Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. ~ Rumi
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking.
As we wrap-up this mini-course on mindful walking, we finish in a magical garden in a park. This magical garden could be anywhere on the planet. You will need to discover yours for yourself. Let your intuition guide you to the spot (you will know it when you see it).
In this session we talk about the idea of doing some conscious breathing since most people tend to hold their breath. Let the air in and let it circulate. Then let it out. Breathe.
Going to the garden is a special way to slow down. Focus on walking slowly and consider using it as your final destination after each mindful walk. See everything. There is no need to rush. Look at things close-up. Actively notice new things continuously. Don't let the rain stop you. Some of the best walks ever had by anyone who has walked the planet have happened during "inclement" weather.
Our sincere wish is that you have been inspired by this course and will consider giving this walking practice a try. As always, we love to hear from you. Send a note if you have any questions.
When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly. ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking.
In this session we talk about some of the "side effects" of mindful walking. In this case they are all good. Namely, any feelings of stress, anxiety or overwhelm begin to fall away. At the same time, new ideas (relevant to what you are working on) begin to flow in.
We recommend carrying a notepad and pen so you can jot down these ideas and then continue on with the walk. If you don't write it down, there is a tendency to keep playing the ideas over and over again in your head. This is a huge distraction from the task at hand if you allow it to happen. Stay focused! As John Muir pointed out, "in every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. ~ John Muir
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking. In this session we discuss a few things that you can do to boost your mindfulness walk. As you are walking and noticing new things, you can begin integrating the sounds that you hear along the way, such as the breeze blowing through the leaves. You can become aware of the feeling of your feet as they touch the ground. Keep in mind that no two days are ever the same (light, temperature, sounds, weather conditions, your state of being). Even if you take the same path every day for 100 years, each walk would be one-of-a-kind-unique if walked in mindfulness.
And so, mindfulness, for me, is the very simple process of actively noticing new things. When you actively notice new things that puts you in the present, makes you sensitive to context. As you’re noticing new things, it’s engaging. And it turns out, after a lot of research, that we find that it’s literally, not just figuratively, enlivening. So, the Eastern notions, I did research, again, back in the ’80s, on transcendental meditation. And, that’s also — meditation is also useful, but it’s quite different, different ways of getting to the same place. Meditation, no matter what kind of meditation, is engaged to produce post-meditative mindfulness. ~ Ellen J. Langer
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking.
This session is all about noticing new things, intentionally, while on a mindfulness walk. It is about stacking the odds in your favor. The mindfulness walk, in the way that we use that term, will have a higher than average chance of turning on your mindfulness switch not only during the walk but for several hours afterwards. You become awake and aware. Your power to create is greatly enhanced. So-called accidents and mistakes almost disappear because you notice everything (within you and around you). It doesn't get much better than that!
The takeaway message of this session is to notice everything you can on the walk: From the super small to the grand vista opening before you in a beautiful location. Switching between the two can be very useful in heightening the experience.
It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. ~ Francis of Assisi
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking.
In this session, we talk about your pre-walk activities. That is, those things related to getting into a mindset conducive to a mindful walk. Prepare to launch!
This step includes:
Setting the intention to be mindful during the walk
Check-in with your level of consciousness before and after the walk (write it down)
I am alarmed when It happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. ~ Henry David Thoreau
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking.
In this session we discuss a few considerations about what you need in terms of equipment (not much) and proper clothing. We also discuss footwear for walking. On rough terrain, you will need walking shoes. We mentioned the idea of going barefoot when it is safe to do so. There is a lot of new research coming out about the importance of getting grounded. See the book Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever! - 2nd editionfor more information on this important topic.
In this session, we discuss selecting a place that is conducive to mindful walking (especially in the early stages of the practice). We recommend criteria in outdoor spaces to look for and consider. It is likely that there is such a place not far from your home or office. Even in New York, Central Park is available, for those living in the Big Apple.
No matter where you are located in the world, there should be a place where you can go to take a mindful walk. You may notice how crowded the streets are with cars while how few people are out there are on the walking path.
This is a Mini-Course on Mindful Walking. In this video, we talk about setting the intention to become mindful before you set out for a walk. We recommend that you do a check-in to see where you are at--in terms of your level of consciousness--before and after the walk. The check-in numbers can be tracked effectively in a spreadsheet so you can see your progress over time.
This is a Mini-Course on something we call Mindful Walking. In this video, we discuss the Seven Levels of Consciousness. Here they are for future reference:
Level 0 - Sleep
Level 1 - Twilight Zone between sleep and waking
Level 2 - Ordinary everyday consciousness (the lights are on but no one is home)
This is a Mini-Course on something we call Mindful Walking.
