The Question You Ask Matters

The premise of this post:

1. Feeling ‘organized’ creates clarity
2. Clarity helps empty the mind
3. An empty mind is a creative mind
4. Therefore, feeling organized is important to creativity

Feeling organized has zero to do with having all your stuff appear ordered and neat.  This feeling comes from knowing exactly where to find something when you need it.  That’s it.  Organization actually has nothing to do with how your stuff ‘appears’.

When it comes to organizing their stuff, most people deal with every item and ask “Where do I put this”? This is not the right question to ask.  When you go to look for the item you may or may not be able to remember your answer to the original question “Where do I put this?”

The real question to ask yourself is “Where will I look for this when I need it?”

There seems to be a big separation between the way the brain makes connections when you are trying to store something and when you are trying to retrieve it.

This makes sense because when you ask yourself “Where do I put this?” your brain is going to start thinking in terms of size, available storage space, danger to surrounding objects, etc. It isn’t thinking in terms of the context in which the item is needed.

If you organize your stuff by thinking about the context in which you need each item you’ll spend far less time looking for things.  This type of approach helps you find simple but innovative solutions that make sense.  For example, if you ask yourself where  you should store your postage stamps, you’ll probably put them in a drawer.  But if you think about the context in which you’ll actually use them, you might decide to keep them in the box with empty envelopes.

By imagining the context in which you will need something in the future,  you can organize your stuff in a way that makes sense and that works best for you personally.  As always, this one is so simple that we miss it.

Self-Deception

“The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self.”  — Phillip James Bailey

Are you hiding in some way from your own inner light?

I wouldn’t dream of stealing things but I do steal from my own potential. I can be a master at rationalizing, at justifying why it’s not the right time to do something challenging. My arguments seem valid but deep down, I know they’re excuses.

“The longer the excuse, the less likely it’s the truth.”   — Robert Half

“When we know deep down that we’re acting with integrity despite impulses to do otherwise, we feel gates of higher energy and inspiration open inside of us.”   — Dan Millman

Become Sophisticated

“The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children.” ~ Jim Henson

Are You Having Fun?

This post is courtesy of Roy H. Williams, an old philosopher who spent his career as an advertising man, and who currently runs The Wizard Academy here in Austin, Texas.  Here’s what old Roy had to say today:

I was talking to an old friend. He asked the usual questions.

“Family okay?”

“Everyone is great.”

“Business good?”

“Busier than ever.”

“But are you having fun?”

He asked the question as any child of the ‘60s would ask it. The anthem we sang as young men was, “If It Feels Good, Do It.”  Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse. Life is kicks, fun, adrenaline: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Dylan Thomas, Anna Nicole, Paris Hilton.

I wasn’t sure how to answer his question.

At the root of every misunderstanding is a lack of definition of terms.  “Fun” is a term that screams for definition:

Late at night, ask a weary mother nursing a sick child, “Are you having any fun?”

Ask Mohandas Gandhi on the 20th day of a hunger strike, “Are you having any fun?”

Ask Martin Luther King in Birmingham City Jail, “Are you having any fun?”

Each of these saw a change that was needed and happily paid the price to bring that change to pass. But change never happens quickly.

Americans’ sense of time is very special. We are short on patience. Everything must be quick, including food and sex, which the rest of the world treats ceremoniously. Gringos invented two terms that are untranslatable into most languages: ‘snack’ and ‘quickie,’ to refer to eating standing up and loving on the run … that, too, sometimes standing up. The most popular books are manuals: how to become a millionaire in ten easy lessons, how to lose fifteen pounds a week, how to recover from your divorce, and so on. People always go around looking for shortcuts and ways to escape anything they consider unpleasant: ugliness, old age, weight, illness, poverty, and failure in any of its aspects.

My friend Don Kuhl is one of the world’s leading experts on how change happens. A couple of weeks ago Don said something on the telephone that I hastily scribbled down: “Change is not an event. It’s a tiny decision made over and over again. Change isn’t once. It’s daily.”

I recorded Don’s words because I heard in them an echo of the note my father scribbled to my sister and I as he struggled for one last breath in his final 60 seconds: “All the little things in life add up to your life. If you don’t get it right, nothing else matters.”

If you define fun as reckless, heady abandon spiraling upwards to climax in an intoxicating sense of personal freedom and power, then no, I’m not having any.

But if you define fun as the little things in life that add up to your life, like nursing a child, doing without, paying the price for what you believe, then I would have to say that I’m having quite a time.

The time of my life.

Roy H. Williams

It’s Not Is Important. Huh?

These words are courtesy of astrological journalist extraordinaire, Eric Francis over at PlanetWaves.net.  I’ve been reading Eric’s work since he began in 1995, and he always manages to help me see old ideas with brand new eyes.

Here, he talks about understanding what love is by understanding what it is not.

By process of elimination, you can figure out what love is. When you’re feeling defensive, that’s not love. When you’re feeling anxious, that is not love. If you feel like you have a need that can’t be met, that’s not love. If you expect a negative outcome for no special reason, that is not love. If you are judging yourself or someone else, or expecting to be judged, that’s not love. Loving yourself as you are has a strange way of going from the most difficult thing there is to the easiest thing there is. You want to project that ease to the world, because if you do, you’re going to create a lot more of it, and it’s about time.

This is a powerful strategy for “digressing” to beginner’s mind.  When you think you know everything there is to know about something, challenge yourself to define that thing according to what it IS NOT.  You will be so surprised by what you never saw before.

Full of It

Short and sweet: The usefulness of a cup is its emptiness.

