Hello and Happy New Year from New York!

I am here with my wife, visiting relatives and enjoying New York at this time of year.  We went to Times Square last night but were too late to get closer than two blocks from the square itself, so we went to a nearby venue and rung in the New Year, and then returned to Times Square after midnight when it was opening up again and in cleanup mode.  It was great fun.  The action and energy of walking around the surrounding blocks with the many thousands of others, talking to fellow revelers, talking to police, celebrating and wishing each other a Happy New Year was just terrific.  One could feel the electricity in the air.  Given all the gloom and doom that has surrounded this financial and cultural capital in recent months, it was nice to feel this positive, happy energy instead.     

I always enjoy New Year's Eve because it's another opportunity to reflect on the past and consider the future (that is, for those of us who celebrate the New Year at this time of year based on this calendar).  While it's easy to take a cynical view and just write off the whole thing as one big superficial "forced" party, I prefer to take the view that looks for the opportunity and the upside in the event.  Specifically, I like the notion of pausing to take stock and look forward.  It is so easy to just "exist", and move through life from one event to the next, never really pausing to take in the experience. 

I invite you to create some time to do this for yourself in the next week, before you get caught up in the whirlwind of day-to-day life again.  It doesn't have to take much time.  Give thanks for your joys and accomplishments, acknowledge or mourn your sorrows and failures, and then create some goals for the coming year.  If you are the kind of person who creates occasions for this regularly anyway, great!  You can still use this occasion as a way to "check in" with yourself and see how you're doing.  I know it sounds odd, but really, how often do we consciously and intentionally do this?  I actually see it as a way to honour myself and honour what's important to me.  It's a very positive experience, and it is a critical piece of actually crafting the kind of future I want to have. 

I would like to share with you some questions my coach encourages me to consider for these purposes.  I'm passing her wisdom onto you in the hope that it will be useful to you as well. The process is called "Completing" the past year, and "Creating" the next one.  Completion is distinct from finishing or ending in the sense that completing allows you to clear the decks, learn necessary lessons, and reflect in a way that leaves you in a great place to really create or design the kind of year you want to have, without carrying baggage with you from the year behind you.  That does not mean you forget the past year.  It means you take your lessons and memories with you - from your good and your bad experiences - and use those lessons in an empowering way going forward.

The completion questions are as follows:

• What are the highlights of the past year?
• What lessons did you learn?
• What do you need to say to be "complete" with this year?
• Who do you need to make amends with or thank?
• What is there to say about your money, investments, and debts?
• What disappointments, distractions, desires and dreams from this past year require attention or acknowledgment?

You can say you have reached completion with the year when you have nothing more to say about the person or subject in question.  This exercise can be done in dialogue, in a journal, or just in quiet reflection.  As noted earlier, this lets you clear the decks and in some ways start with a clean slate as you "create" the kind of year you'd like to have going forward.

To "create" or design your ideal year, consider one or more of the following items:

• Summarize your goals and dreams for the coming year. 
• Write out your specific intentions for the year.
• Imagine yourself at December 31st, 2009, and write - in the past tense - your goals and accomplishments for 2009.  Although it may seem odd, this specific method of "goal setting" is quite enjoyable, and I find it increases my sense of belief in whether or not I can actually make it happen.

Having done this exercise, put your goals somewhere that is easy to refer to, and then review them on some kind of regular basis.  I recommend at least once per month, and more frequent than that is probably better. Whatever you do, though, set it up as something that is enjoyable.  If the notion (and process) of reviewing your goals and dreams is laborious and unpleasant for you, either don't do it, or find a way to do it that IS fun and empowering.  After all, life is short, and is meant to be enjoyed.

Now, after all my serious advice, let me finish once again by wishing you my very best for the coming year.  You have more influence over how it goes than you think.  We have limited influence over what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond to what happens.   So, instead of saying "have" a good year, let me end by saying "make it" a great year.   Enjoy!

Dear readers,

I'm going to address a potentially sensitive topic today. 

Christmas is almost upon us, and based on this year's calendar, this evening represents the lighting of the 3rd Hanukkah Candle (if my information is accurate).  Aside from that, there is no other major religious observation occuring among the world's major religions.  In regard to Christmas specifically, beyond the religious significance for Christians, millions of people around the world celebrate Christmas in their own more "secular" way, which offers many good opportunities for family gatherings and good deeds. 

