Life...to the max!

...few things are free...BUT TODAY...read on!

 

For free

today

an exposé...!

...read on...

What's up? What's happening?

    As we look at all the chaos and changes in our world, even our lives, sometimes we begin to wonder if life is impossible.  However difficult some moments may be, I suggest that what we don't know is only a good beginning to setting about making the changes that will make a difference in our lives...and the lives of others.

    This month I've been reading two exceptional books on organizational theory and design by Margaret J. Wheatley:  A Simpler Way  (with Myron Kellner-Rogers) and Leadership and the New Science .  Though meaty in content, they have been extra informative and brilliantly challenging, both personally, and with the mentoring I do with a wide variety of leaders across the globe who function within a diverse series of organizations.  I have been deeply encouraged in my own unfolding calling and with new challenging pursuits that are looming on the  horizon.

    This poem, by H. L. Mencken, sums up where I'm at on this day:

Penetrating so many secrets,

we cease to believe in the unknowable.

But there it sits nevertheless

calmly licking its chops.

    What's up?  What's happening?  In spite of the current doomsday predictions, what does  the future hold?  God knows...and so my trust is in the Triune which is calling me forward.  Deeply grateful, am I, on this Thursday for this unfolding journey.

...over this past weekend we were in Rochester, MN at the Mayo Clinic.

It was magical to be there and watch the very first leaves show up on the trees outside and to watch these tulips literally go from closed to glorious in a planter ourtside the main buildings...a memory we will alway have with us on this part of the journey...together.

New life begins daily...if we'll watch out for it.

 

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

...are you a pollinator in this life?

 

 

...what you will witness here is un-bee-lievable...!

(click on that last highlighted word)

...has me wondering today, not just about those with wings, but about those of us with feet

...how are we...thee and me...pollinating our world today wherever we find ourselves, in whatever situations we find our selves, in the relationships we long to be influencing, impacting and growing?

...seriously...........!

 

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

Lunchtime truths...

 

...found this in a store while taking a lunch time stroll during our time at Rochester, MN at the Mayo Clinic

...there is some good wisdom here, no matter one's circumstances on this journey called life.

 

I've had a splendid time taking "too many" pictures!  :-)

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

...symbols of sacred future importance:

 

This has become a symbol of these past few days

...and of the future for our lives.

No need to respond to this...

...but just ponder

what you may see in this amazing piece of glass art.

I'll write more about it in a few days.

 

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

Mentoring Mondays...#18

 

What’s your internal response

when you hear someone call out your name?

        Twice now on our sojourn to Minnesota this past weekend I thought I heard my name being called.  Once it was my imagination.  The other time someone did call out, “Wes...”  But I wasn’t the Wes they were looking for.

        Name calling, the right kind, that is, is important in the mentoring process.  Somewhere in the early beginnings of mentoring I like to find out where a person’s name has come from.  What were their parents thinking of when naming them.  Do they like their names...if so, what do they like about it...if not, what would they change if they could?  Often I look up the meaning of names on a website.  Some times that works to encourage someone...some times it does not.

...what's your continuing passion for your life?

 

My continuing passion is to part a curtain,

that invisible shadow that falls between people,

the veil of indifference to each other's presence,

each other's wonder,

each other's human plight.

...Eudora Welty

 

 

 

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

...yes...and indeed yes, to this.......!!!

 

"Wanting to lead and believing that you can lead
are only the departure points on the path to leadership.

Leadership is an art, a performing art.
And in the art of leadership,
the artist's instrument is the self.
 
The mastery of the art of leadership
comes with the mastery of the self.

Ultimately,
leadership development is a process of self-development"

James Kouzes and Barry Posner

Authors of:  The Leadership Challenge
and more recently:  The Truth About Leadership

 

...talk about fitting into the Circle of Life mentoring model...yes...indeed, yes!!!

 

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

...thought provoking:

...as I head into this day

...the images suggested in the blog post by our good friend, Mike Todd, will be lingering in my mind,

especially after a remarkable conversation I had with a new friend from India while flying home from Austin, Texas,

...what a world we currently live in...........!

 

© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup

Mentoring Mondays...#17

 

How real are you as a mentor?

        As mentors, it’s crucial that we be real people...not pretending to have it all together.  Yet, some times, I don't feel "real"...even on my way to some extra good mentoring moments in my life.  How come.......for me...or you?

        Mentors, good ones, do not come across as having it all together.  And yet, I’ve seen some mentors (...I would guess out of their own unacknowledged insecurities, or unfinished business deep in their own souls...) tend to set themselves up as having just the right thoughts, answers, words, actions most of the time.  Frankly, these (...my opinion...) are sometimes very dull, or overbearing people...and often exhausting.

        In the best mentors of my own life, the life-giving ones, they have, in a wise and timely manner, shared their messiness.  My wife and I, at this point in our late 60s lives, often say that we don’t want to be too long around perfect people.  The ones who own their messiness are far more engaging to be around...for real.

    Good mentors, and honest friends, share the reality of their journeys out of their messes and have helped me know I’m not alone.  I’ve been encouraged by their very lives, that one can explore, discover and move beyond the “stuff” of one’s circumstances, miscues and down moments.

        We take our cues from that long-ago brother of ours we have labled “the prodigal son.”  Or, we can identify with that sweet sister who is no longer typecast as “that Samaritan woman.”  Hopefully, my own messiness has encouraged a few others as they witness me growing up beyond what’s coming down.

        As the Word tells us, and as good mentors can inform us by their very lives...honest joy is possible, it can arrive in the morning’s of our lives, if we so choose...even though some afternoons, evenings and night times can be bewildering and painful.  That is part of the good news as we share life together...especially as we are further formed into intentional mentors pouring into other’s lives...in real time.

        So...back to the question that began our thoughtful journey through Mentoring Mondays...#17.  Ponder well that question for the week to come.  This begins a brief series, as we progress through the next few weeks of our lives, to offer some vital, necessary places to explore on what kind of a mentor do you believe yourself to be, really...not just what kind of mentor you think you ought to be.

How real are you as a mentor?

What kind of tracks are you making

and leaving as a mentor?

 


© Three3rdsMedia 2011...in association with LeadershipDesignGroup