Winter Beauty

It's just after 7 o'clock on a post-snow-storm Saturday morning here in Toronto.  

I have been sitting by my window for the past hour, looking out at the freshly fallen snow in my backyard, reveling in its beauty.  The scene is gently illuminated by the reflected lights of the city, softly bouncing off the clouds.  

The scene is so exquisite, so peaceful.  I feel like I'm looking at a picture from a storybook.  As the light grows slowly, I notice myself wishing it were still dark so I could enjoy this peace a little longer.  It feels like the whole world is sleeping.  My mind knows that's not true, but my body and spirit feel the calm, quiet beauty of the surroundings.  

The street I live on is still snow-covered, and the trees and bushes are adorned with a decorative dressing of snow.  

This is one of my favourite parts of winter.  And, I am reminded about how easy it is to miss winter's beauty in a big city.  Everything around us - from the news media to the hustle and bustle of big city life - directs us toward the inconvenience of a large snowfall, and the slushy mess that can often follow on the streets and sidewalks when the temperatures rise above freezing in the days following a storm.  

But, today, right now, that's the last thing on my mind.  To life's little joys.

Recently, a respected friend and colleague of mine introduced me to an organization called "The Sufficiency Foundation".  Their motto is:

A world that works
for everyone
with no one
and nothing left out

I don't know about you, but I like the sound of that. 

Of course, for me, what immediately comes up is skepticism.  That little voice in my head says, "yeah, right!"  But, I am not that little voice - I am much more than that (and so are you, by the way). The notion behind their organization is, first of all, that we carry an unconscious belief of scarcity around with us in our day-to-day lives.  That is, we believe there isn't enough time, money, employment, food, accommodation, whatever.  This belief influences our day-to-day interactions with people, as well as our long term goals.  And, they are here to say (if I am understanding them right) that the notion of scarcity is more a state of mind than a reality.  

What became clear very quickly is that what they stand for is a critical part of what we strive to convey to our clients as we work with them around the world.  At a minimum, we demonstrate that SCARCITY IS A RELATIVE NOTION, NOT ABSOLUTE.  We do this through experiential exercises that mimic their real-world circumstances, and we watch as group after group either creates a situation of scarcity or a situation of abundance.  Said differently, they either destroy or create goodwill, profits, benefits, and so on.  They are given the exact same instructions and the exact same context every time.  So, what is it that changes the results?  Their assumptions, beliefs, fears, and greed, and the approach they take based on that.  

The Sufficiency Foundation is a small organization, but I am inspired by what they are up to, so I chose to allocate Common Outlook's year-end charitable donation to them.  At this time of year, with so many of us scrambling to buy buy buy all kinds of "things" that we think will make us and others happy, I feel their message is especially appropriate.  I encourage you to check out their site and see what you can incorporate into your daily life to live the principle of Sufficiency.  Check them out at www.SufficiencyFoundation.com.

Greetings dear readers.  I want to begin by apologizing for being so far out of integrity in regard to the frequency of my postings.  I won't bother with reasons or excuses - they are meaningless in this context, and they miss the point, which is that I simply was not committed enough to write postings as regularly as I had promised. 

What the "break" also helped me identify was that a blog is actually not the best vehicle to meet the interests I have in regard to publishing my ideas and reflections in written form.  Almost any one of my blog entries has actually been more like an article than a typical blog entry.  As such, in consultation with some of my key team members here at Common Outlook Consulting, I have decided to add another vehicle to accommodate that goal.  We have not yet determined exactly what shape it will take, so we will keep you posted about that. 

Our current thoughts are that it will take the form of a section on our website with articles listed by title (and perhaps category).  We hope to have a search capability as well.  The articles will likely be something you can download and forward on to others or use as a reference tool, and so on.  At a minimum, you will be able to share the link with others so they can also benefit from something you read that was useful to you.

We intend to launch this new format toward the end of the year.  Stay tuned! 

