Revolutionary Misfit

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Archives for January 2014

The Secret to the Good Life

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Jesus image

Was Jesus god?

I don’t know.

And, if truth really be told, neither do you.

I can believe, have faith, that he was…but it can’t be proven as fact…at least, not yet.

Oh yea he said some things that seemed to point in the direction.

But was he being sarcastic, was he parable-izing to make a point, or was he really stating a literal fact?

Jesus often said things in fiction to make a factual point…those statements were called parables.

But there are a few unmistakable facts about this real historic figure named Jesus…

  1. He was a radical…a revolutionary even…
  2. And a misfit…
  3. And a great teacher…
  4. Who taught primarily that the secret to the good life is love…
  5. And he was a legendary impact mindfulness practitioner…

I am a Jeff Goins fan. If you don’t know who he is check out his blog at www.goinswriter.com.

Now, Jeff would more than likely take issue with the opening to this post, but that’s OK.

I just finished his watershed first book, Wrecked.

I loved it, especially the following quote…

If we want to understand the secret to living a good life – to loving people like this – we have to be willing to do the unthinkable. We have to get dirty. We cannot be afraid of the cost, of getting stained with someone else’s filth. We cannot avoid the walls that divide us – the superficialities and prejudices that separate the “clean” from the “unclean.” All those need to fall down, to disappear, if we are going to stop playing around and actually do this. Otherwise, we should just stop kidding ourselves.

Thank you Jeff…for the above quote that fully supports each and every pillar of impact mindfulness.

I love it when famous people agree with me…not that I have an ego problem or anything…

I particularly like that very first sentence. Because within it the secret to living a good life really is revealed.

Do you see it? It is between the “guiones” (Spanish, and sounds like Goins), or hyphens…

Because you see the “secret” to living the good life truly is “loving people like this.”

And that is exactly what Jesus taught us to do.

To do the unthinkable. To turn the other cheek. To not be afraid of getting stained with another’s filth…literally and figuratively.

Jesus was all about breaking down walls that divide us. That divide us from ourselves and from god…or from the good life.

Because the “good life” is really more about loving than it is about living.

Hmm, that sounds confusing…let me elaborate…

Why? Because it (the good life) gets in the way of the living…of the doing it our own individualistic and self-actualization-seeking way.

Jesus proclaimed to be the way, the truth and the life. Most say that was an indication of his deity.

I say it was an exhortation to love like he did.

For that is the way…and the truth…and the secret to the GOOD life.

image credit: Ben Heine via Compfight cc

A World Without Borders

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Colombian Amazon - World Without Borders

Okay all good things must come to an end. It’s time to leave Colombia and head back north to Costa Rica

…woe is me, right?

This almost month long Colombian working vacation has been the best yet. And to cap it off, I just returned from four days in the Colombian Amazon.

The place that I visited is Leticia…it is the southernmost point of Colombia and it borders Brazil and Peru.

But what makes it all the more interesting is that there’s really no “border” at all. You can travel back and forth to Peru and Brazil without any official crossing.

This makes for a rich cultural experience to say the least.

And what about the Amazon itself? Breathtaking in its immensity is a phrase that immediately comes to mind.

The second longest river in the world, but by far the largest in overall water-flow, my first look at this vast expanse of “river-sea” was awe inspiring.

And its banks contain the most bio-diverse tropical eco-systems on the planet.

Did I swim in it? You betcha I did.

Now, mind you, taking a dip in the Amazon is not like taking a dip in the “crick” back home. There are many dangers lurking in that murky water.

Like the Candiru, a tiny razor thin catfish that can actually swim up a urine stream and lodge itself with sharp backward pointing barbs into a man’s penis. The only way to remove it…amputation!

And then there is the fish that inspires horror even in 007…the voracious flesh eating Piranha. But in reality you don’t have to worry much about them unless you enter the water bleeding.

So, bottom line, keep your bodily fluids inside when taking a dip in the Amazon.

The cultural experience of a world without borders was amplified by the presence of diverse indigenous groups in the area. In fact, the entire area is largely populated by these groups.

I write often about the evil inspired in our world by the existence of these fictitious geographical lines in the sand called borders. But in this place, I actually got to experience a world without them.

And it was refreshing.

I saw cooperation. I saw people trying to understand the differences between them, rather than allowing those differences to inspire hate. Leticianos seemed proud of this unusual inclusiveness. In fact, they are using it, successfully, as a tourism attraction point.

