Is what you're doing expressing who you are?

The gap between being and doing
We are movement, or rather we move, in the sense that we evolve. We are not the same person from one moment to the other. For so many reasons, I won’t go into now. If we want to or not, we are constantly changing. So does the world around us. Our daily habits, which I spoke about yesterday, meant to assist us in growing daily, must be looked at and re-assessed constantly. Otherwise, you simply increase the inevitable gap between who you are and what you do.
Transformation as a way of life
“In molecular biology and genetics, transformation is the genetic alteration of a cell resulting from the direct uptake and incorporation of genetic materials from its surroundings through the cell membrane. For transformation to take place, the recipient bacterium must be competent (competence allows for rapid adaptation and DNA repair of the cell.), and it might occur in nature as a time-limited response to environmental conditions such as starvation or any other form of stress.” (from Wikipedia – about transformation in genetics)
My point is that if it’s happening at the cellular level, our minds better be quick to adapt. That’s a simple idea but not so easy to implement. I think re-thinking who we are every three months is not so bad. It increases awareness and has us reconsider who we want to be too. Consequently, we can adapt what we do to who we are or want to be.
Yes, what I am advocating is transformation as a way of life.
Mindful transformation
Transformation starts from our observation of the world around us. We see things automatically in a certain way. Most times, we are stuck with our first impressions. I was once in the IFLP (now the ILP) at Landmark Education, dreaming of becoming a Forum leader… I remember one vital lesson I learned there. Leadership starts from our ability to see things differently. From other points of view than our own automatic ones. It took me a very long time to actually learn to implement this in my leadership. Once I did, the world around me started transforming too.
Things that seemed difficult before became easy. Communication changed; it became more profound and rewarding; I learned more every day, upgraded my life systems, and became the team person that I am today.
So, start observing the world the way you do, and just as a game, turn it around and find another interpretation, and another, just for fun.
Try this for a week and share what came up in the comments below.
Why is this important
In their book “Imagine If…”, Sir Ken Robinson and Kate Robinson, his daughter, speak about the power of imagination, creativity, and who we are and what we are capable of as a biological species: “…Here you are, a living, breathing part of the world we all share.”
“As we face an increasingly fabrile future, the answer is not to do better what we’ve done before. We have to do something else. We have to take stock of the position we are all in and radically rethink how we move forward.”
“Imagination allows us to envision alternative possibilities, and creativity equips us with the tools to bring them into existence.”
In his forward, Sir Ken Robinson says: “What you are about to read is an urgent plea that we stop, take stock, and correct the course we are on. Our actions have led us to a tipping point of doing more harm than good.”
I agree. Look at who you have become, are your actions aligned with who you are? Is this who you want to be? If not, now is the time to “correct the course.” In fact, there has never been a better time than now.
Take the leadership assessment here.
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