Using Step #2 of The Five Step Path

 

Diana Montiel Contreras completes Samurai Game® facilitator certification February 24 in Mexico City

   

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor

do the children of man as a whole experience it.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

-Helen Keller (from The Open Door, 1957)

Rachel is new to the aikido mat, late 30's, attentive and quick to adjust to input. She's often self-critical. Yet, her movements are surprisingly aligned, unified and relaxed for anyone at this stage of the game. She has yet to purchase a gi (training uniform). Taking that step, while practical (right clothes for the environment), is also bold. It's a statement that says, "Yes, I'm in. I'm scared, but stepping across this line anyway." We keep an eye on Rachel. We let her know that we once walked (and still do) the same path that she's on. Knowing this we understand that she'll probably take her next step.

Nate got his new trumpet just like he wanted, but his first experience of the town's youth orchestra was terrifying: too many people, and too much happening. Christian, the orchestra leader, was keen to Nate's talent. He knew his fears and asked him to stay afterwards to talk about what was going on. Christian listened and basically said nothing. Then just before Nate was about to leave Christian offered, "I know you want to quit and you can, but I think you're doing great - I see it in your timing. Come to one more session and then decide. When I'm afraid I'm in the same spot you're in right now ..." Twelve years later Nate is accomplished in many instruments. Along the way he served two years as band president at a major California university. Today, he works as a corporate merchandising manager. Music is not his profession. It IS his life. He's guided numerous students of his own, and he's led hundreds of others to excellence.

Both of the above stories are true. I know Rachel and Nate, but by different names.

Taking a small step to move across the thin line of fear is HUGE. It's a matter of intent, spirit and heart. 

In the last issue of The Ronin Post we addressed Step #1 of the Five Step Path. This month we look at Step #2. And, as with last month, we'll reframe it for personal reflection and organizational self-assessment.

Recall the three crucial practices that support the overall process:

1. Be present with people and situations.
2. Make external focus your mindful practice.
3. Simultaneously, stay connected with what's happening for you, i.e. physically (your body responses), mentally (your mind chatter & images) and emotionally (the flow of your feelings).

STEP #1. You need to be always looking for strengths and uniqueness in others. This creates the essential connections for rapport, respect and growth, and kick starts the process.

Step #2 requires an understanding of some basic distinctions important to one's ability to move the process forward. These distinctions should not be taken for granted. As with buying a gi or coming back to one more band practice, Step #2 transcends the realm of being a witness. Step #2 requires ACTION.

STEP #2. ENCOURAGE and INPRIRE others to DEVELOP, PRACTICE and UNLEASH their own strengths and uniqueness.

Encourage - from courage - springing from cor (Latin) - heart - supporting people with respect to engaging their own fears. Courage is just a word until fear is present. To encourage others you must allow them to have and to articulate their own fears (concerns, worries, self-doubts, etc.) and in the midst of that having and articulation - you must assist the steps for action.

Inspire - to breath [life] into.  You must actively walk your talk when it comes to your own fears, concerns, worries, etc., and you must being willing to be seen as someone who moves into and through your own fears.

Develop - grow

Practice - repeatedly apply

Unleash - release from restraint

STEP #2 requires actions of opportunity, yet Step #2 has nothing to do with being an opportunist. You must be willing to sincerely put other people first. You have to be able to consider their needs beyond your own self-interest. You must understand that your mission is to move other people to become stronger, perhaps even stronger than you will ever be. The Native American people of long ago called this as becoming, "a give away person". Give for the sake of giving and so that others might grow and gain.

This attitude can seemingly run contrary to the idea that giving is an ingredient to gaining, which, of course, it is. But you can't be thinking about getting something for yourself. Thoughts directed at personal gain, that whisper, "What's in it for me?" - empty your mind of these. With practice this is possible, and if you are vigilant you may find yourself swept into a dynamic (and different) reality dedicated to art of servant leadership, a world of possibility within which you can and will develop other leaders.

On the other hand, if thoughts of personal gain dominate The 5 Step Process, then the process becomes self-defeating. Giving for the sake of giving is expansive and generative. The spirit of your efforts will attract others and extend into the world. Giving for the sake of getting is contractive. That kind of spirit ultimately reduces things to a standstill. In a word, giving for the sake of getting - sucks.

As a method of projected self-reflection Step #2 is turned inward as follows:

Imagine that your friends, neighbors, relationships (old and new), enemies, children, colleagues, etc., were to show up here today for the sole purpose of revealing to you what they have witnesssed to be true about WHAT ENCOURAGES AND INSPIRES YOU. What would they say?

As was discussed when it comes to your own strengths (your Step #1) you may find yourself denying what you hear, and you may have been selling yourself short - or you may not have noticing how it is that you go about seeking encouragement and inspiration.  But take the time and reflect: What would your parents and children say? How about an ex-husband or ex-wife? Set aside any need to be small about this.  Observe in your imagination what these people may have seen regarding you.  What is the internal dialogue you have about this?

As a process to enhance organizational development and assessment Step #2 is turned inward like this:

Suppose your employees and staff (past and present), co-workers, colleagues, clients, vendors, customers and competitors - all of the people who have comprised your professional life - suddenly convened. How would these folks honestly and straight forwardly describe your what ENCOURAGES and INSPIRES YOU professionally?

Think about this. Use your imagination.

Here's a challenge.

For the next fourteen days commit ten minutes of every day to writing the answers to the above two questions, i.e. as a way of personal reflection and as a way of organizational or professional assessment. Add this to your ongoing examination of personal and professional strength and uniqueness. Heck, if you followed last month's step you know that two hours of your time spread over two weeks is not that hard of a thing to do.

We'll address Step #3 of the process in the next issue of The Ronin Post. But for now, spend some time looking at what encourages and inspires you - and take one small step across a line some line of your own to develop, practice and unleash a strength of yours... just for one month.

What do you say?