Many people told me how dangerous it would be down there. That there would be people who would want to harm a gringo…that a gringo would really stand out and be at risk.

But I neither felt nor experienced the slightest trace of danger, well, other than the Piranhas and Candirus.

It was as peaceful a place as I have visited in Colombia, indeed in all of Latin America.

And what made it all the more pleasant was the presence of Don (or Tio) Medardo of the Hotel Pirarucu. The slogan of the hotel is “su casa en el Amazonas,” or your home in the Amazon.

And Don Medardo made it feel like exactly that.

Oh, by the way, the Pirarucu is the name for South America’s largest freshwater fish, which frequent the waters of the Amazon River.

pirarucu

I felt a slight sense of justification as we traveled seamlessly from Colombia to Brazil, Brazil to Peru, then back to Colombia. No border agents to harass. No requests for documentation. And no feeling as if there was some pent-up nationalistic rivalry that existed making those on one side peer over to those on the other with fear and loathing.

I felt justified because that’s the world of the Big US. The one impact mindfulness speaks of. It may be a Utopian and entirely unrealistic concept…but at least in this little corner of the globe…it actually exists.

I have created a 10 minute video of my Colombian Amazon experience and it is embedded below.

Would love for you to give it a look…

Oh, also, you can view my set of Colombian Amazon photos here…

image credit (pirarucu): Brian-D via Compfight cc

What is Sustainability?

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sustainability is not tree hugging

I am still on quasi-vacation in Colombia. I say “quasi” because when you’re one of those crazy wild-eyed online entrepreneurs, you tend to take your work with you, wherever you may go.

And on Tuesday that will be to the Amazon jungle in the southernmost spot on the Colombian map…Leticia…on the border with Brazil and Peru.

Jungle traipsing has me thinking about all things sustainable this morning. And rather than re-invent the wheel I thought I would reach way back into the old Costa Rica Guy archives to pull out some of my ponderings on this topic.

Sustainability is definitely a concept that is near and dear to the heart of impact mindfulness. But exactly what is sustainability?

To address that question I am re-posting an old CRG post that is still relevant and allows me to relax the brain cells a bit while I remain “on vacation.”

Sustain-Ability

This post is apt to be one of those cathartic ones that has me “thinking out loud” (in written form) and trying to answer a question that has been bouncing around in my head.

That question this morning is…what does sustainability really mean?

I think that is important because I tend to see myself as some sort of sustainability guy and in order to be that person I believe it is necessary to have a firm grasp on what it is that I’m talking about.

Because it order to be a “sustainability guy” one must “act sustainable”…and I am not sure I always do that all that well. Maybe that is because I have yet to succinctly define what it really means, for me.

I did a quick Google search on the term and Wikipedia defined it like this:

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being, which in turn depends on the well-being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

Wikipedia went on to say that “sustainability has become a wide-ranging term”

Boy is that an understatement!

These days you have “gurus” using the buzzword “sustainability” to address a whole host of human activities, like tourism and development. In fact, Costa Rica is looked upon as a model country when it comes to sustainable tourism and development.

But on a personal level, what does the term really mean…to me?

I believe it has everything to do with interactions and impacts. That is, how I interact with other people, with the planet, and (I know it sounds a little weird) with myself and the collective impacts resulting from those interactions.

According to Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Probably taking that notion out of context somewhat, it implies that our interactions result in impacts, on others, on our natural world and on ourselves (for example, throw a piece of trash out the window of your car and you have both an interaction and an impact, though not a sustainable one).

If “sustainability” is the “capacity to endure” it then means that those interactions and impacts should be “facilitative” (as opposed to destructive) of endurance.

On a human interaction level, it means helping others to be more capable of enduring, physically, socially, economically, and culturally. On the level of interactions with the natural world, it means conserving and nurturing growth, while doing as little harm as is truly necessary. On a personal level, it entails personal actions that nurture and promote physical, emotional and intellectual health and well-being.

Now that I have a clearer idea about what sustainability really means, it is easier to see where it is I am falling short of my goal of being that “sustainability guy.”

Nevertheless, I believe it is a worthy aim and I will continue to strive for it.

One thing that’s for sure, sustainability requires thought before interaction in order to produce the desired impact.

photo credit: just.Luc via Compfight cc

Respect is a Right

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Aretha Franklin - Respect

How can I have an impact?

Valid question.