One of the questions that came up from the How to Find Your Dream Job Now course was about the Mindfulness Walk we discussed in the Session 10 video. Because it is so important and so many people have asked about how to do it, I shot a series of videos explaining the process.
This is Part 1. A new video will be posted every day for the next 10 days. If you have an interest in mindfulness this series may be of interest to you.
The video quality is rough and grainy not unlike war footage. This is appropriate since it is a battle to not only wake up but to stay awake. The main thing in this series is the motivation for you to get started (and keep going).
Let’s say you have an idea for a book, a blog, a work of art, an online course, a new service or anything else that requires creativity. Almost everyone we talk to has something they have been “thinking about” doing for a long time. Some have started. Few have finished.
Here are a few tips that you can use to overwhelm anything (usually internal) that prevents you from starting and completing your creative project.
Begin at the End This is an old trick I originally learned from Steven Covey in the book,The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal ChangeIt basically means to see the final result before you ever get started. Get clear on what you are creating. See the big picture. Use this as a guide to create your masterpiece.
Commit to Doing It Until you make a decision nothing will happen. Thinking about doing it is not the same thing as doing it. If you decide to go on a cruise, you go on the cruise. Same idea for your project. Decide once and then begin.
Utterly and Absolutely Forget about Perfection Most people get hung up on creating the perfect thing, whatever that thing might be. It is one of the major stumbling blocks to creative work. As Reid Hoffman the co-founder of LinkedIn said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” The main idea is to launch.
Break It Down Into Logical Pieces In every project, there is a logical sequence to what needs to happen and when. Some things can be done out of sequence but other things depend upon something else being completed before the next step can begin. Brainstorm everything that needs to happen and then arrange each step into a sequence. PostIt notes are invaluable for this.
Go Public Use social pressure to your advantage. By telling everyone you know what you are up to, you put pressure on yourself to follow through. The more people you tell, the better. Most people will not want to report back that they did not start or finish the project they were so enthusiastic about a few months ago. Forming a mutually supportive Triad (three people who are all working on something important) can be a huge boost to your productivity.
Set Traps for Yourself A productivity trap is something that distracts you from completing your goal. Conventional wisdom says to clear the decks so you have time to focus on your priorities. This can work but often does not. The alternative is to book your calendar with meetings, exercise, social events, etc. This will force you to schedule in an hour or two every week to work on your project. This time becomes truly focused work time.
Have Faith Without a little faith, you will be always doubting yourself. That is not helpful when you are doing something you have never done before. If you can muster up the belief that you can do it, that what you need will be available when you need it (even though you have no evidence from the past that says you can), you will be way ahead of the game. Think of how children create. They just get going with a lot of faith that they can do whatever it is they choose to do. They happen to be right.
That's it! If you use the strategies, you boost the probability of not only starting but finishing any creative project that you decide (yourself) that you desire to create. We would love to hear about your successes.
Tears come from the heart and not from the brain. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) pointed out that the people who study happiness, as a group, tend to look like they are very miserable. We could extend this insight to almost any field. The “experts” understand something at a superficial intellectual level. That’s as far as it goes. Their knowledge has not traveled into the heart. Their charts and graphs are unable to bridge the gap. They are unable to practice what they preach.
This may account for the fact that most of the breakthroughs in every field have come from regular people who enjoy experimenting on their own (for the sheer fun of it). It may be why only a relatively few companies have a conscious business model despite the fact that conscious businesses are more successful (by every measure) than their competitors.
If we want to move forward, we need to be able to not only talk about something, we need to be able to do it. This requires that we love what we are up to in the world (heart power).
Mindfulness lets us see things in a new light and believe in the possibility of change. When we feel locked into strict work procedures and rules, we can recognize that these were once decisions made by certain individuals. These people lived at a particular point in history, with particular biases and needs. If we realized this, more of us would consider redesigning our work to fit our skills and lives. ~ Ellen J. Langer
During this live group coaching call we discussed consciousness and examples of unconsciousness. We discussed some mindfulness practices that can be used to increase your own level of consciousness. We take a page from the wisdom of Lao Tzu who said, "the key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness."
Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ~ Rumi
The regular readers of this blog have seen the How to Create Your Dream Job Now™ course. We have received very positive feedback from many of you. However, one theme that we hear a lot is that people are having a hard time actually doing all the work. Some were not able to find a study partner, much less a triad to work with. Those who signed up for the group coaching calls received more benefits, but even there, they felt they needed more support.
