Chris Gribble

Be yourself - Everyone else is taken (Oscar Wilde)

The Hidden Power of the Gospels: Four Questions, Four Paths, One Journey

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An Excerpt from The Hidden Power of the Gospels: Four Questions, Four Paths, One Journey by Alexander J. Shaia with Michelle Gaugy

 

“The wisdom teachings in Matthew contain such an abundance of sensible counsel that we would do well to keep them close. They are a poetic guide to the promises and the dangers that greet us on the first path. The recommendations and responses they hold are truly Be-Attitudes designed to move us forward. They challenge us to:

• “Accept that we do not and will not know results in advance. We often feel ‘poor in spirit.’

• “Make farewells to our yesterdays and embrace the grief we feel.

• “Be humble in our willingness to journey. Yielding to exile will yield riches of Spirit.

• “Know that our true hunger and thirst are for Spirit, and only Spirit, despite all trials and temptations.

• “Greet all we encounter, within and without, in mercy, and reap the rewards of gratitude. Recognize that mercy derives from merces, a Latin word that translates as ‘reward.’ (It continued into French as merci, meaning ‘thanks,’ or ‘gratitude.’)

• “Be full of heart. Do not seek to remove any thought, any feeling, or any person from our inner life. Each is an aspect of Spirit. Welcome them all.

• “Believe in ‘Jeru-Shalom’ as a home of welcome that accommodates the true peace of respect for differing voices, if we will but listen.

• “Accept inner and outer hardship as needed for the sake of living a new life in the presence of God. Power and applause are not what we seek. Our journey leads instead to humility and service.

• “Anticipate lack of esteem. Be prepared instead for conflict — and meet it with respect and love.

“The nine Beatitudes reflect diverse parts of a harmonious unity which I endlessly reflect and touch each other as we go through our lives. At the very heart of Jesus’s teachings, their practice opens us to compassion. If we are able to place these on our hearts, walk with them on our feet, hold them in our hands, and seal them in our thoughts, we will have more insight along our journey. They will become our walking staff and guide for the arduous times we will face.

“We can certainly find equal relevance in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. All of us have ‘heard it said’ — by parents, by friends, by society, by religious institutions — that we ought to ‘do this’ or ‘avoid that.’ Unreflectively, we may have accepted or rejected what we have heard. Jesus’s words ask us to become more conscious. He tells us that truth is not found on the surface. We are encouraged to explore the original purpose and meanings of the things we have been told, as well as their genuine truth and relevance in our hearts and lives today.

“We have talked about the risk of returning to older, seemingly simpler ways, but an equal peril lurks within this first path: the urge to rush in the opposite direction. Our ego-mind can just as readily deceive us into thinking that all of yesterday’s wisdom is empty folly — that nothing we have ever learned or been told has merit or benefit; that we are without guidance. Rejecting everything and racing off to the ‘new and better’ can be a sprint to isolation and despair. Either one of these extreme positions is only a trick, not a truth. Quadratos requires that we ignore these deceptions and dig deeper, explore further. Although many people and institutions have become protectors of empty practices, there are others who still hold truthful, living attitudes of heart. We are on a journey to discover which have real veracity for us and endeavor to claim them in our own personal way.”

Learning to “BE”

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I Am Dead Because I Lack Desire
— Rene Daumal

“I am dead because I lack desire;
I lack desire because I think I possess;
I think I possess because I do not try to give.
In trying to give, you see that you have nothing;
Seeing you have nothing, you try to give of yourself;
Trying to give of yourself, you see that you are
nothing;
Seeing you are nothing, you desire to become;
In desiring to become, you begin to live.”

God loves you anyway

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Even when you have made mistakes, God has loved you totally. Even when you have betrayed yourself, God has loved you totally. Even when you have transgressed against others, God has loved you totally. Even when you have hated Him, God has loved you totally. And that is how He would have us love… Those who are mistaken about you, love them totally. Those who judge you, love them totally. Those who betray you, love them totally. Those who despise you, love them totally. That does not mean you should give them your keys, or surrender boundaries or any of that. It means only that love —and only total love — lifts us above the darkness of the world. When we think as God thinks, and love as God loves, we are given wings and a mantle of light to protect us and bless us all ways, on all days. For such is the power of Love. Amen
—Marianne Williamson

An Evening Prayer

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Guide me through this darkness, Lord. Hover over me especially when I cannot seem to hold on for another moment. Flood me with the graces of hope and fortitude. Send your angels to watch over me as I sleep through the night. Remind me during the day that from this small dark cocoon, I will emerge a butterfly.
— Caroline Myss

Everything will be ok!!!

