You Must Know Me Before You Can Transform Me

I received an invitation today that promised nothing less than to reinvent and transform me as a leader and a human being.

I was intrigued by the offer since the person who sent it to me knows nothing about who I am, what I have learned in my lifetime or what I need to learn to grow as a human being.

And yet the offer contains the perfect plan to help me and thousands of other people, many like me and many totally unlike me … a generic one-size-fits-all plan.

PT Barnum was wrong.

There isn’t one born every minute.

There is one born every second.

We’ve all seen the offers of “I can help you become more “whatever”” that many of us are bombarded with every day.

Most are as worthless as saying “I’m going to sell you a travel plan to NYC that is equally easy for anyone to follow” without caring what the starting point is.  The journey will be dramatically different for the person starting out in Hoboken, NJ versus the person starting out in Sydney, Australia.

It’s also like a 5-year old boy in the Congo and Wayne Gretzky both being given a plan to become a great hockey player or a child in a poverty-ravished part of South America and Bill Gates both being given a plan for developing a level of phenomenal wealth.

One person has no context for how the plan even applies to their Life while the other can only say “been there, done that” or “do you really think you can teach me?”.

And there are millions of people between the two extremes.

The odds that a generic plan can be successfully applied are as mathematically remote as me winning the next Miss America or the next Powerball Lottery.

However, people keep being sucked in by the promise of making their lives better with no effort on their part and no context on the part of the person offering the plan.

So the next time you get all excited about the Super Transformational Galactic Framazam Offer, remember one thing:

Unless the person promising miracles has a means of helping you create a plan that starts by objectively, pragmatically recognizing where you are in your Life right now, it is highly unlikely that they can help you develop a plan that leads you to the promised land since the map requires knowledge of both ends of the journey.

Context is everything.  If they don’t know or don’t care what you have done, what you know or what is left for you to learn, then they can’t help you with your journey.

By the way, I’ve got a guaranteed plan that will make you a master hockey player , one of the wealthiest people in the world, a Miss America winner and a Powerball Lottery winner – all with no effort on your part.

Interested?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

The Potential of the Seed

While my primary vocation is in the areas of corporate strategy, global technology architecture and the use of predictive analytics to predict human behavior, I receive thousands of emails from people asking me to show them how to identify their purpose and to help them overcome their fear in manifesting their purpose.

Modern fads such as the Law of Attraction (which I refer to as the Law of Distraction) layer extra pressure as they imply that success beyond anyone’s imagination merely requires that one think about it and it will happen.

Ahhhhh ….. if it were only that easy.

I recently came upon a quote from Osho that I believe everyone should read as they strive towards their ultimate potential. 

While Osho’s Life was not without significant controversy, there is wisdom in the quote that follows:

The seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed.

Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls - and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort; it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many.

There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried, but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves.

The same is the path for man. It is arduous. Much courage will be needed.

I believe Osho has captured the perfect essence of humanity in these paragraphs.

Our unlimited potential is often beyond our own ability to fathom and believe.  How we get there has no guarantees and in fact, if we were told at birth what would be required to get there, I wonder if many of us would ask if we could be sent back for another 9 months to see if anything would change for the better in the meantime.

The path from germination to full blossom is fraught with opportunities for disappointment, fear and failure.

But unless we dare risk experiencing those things, then we will never experience ourselves in full blossom either.  We will remain the seed forever, waiting for the perfect moment that never comes.

If the rose, the cherry tree or any other plant decided that it didn’t have the courage or the interest to bloom or it wouldn’t attempt to unless it knew in advance what it would look like, our world would be denied incredible beauty.

The same is true if we decide we don’t have the courage or interest to blossom.

I can’t imagine a world without a rose or the cherry tree that blossoms in the spring.

Can you?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

I’m Getting Nothing Done Today …. Or Maybe …

I started the day with a lot of great intentions , many of which I am making my way through but not quite the way I had hoped.  I’m usually fairly disciplined about how I approach my day and goodness knows that I have a full task list of high priority items these days.