Yet, instead of saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" to those celebrating either tradition, we say "Happy Holidays".  I don't know about you, but I find this unfortunate.

Especially in more recent years, I have found the "genericization" of how we describe this time of year in this part of the world to be rather empty. 

I can only guess at why "Happy Holidays" became the predominant greeting in North America in particular.  I think it came from a good intention - the intention of being more inclusive of different faiths and traditions, and the intention of not offending anyone.  However - while the intention was good - I don't think the impact has necessarily been so good.  I feel we are now talking to nobody when we say "Happy Holidays".  It often feels like a safe yet somewhat meaningless greeting to me.

Surveying a few of the world's major religions in a little more detail, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, from what I can determine, only Christianity and Judaism have any religious ritual that regularly occurs around Christmas time as measured by the Gregorian Calendar (which bases its measurements of years on the sun vs. the moon, used for the Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish calendars, for example).  For Jews, Hanukkah (also spelled as Chanukah) tends to occur between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar.  This is because, although the Hebrew calendar calculates its 12 months using the lunar cycle (which add up to about 11 days less than 12 "solar" months, it calculates years using the solar cycle, and keeps the two in check by adding an extra month every few years.  For Muslims, Ramadan appears to be the most important religious observation.  As noted earlier, Muslims also use the lunar calendar, but they use it to measure both their months and their year.  Thus, their year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year.  This means that the dates of Ramadan move forward about 11 days per year.  Therefore, it is only about once every 30 years that Ramdan occurs around late December for a few years (this year it was early Sept to Early Oct in the Gregorian Calendar) .  In the years when that happens, we can acknowledge the celebration of Ramadan to our Muslim friends and neighbours.   

What I tend to say to people is, "Are you celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah?".  If the answer is, "Yes, I'm celebrating Hanukkah", I wish them "Happy Hanukkah!"  If they say, "Yes, I'm celebrating Christmas", I say, "Merry Christmas!"  If they're not celebrating either one, I ask them if they're taking time off around now, or doing anything else unusual given how many people celebrate Christmas in particulr in this part of the world, I acknowledge that and wish them well with it, and then we part ways.  It seems to work very well. 

And, whenever I tell people that I prefer to be more specific in my well-wishes, I get a very positive response. 

If you live in a part of the world where many people celebrate Christmas, I invite you to consider this way of greeting people in your interactions with them. 

Try it out and see what impact it has.  We live in a beautiful world full of richness and diversity (just like nature).  Why not acknowledge and celebrate that richness, instead of trying to turn all of it into a nameless, faceless, undifferentiated blob.  As always, I'm interested in any comments you'd like to offer. 

So, Merry Christmas!  Happy Hanukkah!

And, if you're not celebrating either one but you live in a part of the world that does, I hope you find your own way to benefit from the change of pace and the special events. 

With all of the carnage in the financial markets, combined with the non-stop reports of doom in the media, it takes something these days to maintain a balanced perspective.  Hence this blog entry.  

For me, the past few months have certainly had their ups and downs, and my perspective has taken a beating from time to time.  Thankfully, there are a number of things I do to help keep it more balanced.  Without those practices, however, I think I would be shrouded in fear, and not much else.  After all, that's pretty well the only thing that's being sent our way these days.  

So, HOW DOES ONE MOVE FROM FEAR TO CONFIDENCE?  Here are a few ways:

• Look back at past situations where you felt your "survival" or wellbeing was at stake.  Remember that you're ok now, and repeat the lessons you learned there (from your successes and your failures).
• Read something inspiring.
• Read something empowering.
• Review past accomplishments and remember you can do even more now.
• Put yourself a year into the future, and give your "current self" advice on how to manage the situation, and on what the bigger picture looks like.  I've done this in the past, and my coach did this with me today because I needed it.  It's a fantastic perspective-setter.
• Talk to some good friends and ask their advice.
• Get some exercise. 
• Take a vacation - even for a day.
• Focus on the positive things that are happening.
• Spend some time feeling grateful for what you already have.
• Consider what the absolute worst case scenario would look like (e.g. personal bankruptcy, or whatever), then figure out a plan for how you'd manage that.  Once you're ok with that plan, you can use that to remind yourself that, no matter what, you'll be fine.
• And, last but not least, go out and have fun for an evening.

