Awareness | christopherhildreth

Archive for the ‘Awareness’ category

Archaic Furniture

August 28, 2008

In Dee Hock’s, Birth of the Chaordic Age, an intriguing book, he mentions that:

“The most difficult part [of forming a chaordic organization] is to understand and get beyond the origin and nature of our current concepts of organizations; to set them aside in order to make space for new and different thoughts. Every mind is a room filled with archaic furniture. It must be moved about or cleared away before anything new can enter. This means ruthless confrontation of the many things we know that are no longer so.”

This is such a profound and illuminating idea. Even scripture, with the parables of Jesus, compares our bodies as temples and houses. Being aware that something needs to be done is the first step, but then the moving or removal of mental furniture begins the real process of transformation. As Dee says later, a purpose must be agreed upon to direct the renovation. This purpose, both personal and professionally, has incredible importance in the “next steps” we take. It’s not something we spend five minutes on and then move – instead it can take much longer. Like other things in life it also is not static. There will be times when it will need reevaluating as well. This process is ongoing without ever arriving at a destination, but the result is a life fully lived and, as Jesus said, “more abundant”.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Creativity, Cultural Ideas, Goals, Influence, Leadership, Life

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Personal Platform

August 27, 2008

We are in the election season in the United States. This means that we have primarily two parties, who each have a nominee for President of the United States. The way we know what these nominees believe and what they plan to do is by their “platform”. In each acceptance speech the nominees will list each “plank” of their platform. Subsequently, they will go all over the country and try to explain the differences between them and their opponent.

We are all used to this during election seasons, but what about yourself, what is your Personal Platform? What are the things that make you tick and cause your emotions to soar? Have you ever thought about writing those things down? Once something is written and articulated it gives you a piece of solid ground – your ground – on which to stand.

When you hear a speech, you know when someone is speaking from a paper or from their heart. Learn to live your life from your heart. Only then can the true You shine forth unabated by the filters of others.

Be clear and concrete and state your platform in vivid, unequivocal terms that will inspire and motivate others. Then read it out loud to yourself. See if you don’t feel a bit better and the future a bit clearer!

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Creativity, Influence, Life

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Emotional Intelligence

August 25, 2008

No, this is not a review of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence. The book is a great one that brought to the forefront the importance of emotional intelligence in the work place. His later book Social Intelligence is a few books down in my “Need to Read” stack, so you will be hearing about it in a future post. You can read his blog here.

This look at emotion comes from a meeting the staff had with Transformational Architect, Ron Martoia. During several hours the concept distilled the most was that emotional health in relationships is far more important than technical skills, knowledge, talent and ability to success in a working environment. The level to which emotion plays a part in interactions and the decision-making process is astounding. The way we continually do the same things emotionally expecting different results is equally as astounding.

Thankfully, we are not stuck in an emotional mud-bank. We each have what we need to cause personal and professional momentum to increase and, in turn, to increase the positive momentum of any organization we are a part of. Far more can be said than I would want to post, but the key is that whatever emotional position you are in now, you are not destined to stay there. You do have a future to be written that contains emotions full of health that help to propel you toward a great preferred future that you write.

If you have some specific questions about this topic, ask and we’ll see where it goes!

Categories: Awareness, Context, Creativity, Lifepoint, People

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Pillars Part 4

August 23, 2008

This week we talked about prayer as a discipline. For me, during the past few years I have run the gamut between prayer needing to be a fixed point in my schedule to wondering that if God is in control – what is the real point of prayer at all. I’m certain that you’ve thought about the idea of prayer and wondered if “you had it right” or whether you could “do it” at all. Prayer is such an enigmatic topic that many times we chose not to dive into it. We wait for priests, rabbis, imams, pastors or teachers to tell us “what it is”. Here is the interesting point, those guys you are waiting to tell you what prayer is often have the same struggle defining it and practicing it.

Loved the discussion about prayer we had Sunday. If you missed it you can hear it here. One of the aspects I want to just touch on is Centering Prayer. The idea was brought into prominence by Father Thomas Keating several decades ago. In a simple nutshell, centering prayer is about sitting and allowing the thoughts in your mind to pass by unattached to you. Think of sitting by a stream. Carried by the current of the stream are the thoughts that are passing through your mind. Consciously let them pass by. It takes effort. but eventually the number of thoughts will decrease and the static/noise level in your mind will subside.

Doing this for just twenty minutes can have a dramatic difference in your day. I know you may be saying that if I’m praying I should be saying something. This is one of the misconceptions we have with prayer. Think of a situation where you asked an opinion about something and your inner thought was your true feeling, but you said the opposite. Our true self resides within and can be heard when we sift through the myriad of brain chatter that vies for our attention each day.

Try each day to visualize yourself for a few moments at the streams edge and watch the thoughts go by and dissipate. This is the “centering” part of centering prayer. Just like everything else in our lives, practices that have the greatest amount of impact take time and effort to learn and become part of our daily rhythm.

Categories: Awareness, Centering Prayer, Context, Message Series, religion, Rhythm

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Hauerwas quote

August 22, 2008

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Throughout his career, he has focused emphasis on the importance of virtue and character within the Church. I found this quote and it embodies what I feel the church is to be.

