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"We don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we
are!" Jamie Smart
What a fantastic line!
Who hasn't experienced moments when you felt on top of the
world, full of joy, enthusiasm and highly motivated with an energy that was
infectious? And funny enough, the world and the people around you looked beautiful.
There seemed to be a harmony between you and your external world. You liked the
world and the world liked you. It was easy to get on with people and they seemingly
were eating out of your hands. Solutions to problems just appeared. Your
creative juices were flowing with new ideas and insights. Time was flying while
you were engrossed in activities that would normally be a drag. At the end of
the day you felt alive with energy to burn and a strong sense of wellbeing.
On the flip
side you may also have experienced the opposite. Moments when you felt that the
world was to blame for all your worries and feeling sorry for yourself with an
energy that was repelling. You seemed to be at war with yourself and your
external world. And in this scenario didn’t the world and the people around you
look just the way you felt? You disliked the world and the world disliked you.
People didn’t particularly want to be around you and it seemed that they were
the cause to all of your problems. You’ve got little collaboration and got not
much done! At the end of the day you’ve felt exhausted and burned out.
Does the circumstance have you or do you have the
circumstance?
What is the difference between the two scenarios? High
quality versus low quality of mind or Artistry versus Misery! Look at it this
way, when we operate from a high quality of mind, we experience life with greater
clarity, presence of mind and a heightened sense of self-awareness regardless of
our circumstances. Here we drive the quality of how we feel our circumstances. We
have the circumstance. We call this inside out thinking. A high quality of mind
allows us to draw on our inner resources and wisdom. It helps us to develop new
insights, see possibilities, expand our mental and behavioural flexibility, focus
more on what we can bring to the world rather than what we can take, bring out
the best in ourselves and others and enjoy a greater quality of life and
wellbeing.
When we operate from a low quality of mind, we experience
life quite differently. We experience a lack of clarity, distress and have
little self-awareness. We feel at the mercy of our circumstances, being
controlled by them. In this case the circumstance has us. We call this outside
in thinking. A low quality of mind limits us from drawing on our inner
resources and gives us little mental and behavioural flexibility. It prevents
us from being the best we can be, live an authentic life, have high quality
relationships, help others to be the best they can be.
Artistry or Misery, which one do you want to lead your
life?
Which mind dominates
most of your mental space, high quality or low quality? Where do you spend most
of your time? What would happen if you practice inside out thinking and develop
a high or even higher quality of mind?
How do you bring Artistry to your mind?
We are limited by the boundaries of our assumptions that we
make about the world and our circumstances. In other words the meanings that we
hold in mind about what we deem is true and what is not true to us. These
meanings create an inner map of how we see and experience the world or how it works. This inner map is reflected and
expressed in our thinking, in our language and in our behaviours. Depending on
the level of distinctions and richness of our map it gives us either a greater
or smaller range of mental and behavioural flexibility and choice in how we
respond to and interact with our environment.
There is no right nor wrong with what we are holding true
about a certain circumstance or the world. Rather it is a question of
usefulness. Does the way we think and feel about something or someone serve us?
Does it support us? Does it enrich us? If the answer is no, then we may
consider changing it or adding further choices to it.
We bring artistry to the mind by expanding on the meanings
that we hold about ourselves, others, our capabilities, the world around us, etc.
And how do we expand our meanings? By questioning the
assumptions behind those meanings and in doing so giving them new and/or
additional meanings. By doing that we stretch our mind and give it greater
flexibility.
More on 'Stretching
and Growing Bigger Minds' in my next Food for Thought article. In the meantime I
leave you to reflect on the following questions:
With what mind
do you want to lead yourself and others? With what mind do you want to engage
and connect with the world? The one that leads to Artistry or the one that
leads to Misery?
When you lead
with clarity and presence of mind -
- How do you show up in the world?
- What kind of leader are you?
- What relationships do you have with yourself and others?
- What kind of conversations do you have?
- What difference do you make to your family, friends and the community?
- What problems do you solve and how?
- How do you contribute to your work and serve your clients?
- What levels of health and wellbeing do you enjoy?
- etc.
Curious to find out
more about how to bring artistry of the mind to your self-leadership and
experience a higher quality of life and work? Then contact Mike at mike@mikeschwarzer.com
or check out the details for our Self-Leadership - Accessing Personal Genius training click here!
to your highest learning and growth
Mike
About Mike Schwarzer
Mike is a Performance
Strategist & Modeler and an Internationally Certified Trainer in
Neuro-Semantic NLP with the International Society of Neuro-Sematics ISNS. The
ISNS is a global NLP community, operating in over 40
countries, dedicated to
helping people actualise excellence by transforming Meaning into Performance. He is also
a leadership team member of the Institute of Neuro-Semantics Australia the
Australian branch of ISNS.
An
experienced facilitator and coach, with an ability to connect and align people
and organisations, he helps them to fine tune their performance wizardry to
bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go!
For more
information about Mike visit www.mikeschwarzer.com
and www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.
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