If you’re too full of what you think you know and believe you are, then you are not nearly as useful to the world as you think.  The world needs more open (emptied) minds.  Begin again, and imagine that you know nothing.  Now you are powerful and useful.

10 Laws That You Need to Know

A Law That Matters to Everyone

For the most part, it is the unwritten laws that are truly important to our quality and experience of life.   The unwritten, un-legislatable, inarguable Laws of Nature make a perfect example.  These laws just ARE, and we ignore them at our peril. We don’t get any voice in writing or enacting these laws.  Unlike man-made laws–which typically are written with special interests or sub-groups of people in mind–unwritten laws are characterized by their universal and equal application to every human being on the planet.

Our human lives consist of three simple categories:  STUFF, TIME & PEOPLE.  The category of PEOPLE is as mysterious as nature itself.  But the categories of STUFF and TIME can be understood, managed and mastered by conducting your life in accordance with some essential unwritten laws.

THE 10 BASIC LAWS OF STUFF

1.    Stuff breeds. The more you have, the more you need
2.    The useless stuff crowds out the good stuff
3.    Dust loves stuff. Bugs love stuff. Rodents love stuff. Moisture loves stuff
4.    Stuff loves to stay where it lands
5.    Stuff expands to fill the space available
6.    Over time, stuff becomes invisible
7.    Stuff costs you money more than once
8.    Stuff has a powerful effect on your state of mind
9.    Stuff takes on value only when it is used
10.  Stuff doesn’t make you happy, you do

THE TEN BASIC LAWS OF TIME

1.    Time can be neither created nor destroyed
2.    Nobody gets more time in a day than you do
3.    Time isn’t money, it’s your life
4.    The value of time is created by opportunity and choice
5.    Once time is lost, it can never be reclaimed
6.    Time invested in planning, preparing, and organizing is a vital key to  making the most of your time
7.    You can always use time to your advantage by beginning where you are
8.    Identifying your personal time-wasters leads to mastery
9.    Time expands when you set limits
10.  Enjoy the passage of time; that is its purpose

Why do we spend so much of our time trying to control other PEOPLE, knowing that this is as futile as trying to control the seas and the trees?  Let us instead pursue mastery over our STUFF and TIME so that we gain freedom from these forces that control US.  Only then will we possess the freedom to truly enjoy the mystery called PEOPLE.

Stop Apologizing!

If you don’t know Scott Ginsberg, The Nametag Guy, then let me introduce you to him by sharing this list of his regarding those things you should never ever apologize for.  Whenever you need a good talking to, Scott can be counted on to deliver!

Show Your Badge

Enjoy this story, where a Texan speaks truth to power in amusement, and where a man who confuses power with authority experiences natural power that instantly strips away his alleged authority.   In an instant, all his egoistic pretenses are ripped away, as he faces the limits of his man-made authority.

Don’t be afraid to speak truth to power responsibly…you might save a life in the process of shattering some useless illusions.

The farmer and the DEA agent

A DEA officer stops at a ranch in Texas, and talks with an old rancher. He tells the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.” The rancher says, “Okay, but do not go in that field over there,” as he points out the location.

The DEA officer verbally explodes saying, ” Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me.” Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his badge and proudly displays it to the rancher. “See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish . . . on any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?”

The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.

A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull . . .

With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely that he’ll get gored before he reaches safety.  The officer is clearly terrified. The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs . . .

“Your badge. Show him your BADGE!”

Have you finished laughing?  Then here’s the story’s message and question:

Real power is organically balanced by responsibility, and real power can only be taken through taking responsibility.   Meanwhile, authority tries to take power without taking responsibility.  So  I ask:  who is being responsible and irresponsible in this story?  There lies the real power…always.

Thanks, Willie and the Family Band

Today I share a re-post, courtesy of  D.K. Brainard’s Words For the People.  D.K. lives and works in New Orleans and is, among other things, a perceptive astrologer.  But aside from that, he writes on subjects that interest me and we share many perspectives.

In fact, I was just sitting at my desk catching up on my overloaded Google Reader, and feeling incredibly grateful to be listening to Willie Nelson playing a new Austin City Limits show on my TV in the background.  Willie has been part of the fabric of my universe for so long, and as I listened tonight, I felt enveloped by the warm feeling we get from those family members whose presence always makes us feel oh so stable and secure.  As I was silently sending out thanks that Willie just keeps on going no matter how many years go by, I found this post in my reader.

So I guess what I’m saying is…turkey is NOT required for experiencing thankfulness in my life…how about yours?

The Problem With Thanksgiving

By D. K. Brainard

I was talking about abundance with Aoghain Lakes, the Irish healer I work with at Eternal Balance in Royal Oak. He said, “The secret to manifesting abundance is so simple. It’s gratitude and optimism, and that’s all it is.” Americans, he said, have a hard time getting this because we’re so programmed to believe in the American Dream.

“Americans think, ‘When I get the American Dream, then I can be happy and fulfilled.’ But that’s not the way it works! The way it works is, when you are thankful for every moment in your life, then you will be far happier and wealthier than you could ever imagine by going after the American Dream.”

To Aoghain’s mind, when Americans say “thank you” we are often saying it out of a sense of social obligation — we say it because it’s good manners and then we feel pleased with ourselves for remembering. Whereas when people in other parts of the world say “thank you,” you can really feel the power of their gratitude.

I’ve been reflecting on our conversation this weekend and I’ve come to two conclusions:

(1) Americans aren’t un-grateful by nature; we’ve actually been systematically brainwashed to believe that being “good” means always striving for more.

(2) The other reason we find it so hard to express genuine gratitude is because most of us don’t know what it feels like to truly live in want.