"Whether our action is wholesome or unwholesome depends    

on whether that action or deed arises from a disciplined

 or undisciplined state of mind."

-Dalai Lama XIV, (The Art of Happiness)

© Lance Giroux, April 2013

Slow Down. Feel. Practice.

Papi set the cup down on a flat rock, shivered and extended his weathered hands above the flames. He turned and looked squarely thorough me. His piercing eyes alone could have spoken everything, but he wanted to ensure that he would be heard. His voice rose above a low whisper and he continued, "We have two sides of the brain, you know. Those who attend to only one side lose big time. We exercise neither our critical self nor our feeling self. And as for the body here in this country - it's become soft; almost a lost cause."

(from The Life and Times of Papi Conpelo)

[Continuing from October. Where were we?]

Saturday afternoon. October 2, 2010.

A soft morning landing and a nine-hour layover at London's Heathrow are now complete.

I'm aboard Egypt Air Flight 778. Fully loaded, we've been airborne for some time. Tuesdays With Morrie rests in the seat pouch. A microwaved meal has been delivered. The high tech touch screen video display on the seatback forward of me has at least fifteen options to chose from. I think, "Different airline, different films, I'll eat and watch a movie."

I reach for the earbuds. They fall to the floor. This being the last seat in the very rear of the aircraft, up against both window and rear bulkhead I'm stuck - too jammed in to move - no wiggle room to find them. What now? So I open my window cover and my jaw drops. There below me extends the broad expanse of the Italian Alps. The sun, dropping fast somewhere over my right shoulder, paints its way through clouds sending deep shadows to who knows where. All right here.

The scene is stunning. I've flown countless times above the Sierra Nevada. What's to be seen there is magnificent. But I've never witnessed anything this rough or steep, dropping so far and so fast. I sit transfixed above terrain I may never see again.

By 6:20 p.m. Flight 778 is 2,400 kilometers from Cairo and flying southeast over the Dolomite Mountains. We're due north of Venice and west northwest of Trieste. The Croatian coastline and the beaches stretch out below. Our route will take us to Pula, then Zadar, then Dubrovnik.

Cloud covered patterns float faintly over the Italian boot out my window. The jagged pattern of islands west of Krk appear. "You know," I tell myself, "I could be watching the in-flight movie right now. But why?" How many moments ago did the earbuds fall to my, "Aggghrrrh!". Yet, had that not happened all of this would have gone unseen and unfelt.

Saturday afternoon. November 6, 2010.

Sunny Oakland, California. Am arriving home from a week being with family of my friend, Mac. His life halted sixteen days ago. No one saw that coming.

Rain was falling hard when I left Seattle a few hours ago. That's behind me now, but it will catch me again tomorrow. The predictable weather patterns at this time of year inform this.

Mac's going gave us all pause: we who are family and friends.

How much time do you have? To look everyday and notice what's there and what's passed you by? Knowing this, how much time do you spend actively noticing? And then taking time to consider what all of this is teaching you? Ant then taking effective action on what you have noticed? Can you read the patterns of your practices? How about the patterns of our collective practices?

Tuesday. November 2, 2010.

U.S. mid-term election day. My vote has been cast.

Wednesday. November 3, 2010.

The elections are over; the ballots counted. Those elected speak. From both sides of the aisle we hear today. "What the American people want now is for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work." Wow! How many times have we heard that after an election? Isn't that what the public servants were supposed to be doing since the last election, i.e. get to work?

Thursday. November 4, 2010.

Lots of news today! Our print and electronic media is on the job to inform us that the 2012 election is already in progress and well underway. Oh well -- so much for getting to work.

A dose of cynicism grips me. The lyrics of "Patterns" (Simon and Garfunkle) come to mind. These words trumpet our continuing politics here. Don't remember? Never heard? Try http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/simon_garfunkel/patterns.html. Another cynical thought floats by - sometimes, we really do live inside The Truman Show.

Saturday evening. October 2, 2010.

Egypt Air Flight 778 has entered Yugoslavian airspace. Sunlight splits the western sky above Italy. Below the world is gray. We are over Korcula and on track for Titograd. Someone has paid me to write this, but they don't know it. What I mean is: I wouldn't be sitting here today had not someone footed the bill. Would I? What about you, where would you be today if someone had paid different prices in your regard?

Another time zone. Another time. Two and a half hours behind is London. What remains of sunlight is blue on a far horizon. Names once legends in books are within view. Delphi to the west, and to the southeast lies Marathon. I find myself wondering, "What would the Oracle say of our world today, the way we live and respond?" I think of the original marathoner - Pheidippides - the Athenian herald who was sent running one hundred fifty miles over two days to Sparta when the Persians landed at Marathon, and then ran another twenty-five miles to Athens to announce a Greek victory. Who goes the distance today? Not the distance of running, rather the distance of practiced conviction and perseverance? Where would we be today without the GPS and the mobile phone, the iPad and our Facebook - and "You've Got Mail" ??. If we lost electricity for two days nation wide? If we had to communicate beyond the exchange of data? If we truly had to rely on our senses? We walk a fragile line - yet we don't respect how fragile the line is. We take tomorrow for granted.

A Friday evening. January 1975.

I'm sitting in the top floor meeting room at the Travelodge in Honolulu attending a seminar. It's almost midnight. Art Theisen, a large robust man with round nose, receding hairline and deep voice, is telling a story with great feeling. He talks of himself being a young brash pilot at the end of World War II ferrying aircraft across Europe: C-47's - the military version of the DC-3. Most of his planes were empty of passengers. But on occasions, he says, a person of importance would hop a ride.

On the morning of this particular story he gets word that two passengers will be his responsibility as he ferries a plane inbound to Athens. They are Helen Keller and Polly Thompson. He greets them as they board. Then he moves forward, goes through his pre-flight checklist, taxies and takes off. The flight will last many hours, taking an entire day.

