By Jim Selman | Bio
I think one of the saddest things I hear of as I grow older is when real friends become estranged. It isn’t that we can’t have strong disagreements and even periods of disengaging from regular conversations at any age. But when ‘falling outs’ become long-term estrangement, bitter memories, regrets and resentment people we once called friends become burdens or even foes. We pay a heavy price to hold onto whatever stories we tell ourselves to justify our position. Most
By Jim Selman | Bio
One of the aphorisms we were given at the end of the est training in the 1970s was the statement, “Understanding is the booby prize.” It has taken me most of my life to really appreciate and mostly live day-to-day with this trueism. In our culture, understanding is assumed to be more or less synonymous with ‘knowledge’. It’s the point to most communication and a prerequisite for most commitment.If I have acquired any wisdom over the past six decades, it is this: the purpose of learning is action and understanding is a by-product of accomplishment (not a prerequisite). When I speak to groups of people, it usually takes me a few hours for them to ‘get’ that I am not communicating so they understand me, but communicating in a way that I hope will provide them with some new possibility or opening for action. As a coach, I am very clear that
By David Korten | Website
Reprinted from "Purple America," the Fall 2008 YES! Magazine
284 Madrona Way NE Ste 116, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110. Subscriptions: 800/937-4451
Read the first part of the article here.
Learning to be Human
If the properly functioning human brain is wired for caring, cooperation, and service, how do we account for the outrageous greed and violence that threaten our collective survival? Here we encounter our distinctive human
By Irene Noble
My mother, my friend, died when she was 91. I miss her still, yet it was eighteen years ago. She was a beautiful, elegant, stylish lady. More than that, she was forgiving, uncomplicated by her total honesty, always willing to learn new ways, new directions even though it might require a reversal of old assumptions.When our family gathers around a Christmas tree,
a dinner table or backyard barbeque, we usually bring in to our
conversation the people who are no longer with us. We laugh at moments
we remember, we cherish the time they were here and, sometimes, we mock
the things they used to say. My mother summed up just about everything
with these words, “That’s the way it is.” I can’t count the times we
have all laughed and said in unison when
By Rick Fullerton | Bio
Last
week I began a new job. In itself, this is not remarkable; people
change jobs as a regular occurrence, whether as a result of individual
initiative or organizational circumstance. For me, this latest career
move serves as a stimulus to reflect on my commitments and priorities
and how these evolve over time.
Early in my career, I was
energetic, curious and ambitious. I had student debts to pay, a family
to support, and the aspiration of home ownership. At
I can’t remember all the words but I remember hearing a ditty once that began, “My father in his house of logs said the world is going to the dogs”. Today is Father’s Day, and while I am a professional and practical optimist (no point in being a pessimist), I am embarrassed to say that I am starting to think like this jingle. The point to the verse is, of course, that as we get older we can easily become trapped in a kind of negativity—comparing current events with the ‘good
Life happens while we are having conversations with ourselves and other people.
Not learning from others may have a lot to do with not truly ‘listening’ to what others say. Listening is the context that makes life intelligible, allows anything to have meaning, and forms the basis for all communication (both written and spoken). It is a whole lot more than just ‘hearing’ the words that are spoken. I’m always listening, always bringing a prior interpretation or understanding of my world
Today is the day for fools, foolishness and merry pranks played on friends, colleagues and neighbours. Because of the abundance of April Fools’ hoaxes in the media, many people distrust news reports and advertisements launched on this day. No such luck here at Serene Ambition…although, as in some countries like Britain, we do believe that jokes pulled after noon turn the prankster into the ‘fool’. Instead, we’d like to share a few famous insights into learning how to live wisely.
Life
I heard a friend saying that they were ‘over committed’. I got to thinking that this is a common notion and one that we rarely question. Is it possible to over commit? I can understand being busy. I can understand not being competent to fulfill a commitment. I can even imagine that I have made commitments that seem to conflict, although other than being able to be in two places at the same time, most of the conflict is in how I am thinking about it.
One of
By Shae Hadden | Bio
The other day a friend mentioned a term I’d never heard before: neuroplasticity.
So I looked it up on Wikipedia (yes, click on the link and you can go
there too) and was amazed to find out that scientists are now proving
that our thinking can actually change our brain anatomy.
Neuroplasticity
challenges the conventional wisdom that specific brain functions, such
as speech and vision, are located in a
specific cortex (or center). The traditional medical