But I believe the reason it can be daunting to arrive at an answer is because we immediately default to American-style big thinking ways to incorporate a new life’s mission.

But impact can be done in small daily habits…not just big bold life changing missions.

One of the ways, maybe the chief way, is via giving, not paying, respect.

All too often we only “pay” respect to those who we feel have “earned it.” Usually those we deem worthy are the ones who are like us, or who are on or above our own socio-economic level.

The street person asking for a handout is thus treated more with derision than respect.

But as the title suggests…respect is a right and giving it, well…

it’s just right.

I wrote a chapter in my FREE eBook, School of Hard Knocks – 10 Lesson Learned, about marriage. In that chapter I make the perhaps unexpected, but I believe totally true, premise that respect is one of the keys to a successful marriage.

I will go a step further in this post and proclaim that respect is certainly a key to impact mindfulness in specific and “success” in life in general.

Today I am dredging up an old Costa Rica Guy post on respect.

In it you’ll see references to things that were going on at the time I wrote it…like the 2008 economic crash, the supposed “invasion” of Costa Rica by Nicaragua, and the dramatic and catastrophic oil spill a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico.

But I am re-posting it here because I believe it is highly relevant to the topic of respect as a general right that all we humans share.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I am going to suggest something particularly outlandish in this post. And that is, maybe that part of the Declaration of Independence that is so often quoted, you know the “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” part, is a little off. Maybe missing from that list is another thing we humans are endowed with, or at least should be…

respect.

If you think about it, most of the bad stuff that happens in the world comes from a flagrant disrespect of either people or planet.

A group of high school kids use Internet social network sites to bully a classmate to the point where the latter take his or her life…disrespect. We drill holes in the bottom of the ocean too far down to deal with the consequences should something go awry…disrespect. One nation decides to dredge a border river and cast the resulting sludge onto an environmentally sensitive and protected area of their neighbor country…disrespect. A husband decides to cheat on his wife of eighteen years and the mother of his children and the person who has given him the better part of her life…disrespect.

It seems this whole “pursuit of happiness” thing has become nothing more than an excuse to disrespect.

The pursuit of happiness has been reduced to a supposed “right” to be wealthy, to live the “American dream,” the “good life.” So, the arguably “smartest” among us flock to Wall Street in order to figure out ways to “rig the system” and get obscenely wealthy in the process…at the expense of an entire economy and millions of jobs…disrespect.

Sure I could go on and on with examples.

Maybe what the world needs is a healthy dose of respect.

Respect these days has become something we are told we have to “earn.” Or, something we have to “pay.”

To “pay one’s respects” connotes a zero-sum game whereby I have to give up something myself in order to give you the respect you deserve. However, quite the contrary, respect is reciprocal…that is, in order to get it, you gotta give it…not pay it.

Respect is reciprocal…that is, in order to get it, you gotta give it…not pay it.

Aretha Franklin demanded it, maybe you and I should to…

Life, Liberty and Respect…now there’s a declaration worth fighting for!

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The God, the Bad and the Ugly

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the god, the bad and the ugly

Spiritual Dimensions of Impact Mindfulness

OK I realize that the spiritual diversions that I frequently take perhaps turn off some people…

but realistically, are they “my people?”

Because, you see, impact mindfulness has to be (HAS TO BE) a spiritual concept.

Why?

If you’ve read much here you might have caught wind of a belief I hold dear to. And that belief kinda goes like this…

Good is present in our world and is chiefly manifested by impact. The existence of good must emanate from something above and beyond us mortals.

Why?

Well we’re going to examine that question in this very post. As well as the age-old non-spiritual argument that if God is good, why does so much bad happen?

The God

Many people condemn the lack of sheer logic in any belief in an unknowable and unsee-able being? Well, isn’t there something unknowable and unsee-able inherent in OUR being?

That is, our spirit.

You certainly cannot examine it under a microscope. But it’s quite hard to argue that it’s not there…isn’t it?

And it is from this spirit that our desire to do good…to have an impact…emanates. It doesn’t result from the flesh and blood material stuff…that part only gives rise to the need and quest for survival.

The flesh yearns to take, rather than to give.

But there is a part of us to which good does appeal…the spiritual part and I believe strongly that that part is connected to an intelligent force that is also spirit…call it “god” if you like.

In Revolutionary Misfit jargon, we like to call it Universe.

