removing impact blinders Archives - Page 16 of 16

Impact Mindfulness without Judgement

November 21, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Years ago during our bi-weekly team meeting at Package Costa Rica, one of my employees nailed me for having certain non-sustainable habits…like leaving the office and forgetting to turn off the lights. He was right, there’s no doubting that. Sustainability, if you’ll remember, is about managing our interactions and impacts and it requires focused thought, or mindfulness, until you can engage in sustainable actions as unconscious habits. I admit I am not there yet, not anywhere close, but I am working on it. In the meantime, it helps to be surrounded by sustainability experts, since I am hardly one.

I wrote a lot in my old Costa Rica Guy blog on the topic of sustainability, not from a position of expertise, but from a deep love of nature that I have carried with me all of my life. Also from what I believe to be a strong sense of what is right…and sustainability is the right thing to do.

I heard Obama speak in the earlier days of his presidency about his goal to move the U.S. towards more of a “green economy,” or one in which economic activity related to creating a more sustainable world becomes a significant GDP component. He said he just felt it was the right thing to do. I agree.

But as I am more successful at becoming sustainable and impact mindful, one thing I do not want to become is judgmental.

I would never want to be one of those people who throws blood on Hollywood celebrities as they exit fancy restaurants wearing animal hide or fur. Being judgmental never wins converts, but generally only inspires rebellion. People think for themselves, well usually, and don’t really want you doing their thinking for them. They must choose to be sustainable in their own way, or else it just doesn’t matter.

Being judgmental never wins converts, but generally only inspires rebellion.

Sustainability and impact mindfulness is not about competition, but rather the antithesis of that concept…it is about being in harmony, with nature and with other people. Jesus, for example, was a decidedly sustainable fellow. He lived a low consumption lifestyle and was a pretty nature loving kind of guy…at least from biblical accounts. Yet he was never judgmental. In fact he admonished his followers whenever they began to criticize and compete.

It’s that critical, judgmental and overly-competitive spirit that has the world in the mess it’s in.

In our rush to be better, prettier, faster, stronger, richer and to have our backpacks more overloaded with useless stuff we have become completely unsustainable. Much more of that and, well, who knows, but the outlook isn’t too great.

I believe impact mindfulness without judgement is the best path to inspiration. Your practice of it should be influential, but by example primarily. Walk the walk and others may just be inspired to follow in line.

photo credit: Mr. Flibble via Compfight cc

Sanity is Overrated

November 18, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Sometimes I question my sanity.

But here’s the problem I face…I don’t know what sanity actually is.

Do you…really?

I know what society tells us it is. Well, I guess that depends on which society.

The society I nurtured in would tell me the following 10 things about sanity, among others…

It is working at a “regular” job and paying the bills.
It is belonging to and supporting your local “Christian” church.
It is voting republican.
It is supporting the military.
It is being heterosexual.
And monogamous.
And marrying within one’s own race.
It means not coloring outside of the lines (of accepted societal norms…like those above and many others).
It is being law abiding.
It is accepting your lot in life (don’t try to be more than who and what you are, which according to most, outside your immediate family, isn’t very much).

Oh, and it also means, never daring to question any of the aforementioned points.

According to many of the above factors, especially that “11th” one…I am unquestionably insane. And I am quite sure many would readily agree that’s indeed the case.

In my insanity, I formulated a new definition of what it means to be sane…an insane formulation of sanity, if you will…

One in which,

All human-beings share the common reality of one life’s chance worth of potential impact.
All human-beings share the common created purpose of one life’s chance worth of potential impact.
What gives a human life meaning is not its degree of sanity (measured by any societal set of standards), but its realized impact over the course of this one life.

Now I realize that, according to the previous set of standards, my newly formulated definition puts me in serious need of a straight-jacket and a padded cell.

And it’s OK. Because sanity, or at least generally accepted societal definitions of the concept, keeps our impact at bay.

Sanity, or at least generally accepted societal definitions of the concept, keeps our impact at bay.

We are taught early on that it’s not for us to reason why, but to do and die…and those who reason, go awry. Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote that (except for that last part…which is 100% yours truly), about soldiers who “unquestionably” charged to their deaths. According to my socially nurtured standards that would be considered quite sane.

I’ll readily admit to going awry. I am off the farm, so to speak, and wake up almost every day, questioning. Questioning my sanity. Questioning whether THIS TIME, I really have gone off the deep end.

But doesn’t it seem a bit odd that society tells us that sane people don’t question? It’s best not to use the brain in this manner. Just accept things as they are. I believe they call it, “being realistic.”

I respectfully refuse.

Because for me this “unquestionable” version of sanity is overrated…

and inherently questionable.

Rebel with an Occasional Cause

November 15, 2013 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

I am a loner. And it’s not really because I grew up on the far west end of an island that was practically deserted nine months out of every year. Although that might have contributed. I am a loner because I am also a rebel with an occasional cause…or maybe it’s the other way around?