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“Breathe. You’re going to be okay. Breathe and remember that you’ve been in this place before. You’ve been this uncomfortable and anxious and scared, and you’ve survived. Breathe and know that you can survive this too. These feelings can’t break you. They’re painful and debilitating, but you can sit with them and eventually, they will pass. Maybe not immediately, but sometime soon, they are going to fade and when they do, you’ll look back at this moment and laugh for having doubted your resilience. I know it feels unbearable right now, but keep breathing, again and again. This will pass. I promise it will pass.”
—Daniell Koepke

Leadership in Liminal Times

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I just read this article in the Harvard Business Review. There is much for me to ponder on:

Leaders have always shown their mettle in times of liminality. The term comes from Arnold van Gennep, the Belgian anthropologist who first outlined the common patterns in how cultures mark transitions from one human state to another (for example, from adolescence to adulthood). In his 1909 book The Rites of Passage he described three stages of separation from one world and entry into another. The liminal (or threshold) stage is central. Commenting later on van Gennep’s work, anthropologist Victor Turner explained it as “a moment when those being moved in accordance with a cultural script were liberated from normative demands, when they were, indeed, betwixt and between successive lodgments in jural political systems. In this gap between ordered worlds almost anything may happen.”

Organizations must also periodically go through such wrenching times of transition, and it is during such liminal times that leaders have their greatest impact. They must manage to both craft the new world with smart strategy, often in the wake of disruption, and cause the organization to embrace the required change. Lou Gerstner’s arrival at IBM in 1993 is a classic example of leadership through a liminal period. Parachuted in to salvage a beleaguered organization, he pushed the company toward a new way of thinking, ultimately growing IBM’s value and revenues by more than 40 percent.

Another key passage is this:

Times of liminality are disconcertingly chaotic; therefore, a leader’s job is to provide some firm footing for people, with assurances of what will not keep changing. Gerstner did this with his clear and consistent view of where IBM needed to go, and Lafley did it with his reassertion of bedrock values. Great leaders also act as mentors, providing counsel and coaching to the people in the organization during various stages of transition. And perhaps the ultimate work of leaders in times of organizational change is to ensure high engagement levels.

I few months ago at the end of a retreat I was told that I was in a liminal space. I have wondered what this means in my own leadership? Much of what I thought I would be leading in no longer there. But, while I continue to breathe it’s not over yet.

Like what Seth Godin says to do:

Make two lists. One that lists all your obstacles:

The defects in your family situation, the criticisms your work has received lately. It is a list of people who have better luck than you and moments you’ve been shafted and misunderstood.

Then the other is the good stuff:

The lucky breaks, the advantages, the good feedback, your trusted network. It talks about the accident of being born in the right time and the right place, your health, your freedom. It features your education, your connection to the marketplace and just about every nice thing someone has said about you in the last week or month.

Which one do you choose to read?

 

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/10/leadership-in-liminal-times/

Happening upon happiness

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I discovered a strange thing over the past weekend.

Happiness is about spending time with people. Valuing them. Listening to the person. Not judging.

This is my wife’s perspective on the weekend we spent away.

“Chris told me he was taking me away for a ‘romantic weekend’. Our room with a queen size bed. Restaurant that serves pre- dinner drinks & nibblies. Ensuites that is a mere 200 metres from our queen bed. And a view to die for once you walk 2.4 km directly uphill. (Romantic weekend conjured up a different image in my head.)”

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We spent hours walking together. Talking. Listening. Sometimes not saying anything. There were no shops.

It was a happy time.

Do one thing at a time

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Peter Drucker once said the number-one trait of an effective leader is that they do one thing at a time. Today’s technology tools give you great opportunities to do 73 things at a time or to at least delude yourself that you are. I see managers who look like 12-year-olds with attention deficit disorder, running around from one thing to the next, constantly barraged with information, constantly chasing the next shiny thing.

The Secret to Success

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Leadership the Hard Way, by Dov Frohman. The two things that are crucial to success are firstly, that 50 percent of your time should be unscheduled. And second—and I love that this is coming from an Israeli intelligence guy—that the secret to success is daydreaming.