Somewhere in mid-flight Art needs to relieve himself, so he walks the rear of the aircraft where a toilet is located. On his way back to the cockpit he passes his guests, glances down to consider what a pitiful life Helen Keller must live - not being able to see or hear or talk. Then he gets back to the controls and settles in for a non-eventful remainder of the flight.

Some hours later while he's sitting somewhat bored, Art feels the pressure of a touch on his right shoulder. When he turns to see what the pressure is he finds Polly Thompson.

"Hello", he offers.

"Hi", she responds. Then she continues, "Helen, is enjoying the trip. She just asked me to come forward to let you know. She also asked me to say how wonderful it must be to see Athens, and that the city must be golden right now in the rays of the setting sun."

Theisen sits is aghast. He doesn't know what to say He turns his face forward to look out the front of the aircraft. There below him in plain sight as it has been for many minutes (had he been paying attention), sits Athens ablaze in the light of a setting sun.

In the seminar I sit, listening to Art Thiesen finish his story. He says, "It took a blind, deaf and mute person, to communicate to this arrogant all-seeing pilot, in a way that I could see the beauty of what was there all along and in a way that I could hear."

What am I doing with the equipment (talents, eyes, ears, legs, feet, brain, voice, etc.) that is mine to use on this journey?

Saturday evening. October 2, 2010. A short while later. Egypt Air flight 778.

My face is against the plexiglass. Below, the coastline of Greece defines the Aegean Sea. Athens' lights glow brightly outside my window. On this course Cairo is not long off. I sit quietly staring. "You know," I say to myself again, "I could be watching the in-flight movie right now." A whisper offers, "But why?"

"Who are you without your toys? Are you paying attention? Do you care for and take care of yourself -really? When all becomes silent, can you tolerate the sound of your own thoughts?" I sat speechless. Holding me in his steely gaze, Papi persisted, "I asked you a question. Where is your answer? We have become addicted to toys and outcomes. Discipline and integrity, imagination and artistry, service and seeing what is there to be seen - we better watch out or these will become lost or totally compromised. And if that happens-we're screwed."

(from The Life and Times of Papi Conpelo)

©Lance Giroux, November 2010

Food for Thought/Action

Sow a thought reap an act.
Sow an act reap a habit.
Sow a habit reap a destiny.
-Anonymous

I was listening to Ronn Owens’ morning talk program on KGO Radio this past week. KGO reaches tens of millions of listeners. Ronn is one of the station’s most recognized hosts, holding the morning commute time slot when probability dictates an abundance of listeners. His guest, a well-known psychologist, was addressing the need for people to keep positive attitudes and make a practice of visualizing what it is they want rather than the obstacles that are currently afflicting their lives. She also espoused taking the time to be daily grateful for the good things they have, no matter how small, because gratefulness alters the course of one’s thinking.

After five minutes of lead in during which Ronn playfully bantered with his guest, asking her if this wasn’t just psychobabble, he opened the phone lines. The first caller blasted the psychologist. “With all due respect to your guest,” he forcefully pronounced, “she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. How can anyone who has lost their job or is dealing with bankruptcy or has had their home foreclosed on use something as silly as this?!? It’s crazy.” He took his answer off the air.

Ronn’s guest listened. Then she calmly replied with something like this, “Well, the caller certainly has a point. What I’m proposing is simple. I’m not saying it is easy. But if we put our economic problems of today in perspective with something truly profound, like Dr. Viktor Frankl’s survival of the Nazi death camps, ours are actually quite small.” She then went on to remind us who Frankl was.

I first read Fankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, a few years ago during a bout of my own negativity. It was as if he was slapping me in the face, telling me to get off my butt and do something rather than wallow in resignation. Writing these words today I imagine the scene from the film The Godfather when Johnny Fontane, a fictitious popular crooner, sits on Don Vito Corleone’s desk and laments that he can’t get the lead role in a film because he’s a victim to the producer’s prejudice. Then he puts his head in his hands and cries, “Godfather, what am I supposed to?” Corleone reaches across his desk, cuffs him aside the head and responds, “Be a man!”

Frankl states (p 157), “A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes – within the limits of endowment and environment – he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions, but not on condition.” Earlier in the book he speaks to dignity, the need for finding humor in everything, having a positive mental attitude, accepting things as they are and then moving forward regardless of circumstances – and he addresses the need to visualize a positive outcome no matter what.

The good psychologist on Ronn Owens’ program demonstrated composure and put forth her point well in the face of a highly agitated and negative individual.

I suggest that you:
(1) read Viktor Fankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning;
(2) dedicate a month (minimum – though 90 day’s would be preferable) to practice what Ronn’s guest espoused; and
(3) time your practice to a few minutes each morning - maybe right after waking up and before you turn on your computer or read email or watch/read the morning news – taking a walk before doing anything else. Then practice again a few minutes following your mid-day meal, and then again a few minutes as you are dropping off to sleep each night.
This won’t take much of your time; but it will make all the difference in the world.

This week a client called to address a need: that people in his companies invest themselves in the work of having positive mental attitudes. He wants his organization to do some training with that. He referenced Napoleon Hill’s book, Think And Grow Rich, (1937); and the work based upon it which he recalled doing with me years ago in seminars I used to teach. One of the primary mechanisms used in those seminars was visualization. The specific technique taught was called Screen Of The Mind, an adaptation of something that has been referred to throughout written history. In the seminars we used to say that Screen of the Mind is perhaps the most powerful mental technique one could apply. Hill’s research from 1907 to 1927 included the 500 most successful people of his era. They all used this methodology, though they referred to it by different names.

[NOTE: if you would like outline of the Screen of the Mind Technique and how to use it, contact info@AlliedRonin.com and request it. The information will be emailed to you.]

Hill opens his sixth chapter, Imagination: The Workshop of the Mind, The Fifth Step toward Riches, by saying, “The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned all plans created by man. The impulse, the desire, is given shape, form, and action through the aid of the imaginative faculty of the mind. It has been said that man can create anything which he can imagine.”