Growing up in the newly desegregated south I rebelled against the idiocy of racism. When my parents moved me to a private school (I have always harbored a suspicious feeling that it was to remove me from the influence of my black friends in public school), I rebelled against the superficiality of the super-rich kids I was surrounded by. In fact, even though I did not grow up poor, I have always identified more with the poor and huddled than with the rich and cuddled. When I became a borne again Christian I rebelled against the clubby and pious attitudes of the holier than thou crowd. While in law school I rebelled against the heat seekers who always arrived to class with the shiny red apple of ambitious aspiration. And when I was engaged in the actual practice of the profession, I rebelled against every aspect of it…probably why I didn’t last very long. I rebelled against the idea that I couldn’t be an investment banker because I didn’t go to the right schools…so I started my own firm. When my marriage was falling apart, I rebelled against the idea that to save it I had to do things her way. And when I became immersed in a culture very foreign to my own, I rebelled against my own.

A loner’s life of rebellion…that’s an apt description of my life. But here’s the paradox I face…maybe you as well, if, like me, you are a rebellious loner. I am a loner with change the world aspiration. And it’s damn hard to change the world all by yourself.

It’s damn hard to change the world all by yourself.

All of sudden I find myself at age 52 in a new world. One where making an impact actually seems possible. Seth Godin likes to call this new world the connection age. I think that is a good description.

It once was easier for loners. The factory floor was an easy place to escape to. Just do your job…take care of responsibilities. Dream about changing the world (that’s what we loners do a lot of), but cling to the comfortable excuse that it really isn’t possible.

But now it is.

In the connection age, one changes the world by, well, connecting…right? If there is one thing that has held me back more than any other, it is my reluctance to connect. Because, I am a loner. Loners don’t naturally thrive in a connection oriented environment, be it a social function, or a social network.

In the connection age, one changes the world by, well, connecting…right?

But I’m learning. I am a loner who loves adventure. And there’s a degree of adventurous danger in being vulnerable…in putting “it” out there. Actually, I have been doing that for the past five years. No one has really noticed, but I’ve got a lot of dirty laundry airing in cyberspace this very moment. Probably enough to land me on a CIA watch-list…if anyone at Langley cared to notice. After that statement, things could change a bit, eh?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a loner. I believe loners have the potential to be great writers because we tend to be deep thinkers…a perk of spending a lot of time away from the social noise. But in order for our thoughts to gain any traction, we have to first, get them out of our heads and then second, be willing to be vulnerable by sharing them.

That is the battle I am facing right now. The connection age makes it easier for me (us)…but it’s still a battle, or a rebellion…this time against myself.

So, take a deep breath, now sigh and push…publish…

Love Yourself – Your Impact Depends On It

November 10, 2013 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

This is not a blog about religion, nor is it “religious.” With that out of the way, let me start this post with a quote from Jesus…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

I would paraphrase what he said like this…love God (or good), love people and start with yourself!

Religion would try to convince us that the first part can be satisfied via some dogmatic code…like praying a certain way. I believe Jesus would rather tell us that we demonstrate our love for God by doing good (in fact there is a whole book of scripture largely based on that notion…it’s called James).

But the quote from the bible above seems slightly out of order. I say that because one can’t do the first part unless one has things in order vis-à-vis the second part.

I usually talk about that first part…doing good…having an impact. But in the wee hours of this morning I woke up and read “cover to cover” a book that I had downloaded a couple days earlier. The name of the book is Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant. It is a very quick read, took me all of about 45 minutes. But it impacted me…and isn’t that what a book is supposed to do?

The title of the book pretty much gives away its content. It is a book about loving yourself. Now I know for at least someone who might read this post you are thinking at this moment, that’s a very self-centered concept. Well, not according to Jesus.

I spent the last 52 years of my life desperately seeking approval. I rationalized it as ambition. It has lead me down some disastrous paths. And all the while my mantra has been I hate myself (well maybe that’s a bit harsh…how about “seriously dislike”). People who hate themselves are capable of almost anything. They can channel that hate to productive means…or destructive ones. But either way, we can be a pretty ambitious bunch. We self-haters clamor for limelight…for fame and fortune. And then once we find it, we’re left empty and muttering…is that all there is? So off we go again…until we hit the brick wall, or the wishing-well bottom.

We self-haters clamor for limelight…for fame and fortune. And then once we find it, we’re left empty and muttering…is that all there is?

But this blog is not about ambition…it’s about impact. Wait a minute, what’s a self-hater like me doing with a blog like this?

Hmmm…damn good question. Well, Kamal’s book has opened my eyes to a dilemma I face with this blog, with my life…possibly with yours as well. That is, until I start loving me…I cannot really love you…and until I can truly love you, I can’t honestly have much if any impact on your life. I have no idea what might be the religious persuasion of Kamal Ravikant…but at least on that issue, he and Jesus are in complete agreement.

In order to do that god-given duty to do good…we have to have love and it all starts with self-love.

So, as Kamal cajoles, repeat the mantra…

I Love Myself, I Love Myself, I Love Myself…

For if we can’t even find ourselves worthy of love…it’s going to be damn near impossible to find anything else so worthy. And love is the only tried and true impact motivator. Ambition just won’t cut it…at least not in the long run.

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