So you see I believe impact is a completely spiritual exercise. Without the existence of God, or Universe, the entire concept goes poof…like a fart in the wind.

The Bad

Okay smarty pants…then what about all that badness that’s out there?

Well for now let’s focus on human badness…not the other kind of natural ugliness that occurs over which we really have no control. We’ll deal with that a little later.

Well, if you think about it the fact that a component of our being…the main one actually…is spirit kinda connotes the necessity of free will…doesn’t it?

I guess other life forms have some semblance of a spirit, but it’s not the same.

Other than some questionable examples, apart from humans, life forms really don’t have much choice between good and bad. That’s why I’ve heard it said that bad really doesn’t exist in nature. There are no Bernie Madoffs or Ted Bundys in the animal kingdom. Those cats just do what they do…its all about flesh and blood survival.

But when it comes to us…far different story. Like I said before, we alone have the capacity to do good and that capacity connects us all together and to God.

But that capacity also must have a flip side. Bad!

It must have a flip side because inherent in our spiritual-ness is the freedom to choose one course or the other. It must be…otherwise we are no different from all the rest of the animal world.

And we of course are…very different.

In other words, I’ve never seen a group of chimpanzees start an organization to protect the rights of their handicapped brethren.

You can slough that off and attribute it solely to biology…to enhanced brain function. But that same enhanced brain function also leads to some awfully despicable acts.

So, why the good stuff?

That, my friends, the good stuff, which unfortunately also must have it’s dark opposite side, is what separates us and what connects us to each other and to…

God.

I like to call it impact.

The Ugly

Okay then why would God allow earthquakes, storms and tidal waves that wipe out hundreds of thousands in a moment?

Well, maybe it’s because God, for all his other qualities, is a law abiding guy.

And thank god for those laws. Because without those same laws that give rise to the ugly stuff that kills us, we wouldn’t be here at all…now would we?

One of those laws is that our material state of being is in gradual decline and will meet its earthly end at one point or another.

And if you are spiritually inclined, you probably also believe that that end is really just another beginning.

So the physical laws that govern our world and keep it inhabitable also at times make it uninhabitable. When that happens, we just pass on from this life to another…the spirit lives on…just like the Universe.

It’s neither good nor bad…it may be ugly and messy, but it’s just the way it is and has to be.

I am sure this post has the potential of some severe feather ruffling. So, go ahead and take issue with any and all of what was said above.

If you noticed, despite the intensely spiritual bent of this post, I was able to pull it off without diverting into any religious dogma.

That’s because I just don’t believe, anymore, that it’s necessary to the equation.

Dogma is an impact blinder and a great big one at that…

And remember that we’re all about removing those.

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The New World Order

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new world order

I have come to the gradual and unshakable conclusion after 50+ years of earthbound existence that something’s really amiss in our world.

I look around and see people practicing anything but impact mindfulness.

I see people pursuing a form of individualism that always puts self at the forefront. Sure, in the back of our minds, there is often a desire to contribute…generally manifested most efficiently with the weekly local church tithe, or a check stroked and sent to our favorite charity.

There…done…I feel better now.

What governs our daily conduct is really not a desire for impact, but a relentless pursuit of self-interest.

I see people thinking almost exclusively in terms of the small us. I have been called a f***ing gringo enough times in my over a decade long experience of living in Latin American to know that small us thinking is not something that only affects the first world. It seems to be endemic to our species.

And the paradox is that it is also what threatens our very existence.

We confine ourselves to invisible borders and then go to war to defend them.

Why?

Because we believe that within those borders we have the greatest chance of advancing self-interest and we could give a damn about those outside of them, for the most part. They are there to be exploited for our benefit…the benefit of the small us.

I see impact blinders at work in practically every facet of human existence. More often than not, those blinders are the result of rigid adherence to some religious dogma. And we are willing to do some extremely destructive acts in pursuit of our chosen dogma.

Most often we didn’t choose our dogma at all…it chose us as a result of the particular circumstances into which we were borne.

Remember, 9-11 was at its core, a dogma based initiative.

And we “christians” are no better. The crusades were dogma based as well as other atrocities that we have inflicted upon ourselves in the name of something we can’t even prove to be real.

So I am writing a manifesto to express what I believe is the answer to our dilemma. You see what I don’t believe is that the answer lies in an ism, or a government program, or even in charitable acts. I believe it lies in a change of mindset. One that adopts and practices the three pillars of impact mindfulness.