That’s powerful stuff! Yet, Hill doesn’t specify that man creates only the positive which he imagines. Hill is addressing the entire creative mechanism. Using the buzzwords of his time, WHATEVER the MIND CONCEIVES and BELIEVES it ACHIEVES. The creative imaginative faculty is impersonal. It really doesn’t care if the picture you are feeding it is positive or negative, constructive or destructive. It will go about producing whatever you feed it. The imagination isn’t the seat of choice, it is merely a willing servant. Viktor Frankl would offer that you are always at the helm of your ship of life by virtue of your decisions and the kind of images that you hold, even without awareness. The creative imagination produces on your order. That isn’t to say you are immune from external forces, but it does say that you have infinite options within the bounds of those forces. You can perform.

Back in the 1970’s as I was starting my work with this kind of “mind stuff” it was considered esoteric and fringe. As years passed, it became more accepted. World-class athletes talked publicly about how they would let thoughts of defeat drift away. Olympic skiers revealed how they would visualize a perfect run – with eyes closed mentally watching imaginary movies and while simultaneously making subtle physical body movements precisely as they wanted to do on the actual course. Competitive divers spoke about spending time on the platform relaxing and “seeing” their moves in advance, all executed to perfection. Medical professionals began having their patients practice visualization. None of this guaranteed a perfect outcome. But it did increase performance, ability, hopefulness and – yes - results.

Maxwell Maltz, M.D.,F.I.C.S, published Psycho-Cybernetics in 1960. At that time he was one of the world’s most renowned plastic surgeons. He lectured throughout Europe. His work well references the creative imagination. He offered that people would come to the plastic surgeon asking for a change of face or body. After their procedures a significant portion could not see the change themselves, while others around them saw a whole new person. Frequently the individuals having received procedures could be heard saying, “No, it’s still me!” Maltz’s premise: unless and until one changes the internal image nothing else will change.

About imagination Maltz wrote: “Imagination Practice Can Lower Your Golf Score. Time magazine reported that when Ben Hogan is playing in a tournament, he mentally rehearses each shot, just before making it. He makes the shot perfectly in his imagination – ‘feel’ himself performing the perfect follow through – and then steps up to the ball, and depends upon what he calls ‘muscle memory’ to carry out the shot just as he has imagined it.” (Psycho-Cybernetics, p.38)

Ask a young sales person or account manager, “Who was Ben Hogan?” Odd are they’ll probably be at loss to say. Ask the same person, “Who is Tiger Woods?” And they’ll respond, “Where have you been?” Hogan and Woods, both champions of the same sport, were masters of the imagination at different times in history.

Isn’t it interesting: people can make the link between visualization/imagination and a good golf score. But, going back to the caller on the Ronn Owens’ show, they refuse to make a link between visualization/imagination and having a good life or financial score. “Come on,” some will argue, “golf’s just a game! You’re mixing apples with oranges.” Oh really? Tell that to the professional (or the aspiring pro) when she or he has a livelihood on the line, and a boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife at home berating them for trying to turn their passion into a career rather than getting “a real job”, and is hammering them about the mounting bills, the kids with nothing but peanut butter to eat, or the rent that’s two months overdue. I coached a fellow like that for a year as he was attempting to get into the U.S. Open Tournament. My job was literally distracting him from his own negative thinking and from it I wrote my booklet “The Mental Game”.

Also this week someone called to talk about the Law of Attraction made popular by a video and companion book The Secret (a body of work that finds its roots in Think and Grow Rich). The person said, “I have been applying the Law of Attraction recently and it’s making a big difference for me in how I’m approaching my work and family.” This is good news. And I was left wondering: At what hour of the day, or under what circumstances or conditions is the Law of Attraction not being applied? No one on this planet lives outside the law of gravity, right? Logically then, if the Law of Attraction is as much law, as say the law of gravity, doesn’t it follow that Attraction is in operation all the time? If you and I think destruction, we attract destruction. If you and I think success, we attract success.

Read Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s In Search of the Warrior Spirit (pub 1990), which chronicles his work with US Army Special Forces using - you got it - meditation and visualization over long periods of time. Richard’s work dramatically increased the effectiveness and results of highly trained individuals whose performance was supposedly already at max capacity.

I guess the guy who berated Ronn Owens’ studio guest has every right to his perspective, doesn’t he? But he also has the responsibility for that perspective, yes?


Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
THINK on these things.
- Philippians 4:8, the Bible

A Lesson In Action

Remember last month's newsletter? The topic was breathing as a practice in the face of fear.

The lesson was punctuated on Tuesday, December 23rd. A score of us attended an aikido class at Two Rock Aikido. Richard Strozzi-Heckler, our sensei, moved us into an exercise for which he is uniquely known: walking, turning, standing. A kind of organized chaos. Random and rapid, yet relaxed. The idea: in a confined and silent room, each of us moves and allows the space between us to appear and disappear revealing opportunity for best action. To be in this swirl you are encouraged to forego a plan, other than to allow a sort of gravity (created by the empty space and those around you) to pull you from one direction to another. Its value, either as a martial arts exercise or life metaphor, may be hard to imagine until practiced. Kind of like ice cream - explain all you want; but it's only through taking a bite that one really understands and enjoys. Such is the way with any commitment. A few minutes into the exercise Richard's voice cut the silence, "Pay attention to your breath! It's the platform of our art."

This month's topic for consideration, again for effective action during times of stress, tension and fear, is humor and laughter.

Google search laughter and you'll find a flood of online articles advising its mind-freeing benefit and remedies for creativity. A belly laugh every twenty-four hours is apparently good heart medicine - emotionally and physically.