Leadership is about people

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If you’re a leader, your whole reason for living is to help human beings develop—to really develop people and make work a place that’s energetic and exciting and a growth opportunity, whether you’re running a Housekeeping Department or Google. I mean, this is not rocket science.

It’s not even a shadow of rocket science. You’re in the people-development business. If you take a leadership job, you do people. Period. It’s what you do. It’s what you’re paid to do. People, period. Should you have a great strategy? Yes, you should. How do you get a great strategy? By finding the world’s greatest strategist, not by being the world’s greatest strategist. You do people. Not my fault. You chose it. And if you don’t get off on it, do the world a favor and get the hell out before dawn, preferably without a gilded parachute. But if you want the gilded parachute, it’s worth it to get rid of you.

Tom Peters

What really matters

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People say that fame is important, but in the end it really isn’t. People say that wealth is important, but in the end it really isn’t. My ex-wife had a father who was in the tombstone business. I’ve seen a lot of tombstones. None of ’em have net worth on ’em. It’s the people you develop. That’s what you remember when you get to be my age.

Tom Peters nails it again.

Am I happy or unhappy

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I find it sad that we live in a world where right and wrong is determined by whether we are happy. By doing this a person is making the ultimate selfish comment. “I am happy when things work out my way” The insinuation is that I must be right if I feel happy. I am unhappy when things are not working out my way. Something must be wrong if this is occurring. I will either blame other people or God for this problem. Either response reflects the immaturity of childishness by demonstrating determining our place in the world on the basis of how the world is responding to me. Personal desire is the benchmark for right and wrong.

It has struck me recently that when dealing with conflict in my workplace that some people have never progressed simple childish responses. And ultimately if the decisions that I make don’t make them happy then I am wrong.

I hope that my children are able to grow beyond this. I don’t want to raise emotional infants. I hope that my children are able to see the world through other people’s eyes as well as their own. So that they don’t live in the illusion that simply because they are happy that everything else is alright.

A prayer

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“Almighty . . .
Forgive
My doubt,
My anger
My pride.
By Thy mercy
Abase me,
By Thy strictness
Raise me up.”

“Have mercy
Upon us.
Have mercy
Upon our efforts,
That we
Before Thee,
In love and in faith,
Righteousness und humility,
May follow Thee,
With self-denial, steadfastness, and courage,
And meet Thee
In the silence.

Give us
A pure heart
That we may see Thee,
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee,
A heart of love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee.

Thou
Whom I do not know
But Whose I am.

Thou
Whom I do not comprehend
But Who hast dedicated me
To my fate.
Thou –“

When is anger good?

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In most of the popular literature today we are told that aggressiveness is wrong and that assertiveness is the way to go. I think that this is because we equate aggressiveness with the negativity of a bullying attitude.

Of course we know that people get angry. We never really get to see this anger because like many other emtions we are told to bury it. And, because it is rarely expressed and we are out of practice we forget how it should be displayed.

Anger is not always bad. It can be very bad if its done in the wrong way. But, anger can be a good thing. It shows that we care and have a vested interest in what is going on around us. That we have desire to contribute to the discussion or the injustice that we perceive is happening.

Anger is mostly bad when it is about ourselves. In many cases anger because of a personal injustice can quickly become resentment and frustration.

Remember the song, “Don’t worry, Be Happy”. A great little tune, catchy punchline but not always true. We do worry, we aren’t aways happy and shouldn’t always expect to be. Of course I would prefer to be happy than to be angry, but, a part of the key to being happy is knowing how to use anger to be motivated to change the things that are causing my unhappiness.

Everyday spirituality

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Sometimes I long to sit and reach out to spiritual world. I want to sit and read books and meditate and contemplate life. I want to think about higher things and not deal with the corruption that we face with our physical world. But, I think that I am learning that this will never happen unless I remove myself from all reality. Spirituality must be able to deal with reality and importantly it must be able to deal with our physical reality.

How great men spend organised their time

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In this post at LifeDev less is more is definitely true.

The way that great men organised their time is a reminder to all of us that busyness is not always the answer. I think that part of it is about using our most productive times productively.

I know that for myself productiveness also comes in cycles beyond the daily routine. I might have a week where I am incredibly productive and then have another week where I just get the everyday stuff done.

I think one of the hardest things to recognise that after a cycle of productivity comes the routine of making the creation work. Thats hard work and requires perserverance.