Our team here at CMC is discussing ways we can meet the demand that people have while, at the same time, making it affordable for almost everyone. That is a challenge. At one end of the spectrum, we have the version available here on the blog (free). At the other end of the spectrum, we have one-on-one coaching (expensive). We are looking at designing a third option that would provide the best of both worlds at a fair price that more people can afford.
If this program resonates with you and you feel you need more support please let us know how we could make this the best program ever to meet your needs. We will be posting a survey next week to get your direct feedback. We thank you in advance for helping us to help others create their dream jobs!
Most of us, most of the time, fear failure. We hold back. We don’t try. We keep a low profile. All because we fear the dreaded “f” word.
The problem with this particular fear, maybe more than any other kind of fear, is it keeps us playing small. Really small. The new book, the new painting, the new website, the new blog, the new job, all get put to the “back burner.” Usually, they never get done.
But why? Why fear failure? There is no good answer for this. In many cases, the cost issue is no longer an excuse. With everything online, "I don't know how" is no longer an excuse. We just need to learn to push through the fear and keep pushing through it step by step.
A takeaway for this topic might be this quote from Jeff Bridges. He says, “Live like you're already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you.”
We just released Part 10 of the free version of our wildly popular course How to Create Your Dream Job Now™ (you can see it here). In this final session, the focus is on increasing your level of consciousness. The idea is that to really thrive within a conscious business, we need to become more conscious ourselves.
There are a number of things we can do to become more conscious. It requires a practice. Something that we do every day so that eventually we become more awake and aware. More tuned-in to what is happening right now.
One of my personal favorite practices is the mindfulness walk. To do this, you simply take a walk with the intention of actively noticing new things. Then, while on the walk, you actively notice new things. You notice clouds, trees, bark, insects, birds, people, and whatever else appears within your field of vision.
If you keep this up for several days, you may notice a distinct shift in how you feel. Over a period of a few weeks, you may find yourself being transformed in a very positive way!
Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it. ~ Lao Tzu
To end this course, we discuss some things you can do to increase your level of consciousness and put all the things you have learned over the past 10 weeks into a system to not only create your dream job now but also to be successful in the future. As Bruce Lee said, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Increasing our level of consciousness is a matter of practice.
In this session, we draw from some of the insights of the great Ellen Langer of Harvard (she studied mindfulness for 40 years before it became mainstream). She says that "all problems stem from a lack of mindfulness." Not some problems. Not many problems. All problems. Mindlessness is the modern plague. We see it all around us.
This course is about creating your dream job within companies where higher levels of consciousness are the rule rather than the exception. We are grateful that you have come on this journey with us and we look forward to connecting with you in the future!
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
During this live group coaching call we discussed ways to connect with others live and in person. We mentioned the power of meeting at Starbucks and some of the challenges (and rewards) everyone encounters when making a large shift in life.
As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than there is wrong…” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Everyone speaks of gratitude these days but very few have turned it into a practice. Those who have turned it into a practice, like the monk Brother David Steindl-Rast seem to be transformed by this one thing alone. He says, “the root of joy is gratefulness... It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” That is powerful (when we give it a try). Here is an inspirational video from Brother David to enjoy…
Strategy is a dance between "hard" approaches, which set direction, plan, and persevere, and "soft" approaches which sense, respond, and flex. ~ Paul Gibbons
This recording includes a few highlights from the Antifragility webinar we did with Si Alhir and Barry Bettman on the topic of organizational change. It was an amazing discussion with our special guest Paul Gibbons who focuses on science, leadership, philosophy and business. The discussion was extremely content rich. You can subscribe to Paul's blog here.
The conscious leader focuses on benefits, not features. Real benefits, not marketing fluff. Tangible results that benefit all stakeholders (not just one or two).
Whenever we are creating (or redesigning) something, be it a business, a product or a service, it makes sense to ask the question: “what are the key benefits that each stakeholder seeks?” Then, do your best to make that happen.
Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychologist (a contemporary of Freud) coined the term synchronicity. This term is about “meaningful coincidences.” They are things that show up in our lives that are well beyond the probabilities of random chance. For instance, as was the case with Jung, a patient mentions a dream with a scarab and at that same moment, a real scarab comes into the room through an open window. For me, I try to stay awake to synchronicities. If three or more show up in rapid succession, I sit up and take notice. I take action. Thus, this blog post is a direct result of synchronicity.
for more information on this important topic. 
It basically means to see the final result before you ever get started. Get clear on what you are creating. See the big picture. Use this as a guide to create your masterpiece.
is on the reading list. This book comes at a good time when so many people are holding back from unleashing their greatness. The time to get started is now.