I'm about to taking the latter point of advice. 

My wife and I are in Boston at the moment, joining a great group of colleagues and friends to celebrate this special time of year.  I have known many of them for more than 10 years now.  Some I am very close to, and some of them I haven't seen in YEARS.  I am very thankful for all of them.  I'm excited about the evening; excited to be able to take part, and grateful to have them in my life.  So, tonight and tomorrow, my perspective on things will be that much better than it was earlier today.  It's already improved dramatically since my call with my coach this afternoon. 

I will end this posting with some wise words spoken to me last Friday at a professional development day by a colleague and friend of mine who lives in Wales, named Wyn Jones:

• A change in pace
• Plus a change in place
• Equals a change in perspective.

Often, it's as simple as that. 

Give yourself the gift - at least once a month, and maybe once a week.  These days, we all need it.

Earlier this week I was in Santiago, Chile, working with a client who had brought in his leadership team from all over South America. 

The engagement lasted two days, and it was a great success, even though we conducted the work in Spanish, which was a challenge for me.  Although my conversational Spanish is strong, working on a complex, nuanced topic like ours - where anything can come up at any time - is quite another thing.  I made plenty of language blunders along the way, and there were many points at which I struggled to express myself as well as I can in English or French.  But, what saved me every time was my approach. 

This is going to sound like bragging, but it's not intended as such.  My goal here is simply to share what I took from it as reminders and lessons along the way.  It's interesting because I have moved through many cultures and many countries in my travels, and every time, there is some other reminder, some other lesson.

Specifically, here are the things I would name that helped:

• First, there is the commitment I have to make myself understood, however I can. 
• Second, there is my willingness to make mistakes and look silly in the process.
• Third, my genuine curiosity to learn more about the languages (Spanish and Portuguese), the cultures, and the people.  

I find that as long as point # 1 and 2 are present, I'm already in quite good shape.  But, add in what I call "The Curious George Factor", and the learning goes up substantially.  I'm always asking questions, trying to understand how something is said or pronounced, why something is done a certain way, how "x" or "y" happens in this part of the world, and so on. This gives me context for things, and obviously helps build my vocabulary more quickly.  

Part of it too is feeling comfortable enough in the situation to "go for it".  This can sometimes be a challenge, and can take some work.  For example, although I've made my way through over 60 countries over the years and have learned to be very quick and comfortable in adapting to different settings, I still find that it can require a bit of negotiating with myself to feel at ease in a new place and to remember that really, most people are good people just living their lives, and they aren't out to get me.  Once I get myself to that point, the doors of great experiences start opening up wide.  It's worth it - every time.  

Here's to new experiences.  

December 1st, already.  It truly is amazing how quickly a year can pass. 

This is the time of year when many of us begin to look back, and look forward.  And, if it isn't, I recommend you take some time to do so.  

Why?

Good question.  The reason I do it is to review goals I set, acknowledge accomplishments, modify time frames where necessary, set new goals for the following year, and more broadly step back to look at the big picture.  

We often focus most of our attention on what is happening in the moment and don't give ourselves time to really reflect on bigger picture, longer term goals.  And, if you never step off the treadmill, you may never actually get where you want to go.  Instead, you'll be swept along with the goals of others, letting yours always stay in the "someday maybe" category. 

This is a time of year when a lot of gift-giving happens, so maybe you can include yourself in that.  Give yourself the gift of some time to look back at the year you had.  Celebrate progress and achievements large and small, acknowledge what you haven't achieved, dream about next year, write goals down, and put milestones in place to help you achieve them.

And, don't forget to enjoy the process. 

I'm dealing with a client situation right now that has taken on quite a life of its own.

What I mean is that it's as if the project is a living, breathing beast that has overtaken the people involved in it and is spinning them around like twister spins houses effortlessly as it passes through a region. 

As far as I can tell, the people involved have not stopped to really focus their thoughts and feelings about the situation.  And, so far, we (at Common Outlook) have not done a good job of it either.  The effect? 

All parties involved are engaged in a lot of "busywork";
generating a lot more activity than the situation requires. 
But that is stopping tomorrow - at least for us. 

