations, both positive and negative. They are things we like and don't like. Although it's impossible to jettison such judgments at all times and places, it is possible to jettison them whenever we consciously choose to simply notice what's going on. We can observe both external happenings and internal dynamics in the spirit of scientists, who don't evaluate the results of experiments as "good" or "bad" but who observe the results as fascinating data for continued learning and growth.

It's easier to step into that space first thing in the morning. Something there is, as David Whyte notes, that makes that time special. We are not yet fully out of our dreams nor fully into our plans; we are, instead, receptive to the possibilities life has in store. Learning to observe without evaluating is the first step to inside-out change.

Vision. Vision is different from purpose. Purpose is broad and general. Vision is specific and compelling. It's one thing to want to explore outer space; it's another thing to put someone on the moon by the end of the decade. It's one thing to want to save the planet from global warming; it's another thing to break our reliance on crude oil by the end of the decade. When visions come they give us energy, direction, excitement, motivation, inspiration, and hope. They lift our lives out of the mundane and make them extraordinary.

This happens, however, only when we combine vision with awareness. We have to look without prejudice or presumption. We have to gather ourselves in the here and now, without haste or judgment, in order to see ourselves in the future.

The most active of people, as it turns out, are also the most contemplative. They are, to quote a famous phrase, "too busy not to pray." They are not afraid of solitude and they do not get attached to their ideas of what they think should happen. Instead, they pay attention to what is happening in order to increase their awareness and bolster their visions for success.

Coaching Inquiries: How do you start your day? What is your pattern of action and reflection? Would you like to develop a different rhythm? How could you do so through awareness and vision? What things are stirring in your soul right now?

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LifeTrek Readers' Forum (selected feedback from the past week)

Editor's Note: The LifeTrek Readers' Forum contains selections from the comments and materials sent in each week by the readers of LifeTrek Provisions. They do not necessarily reflect the perspective of LifeTrek Coaching International. To submit your comment, Email Bob.