Author Laurence Gonzales offers his perspective:

· "Every pursuit has its own subculture, from hang gliders and step creek boaters to cavers and mountain bikers. I love their dark and private humor, those ritual moments of homage to the organism, which return us to a protective state of cool. It unequivocally separates the living from the dead."

· "The fact is you have to deal with these things [fear and terror] to the best of your ability. If you don't work with it, it'll get to you."

· "It sounds cruel, but survivors laugh and play, and even in the most horrible situations -- perhaps especially in those situations -- they continue to laugh and play. To deal with reality you must first recognize it as such --- (P)lay puts a person in touch with his environment while laughter makes the feeling of being threatened manageable."

· "Moods are contagious, and the emotional states involved with smiling, humor, and laughter are among the most contagious of all. It's automatic, and one person laughing or smiling induces the same reaction in others. --- There is evidence that laughter can send chemical signals to actively inhibit the firing of nerves in the amygdala, thereby dampening fear."

· "It is not a lack of fear that separates elite performers from the rest of us. They're afraid, too, but they're not overwhelmed by it. They manage fear."
(p 40-41, Deep Survival, 2004, W.W. Norton publisher)

As for me, I recall a cold January afternoon twelve years ago. Laying seriously injured on Capitola Beach, California, I was alone. My fall from a boulder had completely split my left femur. My friend ran for help and returned an hour later with a bevy of paramedics and police officers. "Are you the victim?" they asked, " We're looking for a dead body." "Yes and no," I confessed. "Yes, I'm the (ugh) victim, and NO, I'm not dead." Into a metal basket I went. The pain - horrendous. Our trek, the rescuers figured, needed to be straight out into the ocean, avoid the big rocks, then circle back onto sand once near the ambulance. The tide was incoming. It was going to be a rough trip and we all knew it. Every step's jarring motion produced in me a scream. So I asked the medics, now up to their glutes in salt water, "You guys mind if I do something strange?" "Nah, go ahead," they agreed; and I began humming loudly - more like groaming (think hybrid hum and groan). The tune, "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera. The medics started to grin and laugh. Through half a mile of surf my groaming continued, mixed with intermittent screams. At times, I was smiling too. What a relieving way to overcome the pain (mine) and the work (theirs). It also kept me conscious. It remains for me an unforgettable journey. And for them, perhaps the strangest, funniest and most relaxed rescue ever.

Returning to Tuesday, December 23rd - a few days ago. Something happened that night that was unexpectedly funny (maybe that's what makes humor so powerful -it evokes spontaneity). Richard was in the midst of testing one of the students. The atmosphere was formal and serious, with high expectation for excellence in a display of deliberate attacks and blends. There was tension in the air. "Show me variations from yokomen uchi," Richard ordered. And he continued, "Now, show me variations from morote dori". And on it went becoming faster and more intense - "from katadori" - "from ushiro waza". Then suddenly, making no sense at all, his voice cracked the tension across the room, "Now show me - sand the floor." For an instant none of us believed what we had heard. I started laughing. The laughter became infectious. A warm wave of relief swept the dojo and the person being tested proceeded with ease, grace and dignity, and filled with breath. The rest of us watching, thoroughly enjoyed the art he displayed.

If you have never seen the film, The Karate Kid the "show me sand the floor" is as meaningless as un-savored ice cream. If you have seen that movie - maybe you're smiling too.

Consider this: laughter increases one's capacity for breath.

A Case for Long Term Purposeful Practice

“I will tell you what I am talking about,” he [Malcolm] said. “Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can’t be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline.”
- Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park – p. 306

May 28, 2008
I found myself yesterday sitting in a small boardroom on a local university campus. Asked there by the Dean of Students, I attended a meeting with senior administrators. Their interest was (and remains) the potential that experiential education in general, and the Samurai Game® in particular, might hold for incoming freshmen - The Class of 2012. The school seeks engaging ways to deepen one’s understanding of the need for sincere commitment and an investment of self in the educational process - something that is life-long. “Young people today, especially in our country, have grown up believing they deserve an A,” said one of the administrators. “We have a generation that has never really faced loss. Many arrive on our campus believing that an education is something they are entitled to rather than something they have to earn.”

As much as I attempted to remain in the “here and now” at the meeting, I found a part of me reflecting on: (1) the news of the day, and (2) a meeting I had had just prior to this one, a meeting filled with lessons - seemingly timeless – for anyone, any organization, and any culture.

First - The News of The Day (that really isn’t “news”). They come, as they have for quite some years, in sound bites, and I can hear them in the recesses of my mind while the three administrators talk. Sound bites of the day -- • The market is up … the market is down. • Countrywide Financial is sinking, Oh my … what will become of us now? • Scott McClellan’s new book tells all about the current administration • Average price of gas is now $4.20/gal in northern California. -- As this all runs through my mind I recall a scene from the film, Good Night and Good Luck, in which Edward R. Morrow (David Strathairn) advises us to pay attention, remain vigilant and keep sharp our thinking skills lest we, individually and collectively, slip into a lazy mental fog; a fog created by information, mis-information and news (not really news) offered up by a medium that has become more connected to the products (and ideas) marketed than to the people it was designed to serve. Hence, news and information becomes neither news or information, rather a series of sales pitches wherein the national psyche, the marketplace and individual thought merge into a consciousness demanding quick fixes- and we believe that there is one way things are destined to (or should) be and we’ve got to get there fast, and with this (whatever it is) solution we will remain there and that way into the hereafter. My memory flashes on a recent radio program and I hear the commentator’s words as he discusses the geographical shape of our planet’s continents, “ … and when the continental plates stopped drifting …. “ When I heard those words on the radio I recall saying to myself, “Stopped drifting? Say’s who? When did Earth’s plates stop drifting? Aren’t they drifting still?” Language is a powerful thing and creates foundations that hold current reality. But what happens when a foundation is full of holes?