I have decided to hit the "pause" button and have called a round-table discussion for tomorrow with a few of my key team members to step back and look at the big picture here.  To help us do that, I have asked one of our team members who is not involved in the discussions - and therefore not lost in the forest, unable to see the trees - to join us in the discussion. 

We will be asking big-picture questions like:

• Given the nature of this beast, is this a situation we still want to be involved in? 
• What are the key goals we have in this situation?  
• Are we still meeting them? 
• Do we believe we will be able to meet them if we stay in the game? 
• What does it look like for us if we are not involved.  
• If we decide to continue our involvement, how can we tame the beast? 
• How can we make it work for us while still making it work for them?
• Can we help our client manage this more sustainably?  If so, how? 
• If we decide to step out, how do we still help our client meet their need - perhaps without us?  

All of the questions above are designed to help us renew our focus. 

And, we will be able to do this because we are choosing to "unplug" long enough to regain the focus we have lost.  I believe many of us would be better served by doing this.  That is, unplugging long enough - even for only 15-30 minutes in some cases - to ask some big-picture questions in order to establish or regain FOCUS.  

I find that this creates a much calmer atmosphere intellectually and emotionally, and it dramatically reduces wasted effort. 

Especially in today's crazy economic times, I think this is something we can all use. 

Many of you know this familiar adage, and, many of us ignore it at our peril - especially in our hurry hurry world.

Over the past week I have been engaged in a client situation where exactly this problem is at play.  The client has received a request from a department within their organization, and the request has been positioned as very time-sensitive.  In their desire to be responsive to their colleagues, our client has rushed forward, engaging us and two other external vendors in a series of dialogues about how we might meet the request. 

There is only one problem:
the internal client's core goal is not well defined. 

Thus far we have been, at least in part, caught in their tornado.  So, one of the primary focuses of our dialogue with them till now has been to slow them down and help them clarify their own focus.  We have asked big-picture questions about the core objective and the trade-offs involved in time vs. quality.  We have broadened the discussion beyond a few narrow options to a broader range.  And, most of all, by our questions, they have realized that they do not have nearly enough information and therefore have returned to their internal stakeholder to clarify the goal. 

Our next step will be to go one step further.  It will be to put on our observation on the table with our key contacts at the client.  We will "name the game" as it were.  Essentially we will say that we feel the project is running too far too fast, and in the process chewing up many cycles of processing time and energy - a large proportion of which are premature.  We will encourage them to slow down and look at the big picture more robustly with their internal colleagues, and then return to us with the next steps. 

This problem is certainly not unique to this specific client.  It is a universal problem, and one we often describe when working with clients.  In our solution-focused modern business climate, we too often rush to "the answer" without sufficiently understanding "the question".  Said in our language, we rush to the options (solutions) without sufficiently understanding the interests and concerns we are trying to satisfy. 

So, go slow (at the start) in order to go fast (and in the right direction) the rest of the way.

This was an amazing week in the life of American politics, and in the life of democracy as a whole.  Whatever one's political views, it is difficult to describe the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America as anything but a sea change. 

It is transformational - particularly in light of the United States' history, and the continued lightning rod-like emotions driven up by the issue of race in America.  Rather than making political commentary, however, my focus here is on how this election campaign - and Barack Obama's approach to the campaign (and to life, it seems) illustrates the impact of mindset on results and context.  

Let me be more specific.  In my view, Barack Obama has been all about mindset (aka paradigm), since day 1 of his campaign.  And, it is his mindset and the way of being that flows from it that attracts so many people to him.  In essence, Obama has created a new reality for people to live into.  What is that new reality (aka mindset)?  It is one of hope, acceptance, inspiration, calm courage, steadfast determination, leadership by example, and the sense that anything is possible.  

The way I see it, whether one agrees with his political views and policies or not, Barack Obama changed the game in the election (and on the American political scene) by calling people to a new, higher plane.  And this kind of a game has not been seen for a long time in that setting.  More than that, Obama has succeeded in reigniting hope and a sense of empowerment (i.e. "Yes we can") among the American people, and I would argue that he has done so well beyond the USA's borders as well.  

How does this connect to the work we do at Common Outlook?  Very directly.  