Impact over interest…

A world in which people put impact over interest to me sounds like a very inviting place. A world in which we really do look out for one another. Christ himself spoke of such a world.

Even though I rail against religious dogma, I am a man of deep faith. I believe there has to be some universal intelligence that is holding all this together. And I believe to have faith in that is a key component of impact mindfulness. It is what will keep us firmly grounded on this great blue and green playing field that this universal intelligent force has fashioned for us to enjoy…

and protect.

I cannot conjure up a reason why good exists in our world that does not originate with this universal force. Good is not grounded in our DNA…self-interest is, survival is, but not good. And I see that proven in action day after day.

But there is a purpose beyond our mere existence that tugs at our souls. It is that universal intelligence calling us to do good…and we accomplish that via impact.

God = good = impact!

Or, God is real, good exists as a result of that fact and the way we manifest that in our concrete and see-able world is by our impact.

Embracing the Big US…

A new era has dawned. Seth Godin calls it the era of connectivity. We are connected across the vast expanse of planet like never before. And that connectivity is calling us to question the ideas that divide us.

It’s almost like the universe is giving us a chance to get things right.

Small us thinking has lead to big problems. We have exploited our planet to the point where our humanity is imminently threatened. This is consistently done to satisfy the insatiable materialistic desires of a few.

And we are more than willing to kill one another to maintain that capitalistic driven “right” to exploit.

I am really at a loss to understand why each of the strands of small us thought-trains suffer the illusion that they have it right and everyone else has it wrong. Where does this arrogance come from?

I believe it comes from a mindset that always puts the self…even the “group-self”…above everything and everyone else.

And if we continue to do that, we’re doomed.

But the good news is that the connection era has arrived and it gives the exploited a voice. It gives revolution a chance.

Connectivity has arrived as the platform for revolutionary misfits to emerge…and change the world!

We’re all counting on it to happen.

Embracing the Big US begins with connection and leads to compassion and cooperation.

And those are very good things for the ultimate survival of people and planet.

Removing Impact Blinders…

If impact is the ultimate good, then why don’t we prioritize it? Because for the most part we are blind, or blinded.

It really amazes me that most christians believe that their prime duty for impact is satisfied by the “tithe” to the local church…and once they have that part handled, god will reap untold benefits.

I know I heard that from the pulpit enough times for the concept to sink in.

But I am here to suggest that god doesn’t operate that way. God doesn’t want nor need your donated dollars dipped in dogma.

He wants your impact.

The way we manifest the fact that our souls are connected to each other and to god is via what we do for each other…the impact we make.

Dogmatic blinders certainly aren’t the only ones out there. Many of them are the result of cultural cultivation. You might have grown up learning to hate others who are different. To adopt the absurd belief that for some reason you are better than them.

No, not better, just different. For some reason we are often afraid of those differences. And that fear is manifested in hate…even violence.

But those differences are what make the human mosaic the grand masterpiece that it is. Life is so much more interesting because of them.

I believe that one of the most insidious impact blinders is this idea that individualism is key to actualization.

There is a concept in South Africa known as Ubuntu. It was embraced by Nelson Mandela and was the prime motivator for his legendary impact that liberated a nation.

Ubuntu tells us not that I think therefore I am, but that I am because we are. That what makes me who I am is the fact that I belong. None of us are islands to ourselves, even though we live a large chunk of our lives thinking and acting as if we were.

I know that I’m guilty of that.

When the truth is that we really do need each other. We really are interdependent. So why not stop fighting against that fortunate fact?

Removing impact blinders will lead to the realization that we really are all in this boat together.

The end in mind…

I am fond of this metaphor that places humanity on a vessel at peril. If you think about it sailors at sea are in the same predicament as the collective us. They can’t leave the ship…and neither can we, at least not yet.

And they are all in charge of keeping the ship in “ship-shape.” If not, things really get messy fast.

Things have gotten quite messy on our planetary ship. We haven’t done a very good job at “battening down the hatches” or “swabbing the decks.”

Come to thing of it, we sort of operate with a Titanic-like divisive mindset.

And we all know what happened to that ship!

It’s time we started getting the ship into shape. It’s time to stop focusing on self, on what divides us and in a way that clouds our vision of that bigger picture…it’s time for a new world order…

before it’s too late.

Impact mindfulness I believe is a simple way to express the key to doing our duty. The key for real and lasting change.

It starts with you…and me…

with revolutionary misfits.

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