“The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.”

This is such an important ideal to grasp – especially as we near the hard and heavy election season. Christians are best, not when they seek to infiltrate society and bend it to their will, but when they seek to embody the character of Christ.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Kingdom of God, religion

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How?

August 16, 2008

Normally I wait until I’ve completed a book to comment on it, however Peter Block’s “The Answer to How is Yes” has got my mind on overdrive – and I’ve just passed the first chapter. He suggests that the question “How?” could be more of an obstacle rather than a help to an end. He uses “How?” as a symbol because it is the most frequently asked question following critical conversations about changing directions in our jobs and lives. Coming to the decision that something should be done is often easy. The raising of the question, “How?” inevitably leads to a halt in progress until we have some perceived certainty.

One of the best observations I’ve read yet is when Peter says that, “if we were really committed to the pursuit of what matters, we might well be served to hold a moratorium on the question ‘How?’…If we could agree that for six months we would not ask ‘How?’, something in our lives…might shift for the better. It would refocus our attention on deciding what is the right question, rather than what is the right answer. It would force us to act as if we already knew how – we just have to figure out what is worth doing.”

What is keeping you from pursuing something that has captivated your mind? Removing the question “How?” from the conversation leaves us with only a decision to decide what matters most. Think about your life and after evaluating what matters most, make it a priority to take the first step toward seeing that “thing” happen.

Categories: Awareness, Books I'm Reading, Creativity, Cultural Ideas, Goals, Influence, Starting, Vision

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Yesterday’s Post

July 30, 2008

From what I’m hearing, the idea of helping is catching on. With the problems in the world all around us, maybe we can make a difference, maybe we can do something.

Stay tuned.

Categories: Awareness, Creativity, Cultural Ideas, Influence, Life

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The Joy of Silence

July 23, 2008

Silence is a subject that causes us to run. Some run toward it while others run away. In my younger years I would have ran from the silence. I would have needed noise to fill in gaps and keep me from gazing inside at my soul. Now, a little older, I’m finding that more and more I tend to run toward the quiet.

The soul is an amazing part of being human. The soul constantly shows us things and gives us insight, but most of the time we are to loud to hear it. We need television, radio, CD’s and podcasts to buffer us from ourselves. The astounding thing is that if we were to listen we would gain more direction in our lives without having to ask for it.

“The Kingdom of God is within”, is a phrase that haunts me because I think we leave untapped a great resource for living the life Christ told us we could live.

Take time, if only for a few minutes, and sit quietly. Become connected to your surroundings and yourself. In those few moments, a lot can be done in your life and in the world around you.

Categories: Awareness, Kingdom of God, Life, religion

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Inspiration

July 21, 2008

There is only one thing I can say about inspiration – It is vital and powerful. OK two things, but the key is that a life lived without inspiration really can’t be classified as living. I am not talking about some things labeled inspirational today. Not talking about a feel good story or song here. The essence of inspiration is to live “in spirit”. When you open your eyes to visibly and spiritually see the world around you, your spirit takes note and responds.

Few of us listen to our own spirit, we are often too busy with the minutia of life. We have schedules and they need to be followed and so on. Inside each of us there is an answer to the question “What am I here for?” We go to others to ask their help, but we know the answer instinctively. Your inner spirit is constantly telling you to “do what you are here to do.”

Quit making excuses and begin with the first step. Today.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Creativity, Goals, Influence, Life, Starting

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Restoration

July 20, 2008

A key word in today’s message was the word “restoration”. In relation to the typical meaning of the Gospel, I love the way that “restoration” completes a largely incomplete thought which for years,the establishment church has asked us to accept.

Many people have gone to church this Sunday thinking that they have a “ticket to heaven” or a “get out of hell free card”. The problem with this mentality is that it negates the vastness of the purpose of Christ’s coming to Earth in the first place. To buy in to a quick fix religion may make you feel better, but it hardly exemplifies anything that would require giving my life for.

Let’s face it, most of what is served up as Christianity today is a mixture of some three or four word phrase taken out of context to drive home a point that is at best a diluted truth and at worst a man-made, man-created, man-centered doctrine. What are you willing to die for?

That is a question that ought to bring up family and proven core ideals. If your church or belief system isn’t among the list of “to die for” items, you need to reevaluate the substance of your beliefs. Only then will you be able to “know” what you believe.

Restoration is not just a onetime process either, if a home has survived hundreds of years, it has gone through many restorations. Time and use wear away and restoration lets us bring back the feeling of new while preserving the past. The same is true with the church and ourselves. Restoration continually brings back the “new” in our lives. Our appreciation and value of Christ increases and we again reconnect to the Source with renewed vigor, excitement and confidence.

This cycle of wear, restore, wear and restore brings us closer and closer to an unwavering realness in our journey with God. With each cycle His reality overtakes our notion of reality and He is made anew in our eyes.

Instead of struggling against this process, embrace it as a way to be drawn closer to a heart that is affectionate and fond of you.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Cultural Ideas, Life, religion

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