A foundational component of ANY work we do with clients is an examination of their mindset, and how it drives - consciously, and especially unconsciously - their actions and results.  We help people uncover their fear-based or greed-based beliefs and assumptions, and we show how this often produces results they don't want.  And, we show them how they can fundamentally change this stance in order to produce something much better in terms of an outcome.  It is not easy to "live" or "embody" this different, more empowered mindset.  It requires us to move beyond our survival-based instincts and behaviours to something higher.  It takes courage, emotional maturity, discipline, open-mindedness, and a view of the big picture, among other things.  But, the results are worth it - as is the experience of the journey. 

If you have doubts about the impact of creating a new paradigm for people, just watch any significant speech Barack Obama has given.  Listen to his words, watch his way of being, and observe the reactions of the people in the audience (or simply notice your own).  I would be surprised if you could not notice the paradigm shift in action.   

My last entry opened the topic of how to respond purposefully (and not just from fear or survival instinct) to the current economic troubles.  This posting goes a little further down that path. 

One of the most effective ways of maintaining a balanced perspective
is being purposeful about what we focus our attention on. 

With today's 24/7 media environment, 24-hour news channels, and electronic gadgets all around us, we are constantly bombarded with the (bad) news.  In fact, we're given a lot more bad news than good news.  If this is most of what occupies your mental space, where do you think your emotional state will end up? 

Don't get me wrong - I am not telling you to ignore what is happening around you by sticking your head in the sand.  I think it is useful and important to be informed.  BUT, there is a difference between being informed and being inundated.  Sadly, I think the norm for us these days (and we're not even aware of it most of the time), is to be inundated.  Worse yet, we are not at all purposeful about what we allow ourselves to be inundated with.  So, the default is "what's available", which is predominantly bad news.   

Instead of hearing and reading over and over and over each day how terrible things are and how bad things are going to get, my suggestion is to balance some of that with at least SOME attention on positive things that are happening in your life and work.

"WHY?"  You might ask.  Because - as you will probably know by observing your own life - we often create the result we fear most, or at least the result we focus on most.  Said differently, we create a self-fulfilling prophesy.  Worse yet, once our fears are realized, we have proven ourselves right and the cycle gains power and validity.  It can be hard to break out of unless you hit a "pattern interrupt" button somewhere and decide to be more purposeful about what you focus on and what you put your energy toward.  

Here's to having a say about how your day goes.  

There is widely held theory that what we focus on, we produce more of.  It is called the law of attraction.   

This blog entry is overdue, given the wild ride of the financial markets over the past few weeks, and the unbelievable amount of press associated with it. 

It is obvious that fear has been the predominant emotion driving the behaviours of millions of people around the world during this period.  And unfortunately, because of modern technology they are able to act on their fear very easily and very quickly by selling anything and everything as quickly as they can.  Or, in the case of most of the world's banks, by stopping lending to each other.

What is the effect of all of this?  Massive value destruction.

Furthermore, fear's actions create the context for more of the same, and we keep proving ourselves right as we produce exactly the results we fear most.  For example, when we cut our spending and investing, the economy slows down.  Hearing that news, we cut our spending further, and the economy slows down further. 

It isn't until we reach some arbitrary level that we determine as "low enough" or "bad enough" that some of us start opening up the flow of money again and taking more risks.  That is when things start to turn around, and then more and more people start doing the same, in reaction to the data they hear.  BUT SOMEBODY HAS TO BE FIRST. 

So, how do we break this cycle?

Surely we can't completely ignore what is happening around us? 

No, we should not completely ignore it.  But we should not let it be the ONLY thing we are responding to either. My recommendation is as follows:

KEEP THE LONG TERM IN MIND, AND BALANCE THE NEGATIVE WITH THE POSITIVE. 

• If you've lost money in your investment portfolio (like most of us), keep in mind that in most cases you won't be needing that money for a loooong time anyway, so it isn't a "real" loss in that sense. 
• If you were thinking about taking a trip, I suggest still taking the trip - just make it a bit more modest. 
• If you were thinking about making home improvements, make them, but similarly, maybe you just make them a bit more modest. 
• If you were going to invest in a new business venture, weigh out the pros and cons, and if it still adds up, proceed.  Perhaps it's just a more modest business venture.

Remember, the economy doesn't grow (nor do plants) unless there is and exchange and flow of funds (or in the case of plants - nutrients).  

I will end this entry with a quote from Thomas Jefferson that is listed on our website: "In matters of style, swim with the current.  In matters of principle, stand like a rock."

To balance.