So what’s slowing my day down today?

Interruptions …. by people who have always wanted to say hi to me but didn’t previously, by people intrigued by a book in front of me, by people who just wanted to stop by to say “hi”, etc.

Ordinarily, I have no issue saying “no” to people.

However, today, despite the pressure of my workload, I didn’t say “no”.  In fact, every time someone stopped by to chat, a quiet voice said “Be still and listen”.

And I did.

And by doing so, I was blessed, honored and privileged to share some time with people who, like all of us, are on a journey filled with wonder, excitement, complexity, difficulty and challenge.

Journeys that invite us to be the best we can be while challenging us to overcome obstacles that we may sometimes feel cannot be overcome.

Many times on such journeys, it is beneficial or essential to stop, to rest, to recharge or just to exchange a thought with someone else on their own journey.

And so today, different people on their respective journeys took a moment and provided me with the privilege of exchange, inviting me into their journey while asking me about mine.

These little moments may seem like coincidental moments, fleeting, random connections that have no impact.

But everything we do in Life has impact.

Sometimes we may not see it or believe it.

But the impact is there if we embrace the moment and allow the seed of potential to be planted.

And as I think about this seed of potential, I wonder what our encounters may have created today.

Maybe such encounters will have an impact far more profound than finishing my to-do list ever would have.

Which causes me to think that maybe I actually achieved a lot more today than I could have ever hoped to accomplish by myself.

Or rather … perhaps WE achieved a lot more today than WE set out to accomplish.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

My Musings-in-a-Minute entry for “I’m Getting Nothing Done Today …. Or Maybe ….” is the same as this one and can be found here.

I Met a Man On a Journey

As I sat in Mass this morning, I happened to catch sight of a middle-aged Asian gentleman with a slight limp.

The origin of his limp, which he plays down, includes a complex voyage that started in an Asian nation in turmoil in the 60’s, hiding from troops from both sides of the conflict, coming to Canada as a boat person in the 70’s and devoting himself to service to others in the 21st century.

He has been on quite a journey up to now, but you will never hear any stories from him.  His humility prevents him from sharing his story and so you must hear his story from others.

As I thought about his journey, I couldn’t help but think of the journey that everyone in that church was on and the stories they could tell.

Stories of overcoming difficulty, of sharing with others in need, of receiving help when needed most, of laughter and loss, of victory and defeat.

Some of these stories are almost too incredible to believe; stories that if presented as a Hollywood movie would invite many to scoff at the impossibility of such perceived fiction.

And yet these stories happened.

Stories that could make the most hardened person laugh in delight ….

… the thickest-skinned weep …

… the most down-trodden see hope …

… the most negative person see potential …

… the most proud feel humbled …

… the most humble feel exalted.

Every day, billions of people set about creating stories and participating in them, each collection of stories appearing to be its own unique collection.

Despite our differences of genetics, culture, race, religion, creed, careers and social status, it is our Life stories that define who we are and create the potential for what we can be.

In our busy Life, it is easy to forget the journey that others are on.  Our own journey either overloads us with amazing joy or threatens to overwhelm us with its crushing challenges.

It is easy to forget others in need when our world is filled with plenty.  Conversely, it is easy to feel alone when we perceive the rest of the world as having moved on without us or not pausing to lend us a hand.

However, as we go through Life creating new stories (or reliving old ones), there is an important thing we shouldn’t forget.

Our stories are actually not individualized collections of stories at all.

They are in fact one very large story with many perceived insights into the same story.  Everything we think, say and do in the process of creating our perceived individual stories contributes to the story of others, including many people we will never meet.

And by the same token, their experiences of triumph, challenge, victory, defeat and love influence our Life Story, even if we are not aware of it.

Such is the Story of Our Journey.

I met a man on a journey. 

It wasn’t his journey to share with me. 

Nor was it mine to share with him.

It was ours to create together.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

My Musings-in-a-Minute version of “I Met a Man On a Journey” is the same as my detailed blog and can be found here.