Are we (you and I) living in a national consciousness that honestly thinks we can (or should) arrive at a place and time (or that maybe we already have) wherein change and challenge and chaos, responsibility and accountability, effort and study and investment are no longer the order of the day? In other words, in which we and/or our children are entitled to a great life that is pre-ordained or chosen simply because we (or they) are, after all, special? Says who? Thinking of the many months spent outside the US the past five years and a lot of that in China, I recall a proverb – “Life is hard, then you die.” Dr. M. Scott Peck’s words come to mind, words that form the opening lines of his book The Road Less Traveled - “Life is difficult. This is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no long difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

At the January 2008 Allied Ronin Leaders’ Retreat we viewed the film “Enron- The Smartest Guys in the Room”. If you haven’t seen this film, you may want to. If you have seen it, watch it again. It contains more than one sitting can digest. You and I lived through the Enron debacle, but do we understand its lessons? If so, are we vigorously applying them today? Enron, its rise and fall, still affects us dramatically. There is strong argument that the mentality and practices that fostered the ill effects of Enron’s collapse remain alive and well and in force throughout much of our social, political and corporate cultures - right now. Think! What attitudes, ideas and ideals drove this organization, its partners, leaders, managers, agents, proponents and investors to act as they did? How is this reflected in our schools and institutions? And how is this then reflected in the sub-prime mortgage crisis that is gripping our world today? Most importantly - where and how are similar attitudes, ideas and ideals showing up on a micro scale, i.e. around town and in the neighborhoods in which you live? What can you do about this on a practiced and practical basis?

Next – The Meeting (that really was “a meeting”). Just prior to arriving on the campus I had the good fortune to spend some time with George and Annie Leonard. We met for tea at their Mill Valley home and talked for an hour about a test of mine that occurred the preceding weekend … a test that on one hand culminated an eight-year phase of training, and on the other hand begins of a phase of training that hopefully will last the rest of my life. At some point Annie had to go to an appointment, leaving George and I alone, and he turned to me and asked, “Would you like to come to my study and see a few things?” On the walk up the stairs he offered, “You know, I never thought I would be an old person.” George Leonard, the life-long teacher, one more time saying something to me … giving me (following him up an incline of stairs reminiscent of “the master’s path” outlined in his book) a lesson to remember as I too add years to my life.

In his study sat a model of an A-20 aircraft – the attack fighter/bomber he flew in combat. Adjacent to the model were pictures from his youth - the cockpit, the uniform, the comrades. On the wall more pictures: him with his clarinet alongside a friend holding a flute; a photo with one of the other co-founders of Esalen Institute www.Esalen.com. “Pull up that chair,” he said, “and let’s take a look at some of this stuff.” And we did. First edition copies of his books, including those that have been translated into foreign languages. Pictures taken in flight (by him) during wartime missions. Awards from Look Magazine acknowledging his enormous contribution. Scrapbooks with his original articles scooping the Civil Rights movement in America’s Deep South, a South into which he was born and a South that was transformed in part by his writing. I had no idea of the personal contact and relationship he had had with Martin Luther King, Jr., or Bobby Kennedy. But there it all was in black and white and color. Another section held the complete chronicle of the work he had done, along with one photographer, probing the Iron Curtain … actually traveling and approaching a 6,000 mile expanse of territory to see what it (and the then Soviet Block forces who guarded it) were made of. Just before I left he pointed to his current book-in-progress and invited a look there too. Yes, he’s still at it, or as he said earlier that day as we talked about the tests one faces in life and about continuing to write about them, “As long as there’s a spark in here (tapping his chest) I’m going to continue.” As I departed he said, “I’ll see you later.” George Leonard, the life-long learner reminding me (and you) of the need to grow, study, contribute … and practice … no matter what.

As I left Mill Valley and headed over to the university campus my overwhelming thoughts were of times we had spent together, in person and on the phone, talking about values and the need for long- term purposeful practices. Today, as I write these words, in front of me sits a copy of his 1991 book, Mastery – still in print, still in bookstores, still in demand seventeen years after its first publication. I flip to page twenty-seven and the chapter titled, America’s War Against Mastery. Words written almost two decades ago jump out at me:

“Our society is now organized around an economic system that seemingly demands a continuing high level of consumer spending.”
[Sound familiar?]
“Try paying close attention to television commercials. What values do they espouse? …. Some … to fear. Some to logic. Some to snobbery. Some to pure hedonism (on a miserable winter day in a city a young couple chances upon a travel agency; their eyes focus on a replica of a credit card on the window and they are instantly transported to a dreamy tropical paradise).”
[I chuckle to think what Leonard would have written had ED and Viagra or Ciealis commercials been on TV when he wrote the book; advertisements encouraging us to be always ready for when the mood is right; advertisements with disclaimers that of necessity must accompany when offered to a litigious and entitled society - in case, after four hours, we find ourselves still highly engaged in (and physically unable to get out of) the mood!]

“And the sitcoms (etc.) … on the same hyped-up schedule: (1) If you make smart –assed one-liners for a half hour, everything will work out fine in time for the closing commercials. (2) People are quite nasty, don’t work hard, and get rich quickly. (3) No problem is so serious that it can’t be resolved in the wink of an eye as soon as the gleaming barrel of a handgun appears. (4) The weirdest fantasy you can think of can be realized instantly and without effort.”
Do these words from Mastery apply today? They sure do. We know that our lives and pocketbooks will soon adjust to HDTV – becoming not only be the norm, but the necessity. And what is popular on the tube (actually the flat screen) these days? The Apprentice, Survivor, Dancing With The Stars, Crime Scene Investigation, Dog the Bounty Hunter, The Biggest Loser and American Idol.

Go back to those four items cited above relating to: one-liners, everything will work out, nasty people, get-rich-quick thinking, gleaming gun barrels, and weird fantasies. Then think of today’s TV shows, so popular that the episodes are discussed in detail on talk radio the day following as if their significance really matters to the world at large. Two generations are being fed Britney and Paris for breakfast, lunch and supper – yet know not the location of Myanmar nor the kind of the international backlash facing nations that dare to host privatized military forces, e.g. Blackwater. We were warned about this kind of indulgence by Eisenhower, Morrow and others. Alas, ask on the street who they were and you’ll get blank stares by bucket loads.

