Tag Archives: miracle

Leadership

Where Is a Genie When You Need One?

By Jim Selman | Bio

There is a widely understood belief in Argentina’s culture that “the way we are is a big part of the problem … and one of our characteristics is that we’re always waiting for a leader to come along and save us.” The first time I heard this I was giving a talk to a large event in Buenos Aires. A man stood up and challenged my ‘American optimism’, suggesting that I just didn’t understand the way things really were in ‘their’ country. My response was to acknowledge that this may be true and to suggest that, since they were all waiting for the leader to appear, perhaps he could take the job until the leader came along. That got a chuckle or two and drove home my point. We live as if the causes and the solutions to our problems are somehow outside of ourselves and that they are beyond our ability to resolve. This view of the world inevitably leads to resignation—giving up—and has us drift into a kind of spectator relationship to life and the future.

I make the same point in a different way in my Leadership in Action workshops. I usually begin by asking participants what they would to say to a ‘Genie’ if that magical being promised to grant them one wish to change something in their organization. I am always a little surprised to hear people’s innocuous and tiny wishes (such as better communication, more cooperation between departments, more straight talk, more trust and so on). Not that these aren’t

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Health

The Miracle Within

By Kevin Brown | Bio At the end of April this year, my wife and I spent a week in Nevada.  The purpose of our visit was purely one of rest and relaxation.  We spent a few days in Las Vegas and then a few in Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead, Arizona.  Our short vacation included a few days of golf (for me), some sightseeing, viewing some real estate properties, a Cirque du Soleil evening show, time by the pool, lots of dining out, and a last-minute decision to take in ‘Bodies…
The Exhibition‘ on display at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. While each of our activities provided the rest and enjoyment we sought, it was the Bodies exhibition that left me both amazed and filled with awe.   If you have never had the opportunity to take in one of the several ‘Bodies… The Exhibition’ displays, I highly recommend you create the possibility of doing so. It is my understanding that while each exhibit has different elements, each display features actual human specimens for visitors to examine in detail. Visitors hopefully gain a first-hand appreciation for the complexity of the human body.   I cannot think of another exhibit that has impacted me the way this one did. I felt a deep sense of amazement viewing full bodies with the skin removed, exposing internal organs. the nervous and arterial systems left me in complete awe with their complexity. I was disturbed viewing the portion of the exhibit that featured fetal development from 1 week to 12 weeks.  Disturbed because I support the right to choose an abortion and now am left with images of the fetus at 1, 3, 6, 8 and 12 weeks…all of which were fully recognizable as human life! Leaving the exhibit, I was left to consider the complex workings of the human body as nothing short of a miracle.   Webster’s has several definitions for ‘Miracle’, including extraordinary events linked to divinity to simply an extremely unusual event, thing or accomplishment. Other sources seem to invoke statistical improbability, survival of natural disasters, survival of terminal illness, and yes, even birth itself. For me, I think of a miracle as an occurrence for which there is no reasonable explanation. In my life, I cannot remember a time or event in which I experienced one. Certainly there have been events which I was willing to attribute to a miracle (for example, the survival of everyone following the plane crash on the Hudson River). I, however, have had no personal experience of a miracle, at least not one I was present to.   Leaving the Bodies Exhibition, I was left to consider "the miracle within" my own body. When I considered the enormous complexity of all the internal systems at work and the real-time communication within and across bodily systems, I could not help but consider the miracle that occurs in both the design and the operation of our bodies. Whether we attribute our internal workings to genetics and evolution or to divine creation, the ‘Miracle Within’ is something to consider each and every morning when we rise to face another day.

Imagine the possibilities we can generate when each new day begins with a recognition of our own ‘Miracle Within’!

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