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Hello ,
Summer greetings from sunny Colorado. I trust you're finding ways to get out into nature a bit more than usual for relaxation, exercise and renewal. It's good for the heart, spirit and effectiveness.
This month I've had the pleasure of working closely with two of my executive coaching clients on “what's next” as they confront great new opportunities. I find myself learning from them as I assist them in clarifying a future freely chosen and the action steps to accomplish their worthwhile goals. That plus a great trip to conduct an executive retreat in South Lake Tahoe with friend and colleague Jim Warner – its been a busy and productive time.
Our feature this month is “Take Responsibility” … the single most powerful piece of personal and professional effectiveness coaching you'll ever explore. That plus some quotes, a book recommendation and a great idea for a speaker at your next event. Hmmmm...I wonder who that could be?
As always, please forward this message to friends and associates who might find value. They can subscribe to receive their own future issues at no charge by following this link:
http://www.extraordinarypeople.com/ezine/subscribe.htm
Be extraordinary!
Robert White
A Balance Point International monthly eZine dedicated to assisting people in living extraordinary lives and creating extraordinary organizations.
Recycle bandwidth! Please forward this eZine to your friends! We encourage you to forward this message to friends or colleagues who want to be more effective in working with people. They can subscribe to future issues at:
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In this issue:
Simple Truths and Enduring Values
The Eight Elements of Personal and Organizational Effectiveness
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By Robert White
© 2005 Balance Point International |
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TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
The movie Forrest Gump begins and ends with Forrest, a man of limited measurable intelligence and unlimited wisdom...wondering aloud about whether our lives turn out they way they do through our choices or is it fate? His conclusion, of course is “a little of both” as famously captured in his Mother's oft repeated “life is just a box of chocolates.”
Author Simone Weil says that “Liberty , taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.”
Does freedom of choice really exist? Are we really the authors of our own lives? Or is choice an illusion? Maybe we only seem to choose what to do and where to go. Maybe in reality our actions, our feelings, and even our thoughts are controlled by circumstances, one event leading to the next mechanically, like a line of dominos.
There are eloquent philosophical arguments for free will, and equally eloquent arguments for determinism, for fate. What might be a lot more useful than philosophy is to ask yourself: if there were two ways of approaching your life, which one will maximize your feelings of personal power, autonomy, freedom, enthusiasm, and self worth?
One is living as though you have the power to choose what happens in your life – taking responsibility for your life. Another is living as though you have no choice, as though you are just a victim, a pawn in somebody else's game.
How you answer this question will have a powerful impact on your moment-to-moment experience of life—right now.
Several people have asked about my revisions for the second edition of “Living an Extraordinary Life.” The primary area where I expanded and focused the book was this one – the power inherent in taking responsibility for your life. You can get your signed copy at:
http://www.extraordinarybook.com
Read on to the Extraordinary Living Action Steps for some ways of being and doing practiced by every super successful person I know. How's that for a teaser?
| Extraordinary Wisdom
Quotes of the Month |
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Our theme this month is "Take Responsibility” so here are a few of my favorite quotes on that subject.
“Let him that would move the world, first move himself.” |
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Socrates |
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“The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” |
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Benjamin Franklin |
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"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame." |
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Erica Jong
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"[We] still don't know how to put morality ahead of politics, science and economics. We are still incapable of understanding that the only genuine backbone for all our actions, if they are to be moral, is responsibility.
Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my company, my success — responsibility to the order of being where all actions are indelibly recorded . . . . The interpreter or mediator between us and this higher authority is what is traditionally referred to as human conscience. If I subordinate my political behavior to this imperative, mediated to me by my conscience, I can't go far wrong. |
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Vaclav Havel, President of Czechoslovakia , to U.S. Congress (1990) |
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Hire a Balance Point Speaker for Your Next Event |
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Ron Tate and Robert White are engaging public speakers and facilitators with powerful messages – each is unique in style yet both are grounded in Balance Point's essential messages of awareness, responsibility and communication.
They've appeared before audiences from 20 to 6,000, throughout the Americas , Europe, Asia and Australia and have delivered from 45 minute keynotes to 3 hour workshops to full seminar presentations.
Subjects include “Leading the Entrepreneurial Business” (Ron), “Relationship Success for Executives” (Robert) …. and many, many more.
Call 800-659-1659 to discuss how your next corporate retreat, association meeting or club event can benefit from a program custom designed to entertain, enlighten and motivate to action.
My friend and mentor Jim Warner is an incredible resource to people in “mid career” or “mid life” transitions. I highly recommend both his book and his Nightingale Conant audio program.
“Aspirations of Greatness” is a straight-talking, inspiring book on navigating life transition, written by a successful entrepreneur who faced and overcame his own midlife malaise. Based on the intimate case studies of 600 high-profile leaders, “Aspirations of Greatness”, is targeted to the heart and soul of men and women who struggle with, "Is this all there is?" and "How do I feel good again?"
The book offers proven strategies that guide readers toward inner peace and joy, healthier, more intimate relationships with loved ones, and a passionate connection with their ultimate purpose in life.
You can order at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471443980/oncourseinter-20/002-2061245-5132060
(if this link is too long, please cut and paste or go to the Amazon.com site and do a search for Aspirations of Greatness)
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Extraordinary Living Action Steps |
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- If you operate as if you have choice (the responsible position), you automatically increase your sense of empowerment, of control over your own destiny, of integrity and self-esteem. If you operate as if you are a victim of circumstances, or destiny, or fate, or your genetic programming, you automatically increase your sense of weakness, helplessness, powerlessness, and your sense of being out of control.
- Choice is an essential component of responsibility. Being a victim and assigning blame is the flip side. When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family or colleagues, we tend to blame the other person. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to make yourself right using reason and argument.
- If you take personal responsibility and choose to understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
British playright and practical philosopher George Bernard Shaw said that
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them.”
It's a liberating and powerful idea to take full responsibility for your experience of your life.
Wishing you an Extraordinary Life and Extraordinary Organizations ,
Robert White
Balance Point International
P. O. Box 40405
Denver , CO 80204
Phone: 1-303-632-7744
E-mail: Robert@BalancePointInternational.com http://www.BalancePointInternational.com
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