Questions Worth Reflecting Upon And Worth Answering. What are your practices? Are you aware of them? For what purpose are you practicing these things? What results will your practices produce … short term and long term? Beyond yourself, who else is attending to your practices? Are you sure? Who is following in your footsteps … the examples you are setting? Do you know? Who and what is being influenced by the practices you live by?

“Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone [e.g. the black belt in karate] has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won’t use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the power changes you so that you won’t abuse it.

But [the kind of power your chase] is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step. --– There is no mastery: old [masters] are ignored. --– There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy. …
And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly. You don’t even know exactly what you have done, but already you have reported it, patented it, and sold it. And the buyer will have even less discipline than you. The buyer simply purchases the power, like any commodity. The buyer doesn’t even conceive that any discipline might be necessary.”

Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park – p. 306 - 307

Take Time For Foundations

A friend of mine recently asked me for input on a strategic planning meeting he had scheduled with his company. His plan was to conduct a nine-hour meeting that would accomplish the following: Establish goals, review company mission, reflect on clients, review the effectiveness of their team, examine the economic model, clarify corporate values, review corporate mission, discuss “brand” identity, identify key questions regarding strategy, solidify strategic objectives and strategies for future growth, and gain thorough understanding of the competition. This was to be accomplished in eight hours … with a one hour lunch break included! Then the agenda called for one more hour as follows:
First - 30 minutes to build an effective team – which was to include (a) what it was going to take from everyone to deliver on the strategy, (b) uncover the “team norms”, and (c) establish how they would work together; and
Finally – 30 minutes dedicated to coming up with “next steps”.

My input was … “Hmmmm … this is an awful lot chew on in one day.” “In fact,” I said, “Two full days could easily be spent working with a group to uncover how they are and what it’s going to take to be effective with each other as a good team so that they might have a chance to begin moving from concept to the initial stage of effective team practice.

Years ago my mentor used to talk about the aspects of development. He would stress that, like a building, the most important to thing to focus on … the most important thing to work with is … foundation. Consider the effects of erecting a house or office building, yet hastily attending to the foundation. With such an approach it doesn’t matter how well engineered and sturdy the walls, windows, ceiling and roof – unless adequate time, energy and expense go into a good foundation any structure will collapse.

A client of mine lives about four hours south of Denver. His main business for thirty years has been constructing “undergrounds” for cities, dams, schools and community developments throughout southern California and southern Colorado. When his employees get done with a job just about all that anyone can see is … well … flat dirt. And getting to that (flat dirt) takes enormous time and energy and effort. A casual observer looking at a completed project of his might claim, “Doesn’t look like much has been done.” In fact a tremendous amount has been done; but it’s hidden from plain view.

Take a leaf from Mastery by George Leonard, one of our nation’s most accomplished teachers in the field of human potential. In Mastery, Leonard writes:

“The courage of a master is measured by his or her willingness to surrender. This means surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline. It also means surrendering your own hard-won proficiency from time to time in order to reach a higher or different level of proficiency.”

We all need to consider what Leonard calls “the demands of a discipline.” Quite frankly the primary demands of any disciplines include: adequate TIME and adequate PRACTICE.

One thing the past five years of travel abroad has shown me is just how addicted we, in the US, have become to attitudes, beliefs and actions aimed at the quick fix. We yearn for immediate results with such a passion (actually an obsession) that we have are sadly addicted to - I Want What I Want When I Want It! “What’s wrong with that?”, some may ask. Well, if nothing more, it’s somewhat unrealistic and juvenile. If not attended to the art of surrendering to the “demands of discipline” – the art of practice – is lost by many and not developed by others.

A master aikido teacher, Mitsuge Saotome, was preparing to lead a class one day, and asked me and about 30 other students, “Would you like to learn this martial art fast?” We all answered with a resounding, “Yes!” He paused and responded, “Ah … good answer … then practice slow.”

Invest your time in the foundations.

RANDORI … WHAT IS THIS? YOU’VE BEEN THERE BEFORE, AND YOU WILL BE THERE AGAIN.

In early July I was invited to present two very experiential programs for The Leadership Group (TLG) Santa Barbara. Then on July 14^th – 18^th I had the great pleasure to host the sixth Allied Ronin Leaders’ Retreat. Both TLG presentations and the Leaders’ Retreat at times featured exercises influenced by the martial art of aikido. Attendees at both – many of them CEO’s, business owners or senior executives - received a brief article attending to pressures faced in a world where technology is increasing at an almost exponential rate, while the opportunity to slow down and live a balanced daily life seems to slip away if not diligently. In an effort to serve you that article is reproduced for this month’s e-newsletter. Consider the fact that in some fashion you are proficient at something enough to be ready for big-time challenges – signifying sincere and rigorous practice in your art, craft, skill or ability. In a sense you are ready for black belt level testing. If that is the case they you will face something know as Randori. What is this? Let’s look through the lens of aikido … and then you make the translation.

Our article begins with a series of thoughts from the man who created the art of aikido. Then we glimpse three simple principles foundational to all the techniques of that art (and perhaps foundational to skills that are important to you). Next you imagine being on a mat in a learning situation and facing “your test” – and you translate that scene into the real “mat” and daily “learning opportunities” that make up your life. And finally we take note four key principles from David Baum, Ph.D. and Jim Hassinger as presented in their book, The Randori Principles.

