Reflections on a Lifetime: My Offerings that Serve Life

February 8, 2016

The life I am living is not the same as the life that wants to live in me.

Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.

My life is not only about my strengths and virtues; it is also about my liabilities and my limits, my trespasses and my shadow. An inevitable though often ignored dimension of the quest for “wholeness” is that we must embrace what we dislike or find shameful about ourselves as well as what we are confident and proud of.

Let Your Life Speak ~ Parker Palmer

For nearly 40 years, I have worked in individual, leadership and organizational alignment, growth, development, change, and transformation. Initially, I used conventional methods to “maximize performance”, such as selection, performance management, learning and development, assessments and surveys, management systems and practices. These all are founded in the belief in the need for conformity for the sake of reducing feared “chaos.” All they really do is suppress results by seeking to eliminate our inherent diversity.

As time went on and I went deeper into who I am, I came to realize a paradox: That we only establish unity, truly collaborate and achieve potential, possibilities and results for ourselves and with others when each of us are contributing who we uniquely are as a human being. This goes deeper than labels or even talents and skills. Fully recognizing, acknowledging and owning all of ourselves through thoughtful reflection on our lives, allows us to be fully present with others. The “me” naturally becomes “we.”

As we align ourselves within, with who we are as a human being, essentially unite with ourselves at the deepest level, we naturally align with, expand and amplify our contribution to Life through what we do with others.

Why Should You Care?

As you align to Let Your Life Speak, to Lead your Life through your Centerpoint for Being, you:

Live your personal Truth and compass for compassion, the ultimate flowering of Love, the unity within that unites you with Life.

Attune with the impulse and flow of Life as Wisdom, Love and Service.

Express your unique purpose, power and passion, your contribution to the whole that brings peace, joy and fulfillment.

Actualize your greatest potential and growth.

Have boundless Freedom and expression.

Walk your Path of integrating wholeness with a nonjudgmental context and vantage point for yourself and your Life.

Are clear about who You Are and what no longer Serves you falls away, as you re-examine your belief systems and all that you held as unquestionable and absolute.

Are grounded in Self-Love. You see that you are not “better” or “less” than any one person or group, it is your uniqueness that makes you equal to and connects you with others. Your ideals for Life as Love are as valid as anyone else’s.

Are guided to the highest and greatest good for all, starting with yourself.

Define your own Success.

You Lead as Love.

You Lead Your Life

Perhaps our greatest fear is of the unknown, of losing certainty about life that comes with Love as Truth and Freedom. We release our past laden with regret, guilt and shame. We release the future crippled by expectations, apprehension and anxiety. We release comparison, competition and conflict. We release hate, the rejection of Love, and evil, the absence of Love, the rejection of Life.

There is an excitement of “what now?” with all its messiness as Life unfolds. We are present, wide open, courageous, without labels, ideologies or rules that tell us how to look, what to think, say or do, what goals to go after, or what we must have in order to “fit in.” We innovate. We create the new.

Freed of the belief that conformity means you are connected and belong, there is no need for approval that we take as “love.” You Are an integral part of and moved by Life Itself, inspired by your unique Centerpoint within. You Are the Power of Love.

Leading as Love is our mastery of Being a human being, our united and infinite intelligence consciously creating Life. It is only as you Lead your own Life that you Lead others.

As We Love We Lead – As We Lead We Love

Leading as Love is the conscious, active application of your Centerpoint for Being, your unique guiding principles, for every aspect of Life to unfold as Love. I guide you to your own inner voice of wisdom to consciously experience deeper meaning, purpose, contribution, growth, and choice.

In your 20’s and 30’s – Establish your inner foundation for Life.
In your 40’s and 50’s – Discover your universal contribution to Life.
In your 60’s and beyond – Actualize your legacy in Life.

We work together in grounded, practical ways in all aspects of your day-to-day life.

I Serve as a Friend who is a Maverick, Mystic, Messenger, Midwife, Mentor, Minister, and Partner in Life. As a coach, I work with you in the discovery and exploration of your Truth and Freedom. You strengthen and expand your expression of your unique Centerpoint for Being to Lead as Love.

The commitment to Lead as Love is the one change that changes everything.

My Offerings

For those who ask, “So what do you do?”

I offer Leading as Love for both alignment with and fulfillment of Life through your unique Centerpoint for Being. It is not about fixing a deficit; it is about opening to and expanding who you know yourself to Be expressed through what you do. Leading as Love is about you Being You.

Individuals, Leaders, Groups and Organizations

Working together we reveal your unique Centerpoint for Being. This provides a starting point and can be done for individuals, groups and organizations. You can think of it as a Vision, Values, Purpose, Mission, and Strategy for your own Life or for an organization, all rolled into one.

Because each path is unique as it unfolds, I offer mentoring and coaching to individuals to align, balance and integrate every aspect of your Life with your Centerpoint. This can be done in-person, via Skype or on the phone. I offer consulting to groups and organizations to align, balance and integrate systems and practices with its Centerpoint.

Knowledge and wisdom only come with reflection on experience. Focused and ongoing reflection on our history and how it is playing out in the present is required to access this wisdom and spur our growth. In working with me, I will challenge you to confront yourself, your emotional history and boxes of thinking and wholeheartedly support you and encourage the full expression of your Centerpoint in the here and now.

To truly embody Leading as Love, we must shift our deepest beliefs, not just change an outer image, a mask of words, behaviors and actions. As you open to your Centerpoint and willingly expose the thoughts, beliefs and emotions that get in its way, their energy is released and transformed.

To support building the inherent capability of individuals, groups and organizations to mentor and coach their own alignment and growth, I also offer:

Leading as Love Mastery Circles: Facilitated, small-group peer mentoring.

Leading as Love Communities of Practice: Member facilitated mentoring.

Co-creative Collaboration Circles: Facilitated, focused work that generates innovative solutions to eliminate problems.

Leading as Love Individual, Group and Organizational Assessments.

As a Leadership strategist and commentator, I offer:

Strategic Advice and Consulting on What It Means to Be A Leader and Leading as Love.

Thought-provoking Commentary and Discussion on What It Means to Be A Leader.

Coaches and consultants are welcome to contact me to explore how this might integrate with your own work.

Living as your Centerpoint for Being, Leading as Love, is an exploration and actualization of your own unlimited potential. What is yours?

Let Your Life Speak. Boldly. Bravely. Brilliantly. Nobly. Lead as Love.