Warm summer regards to all of you (unless you are in the southern hemisphere, in which case I wish you happy winter greetings). 

Hello everyone,

Whoever coined the term "time flies" must have been a busy person, because it seems the busier you are, the faster time screams by. 

Can you believe it's been two weeks since my last posting?  OK, let me say it more accurately - I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last entry.  So much for my "weekly posting" promise.  I am learning about my writing pattern, publicly, as I go along.  What I'm discovering is that I have bursts of activity, and then lulls.  So, I'm going to store up my thoughts and pace them out to you, so you at least get a more regular flow.  But, I won't say that they will be posted on Monday of any given week.  I will only say that my goal is to post them on average once per week. 

Could it be any more appropriate that my next entry will relate to slowing down?  

Bye for now.  Stay on the road to greatness.

A quick note to say I have decided to raise the stakes for myself in terms of the frequency of my blog postings and try an experiment of creating one posting per week - available by close of business on Monday each week.  I must admit that I am somewhat afraid as I make this promise, because it is radically different from what I have done so far.  But, I will experiment with it.  There's nothing like public accountability to help produce a result.  

My assumption is that my postings will get shorter, and perhaps less finely constructed - more "raw" perhaps.  That, I am told, is what blogs are supposed to be like anyway.  I will try that form of writing.  It is new for me, so it will be a good stretch.  As I said in my first blog entry in January, I believe I have a few books in me, and how can I produce them if I do not write?  As a wise person once told me upon hearing that I hoped to someday publish a book, "Writers write".  So beautiful and powerful in its simplicity.

To the journey! 

Greetings, blog readers, and welcome to my inaugural entry.

Fittingly, I am on a plane as I type this.  Although I had proactively managed my travel downwards in recent years, I'm doing my fair share of travelling these days as my business grows, and as my wife (last fall only!) and I enjoy our mutual love for travel.

I am returning from a personal/professional development workshop in L.A.  As a resident of Toronto, heading to L.A. in January for a course is a nice thing to do.  I am typing this blog entry into my Treo - one of the many technogadgets out there designed to, ahem, "improve" our lives and, oh yes, "save" us time. (As many of you will know from experience, the impact of these gadgets tends to be to speed up our lives, and "allow" us to work more often and in more places. Nice, very nice). But, I digress.

I must say, this venture is a new concept for me. Not just blogging, but writing, period. Sure, I've written many things over the years. I still write documents regularly, and in my profession, at least a few times per month I am expressing myself verbally to groups large and small, around the world. But, expressing myself in a casual, written form to an unknown audience is something new.

So, why have I joined the legions of "bloggers"?.  Why do I want to be yet one more person filling the blogosphere with pages and pages of electronically distributed babble?  Well, for a long time I have wanted to share my ideas in written form.  But, for many years, I didn't believe I had anything worthwhile to offer.  Happily, I've been past that limiting belief for quite some time. Instead, what's kept me from writing for the past few years has simply been a matter of insufficient focus and lack of discipline.

And now, that has changed.  So, here I am, writing.  I have a few books in me, waiting to come out, and I've decided this is the year for it to start in earnest.

This blog is part of making that happen: part of developing the muscle of writing; part of developing a body of ideas to draw upon, and, most importantly, a way to share ideas that, I hope, will benefit others.  Cheesy as it may sound, at the end of the day, that's why I do the work I do.  I want to do my part in trying to leave this world better than I found it.  When I get feedback from clients, friends, or colleagues who generated a positive result in their life because of something I've done, the feeling of satisfaction I get makes all the hard work worthwhile.  While I'm on the topic of contributing to the world, my invitation to you is that you find your own way to leave this world (your community) better than you found it.  I believe the rewards are well worth the work.

How often will I blog? (Note the use of blog as a verb here).  Who knows?  I have no set schedule, but I am committed to creating at least two entries per month.

So, here's to blogging, and to sharing ideas!  Until next time, when I will address a REAL topic, rather than just talk about myself.