First – Thoughts from Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido

“The Way of a Warrior cannot be encompassed by words or in letters – grasp the essence…. Instructors can impart only a fraction of the teaching. It is through your own devoted practice that the mysteries of the Art are brought to life. The techniques of the Way… change constantly; every encounter is unique, and the appropriate response should emerge naturally. Today’s techniques will be different tomorrow. Do not get caught up with the form and appearance of a challenge. Fiddling with this and that technique is of no avail. Simply act decisively without reserve. The Art … has no form – it is the study of the spirit. In your training, do not be in a hurry, for it takes ten years to master the basics and advance to the first rung. Never think of yourself as an all-knowing, perfected master, you must continue to train daily with your friends and students and progress together in the Art…. ”

Second – Three foundational principles to all techniques in this martial art (with some translation for you to consider)

• Aiki – blend with your opponent (listen, understand and move with what you encounter)

• Kuzushi – break your opponent’s balance (speak and act in the appropriate moment)

• Shisei – retain upright posture (maintain integrity)

Third – Your Test … and Your Randori – As you read … you translate this supposed situation into the real tests, grabs and hits of your daily life.

Imagine - you have been training ten years. It is time for the test – black belt. You are alone on a mat in a room (soon to become hot) surrounded by thirty potential opponents, some you know, others you may not. For the next hour of your life you will have to respond immediately to your test director (teacher – sensei). A series of foreign words with which you should be familiar will be called rapid fire - a language for action learned through the body in response to a series of strikes and grabs aimed at your head, your face, your throat, your temple, your chest, your shoulder, your wrist, your stomach, your back, your knee … in short, where ever and whenever and for as long as the teacher decides whether or not you have learned what is expected of you. Your peers, your seniors and your juniors will all be watching.

The attacks will come - open hand blade and closed fist strikes, single hand and two hand grabs, perhaps kicks, plus attacks by weapons - tanto (training knives), bokken (wooden swords) and jo (wooden staffs). Sometimes your opponents will be allowed to stand and rush you from above while you remain kneeling. Sometimes they will stand behind you with a knife to your throat or against the back of your neck. You will have to move and disarm them in ways that if the knife were real you would not be cut, and somehow the knife would end up in your hand. Through a blend of your action with the energy of their aggression, and finding the risks reversed, your attackers will submit and yield … provided you give them no room to re-engage.

During five preceding tests over the past decade your opponents gave you some “slack”, appropriate for those stages of your development. But at this level they will seek and will take every opportunity given them to keep coming at you and increase the pressure. Your pins must be true or you will falter. Your throws must work, or your opponents will not fall; they will turn on you and be in your face, they will take your center and you will be upended.

At times the test sensei will direct the opponents to deliver particular attacks. At times permission will be given for jiuwaza (free form) and an opponent (you won’t know who until it happens) will attack anyway he or she wants and will change the attack forms at whim, coming again and again and again, as fast or slow, direct or sneaky, until they are called off.

Throughout the test you must continue – like it or not. If you are granted a rest, it won’t last longer than fifteen seconds … and getting more than one respite probably won’t happen. However, your opponents will be continually rotated on and off the mat. In this way they will remain fresh and relaxed, being always prepared fully able to move against you. You won’t know in what order they will be called. You must be ready … all the time. Is this randori? No, not yet. Randori happens at the worst possible time … at the end of the test.

It has been fifty-some minutes. You are tired. The test sensei directs you to sit seiza (on your knees, your butt resting on your heels) in the center of mat. He picks three or four opponents to similarly sit around you, each about fifteen feet away. He waits and then with his hand … he strikes the mat. The attackers simultaneously stand and rush you. This is randori. What do you do? Who knows, but you’d better do it. The time for figuring out what to do no longer exists: no time for scheming or making excuses; no one is going to let up, no one and nothing is going to rescue you, and if you don’t empty your mind of everything except for the fact that you are right here right now, you will be in trouble. Everything about you – your body, your thoughts, your emotions - must surrender into the notion of flexibility. You have to move yourself again and again and again without predictability or pattern, and you must live AIKI, KUZUSHI, SHISEI. As this occurs those who attack will hopefully miss or glance off you, falling to the mat or stumbling into each other as they attempt to grab and/or strike your side, your arms, front and back, in a line or from different angles, alone or in pairs. But know this: however it unfolds and for as long as it unfolds, your attackers will rise again. They will not give up. What the sensei is waiting for – looking for - is a moment when surrounded you are caught, with all attackers pressing in on you, because in that moment something crucial must happen. You must give up what you think will work to free yourself, and yet continue moving. You have to remain present, no matter how fatigued, you have to relax and blend, and you have to enter into every minute opportunity presented by your attackers and your environment. You will not be able to “out do” your opponents to survive. Rather, you will have to meet the person inside yourself and come alive with him or her. The Japanese kanji for this is a union of dagger and heart, and it means “to persevere”. The Japanese word KiKi, meaning crisis, becomes a reality. KiKi - every crisis is composed of two things: (1) Danger/Risk; and (2) Opportunity.

When your randori is complete this test is over – but if you are growing there will most likely be other tests in your future. Randori – facing multiple attack, you (individual, team, organization) must put yourself in the right place, with the right action, at the right time, and with the right amount of power. For 3,650 days (give or take some) you were a beginner. If you pass the test you can wear a black belt and are now considered … a new student.

And Finally … The Four Randori Principles” (from David Baum’s & Jim Hassinger’s book “The Randori Principles”)

1. FULL POWER PRESENCE - Leadership Worth Following (You must at all times practice and refine your ability to Be Here Now)
2. TENKAN – Turning Resistance Into Collaboration (You must be willing to Turn and Look at every situation from new perspectives including from a perspective that is completely opposite to your current stand)
3. IRIMI – The Single Sword Strike (You must be willing to Enter Into A Crisis – as would a fireman or a police officer or a mother lifting a car off of her trapped child)
4. GET OFF THE MAT – The Skill of Disengagement (You must study human interaction … individual and group … and from that study increase your ability to Know What’s Too Much, What’s Too Little … and most importantly … When To Stop What You Have Been Doing)