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“Moving To The Beat Of A Different Drummer”
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Tuesday, August 15, 2006The heart of my message today is around “INTENTIONALITY” - finding and operating from your center ... some people I heard call this “living from cause” - and I like that.
Howdy all,
Do you ever think ... "I like to live my life on my own terms someday ... moving to the beat of a different drummer."?
This idea comes up a lot in my private client work. Often the folks I'm working with are asking themselves, "What was I meant to be doing?" or "What would I be doing if I could be doing anything?"
In essence these questions are sophisticated versions of "What do I want to be when I grow up?" Taken a step further they are questions about "What legacy am I building to leave behind me?" Anyone who's read even a little of the existentialist literature will recognize the form of these questions as variations on, "What meaning does life have - both generally at-large and for me specifically?"
For me these are questions of what I'd call questions of INTENTIONALITY. I'm quite familiar with this idea in working with clients - privately in one-to-one settings, publicly in group settings, and even organizationally in business settings. The existential drive shows up in virtually every context I find myself in when a client arrives at a sufficient level of awareness to become conscious of the system that swirls around them.
This evolution of awareness is what Joseph Campbell often referred to as "the journey to becoming human" and Dr. Clare Graves referred to as the evolution of consciousness. I myself have used both phrases in describing this kind of existential angst ...
"What does it all mean and what place do I have in it all?"
In fact I've gone further, beyond the idea of "existential angst, and said ...
Experiencing the emergence of an expanding conscious awareness - of ourselves and the systems we find ourselves operating within and in relation to, represents an - ONTOLOGICAL LONGING - a massive desire to know ourselves in relation to the cosmos.
I've come up against framing this out for myself recently as I've been engaged in negotiations to host a live Internet talk radio show. And, one of the great challenges I've faced after accepting has been deciding what to call it. You may recognize that for me this brings up an ontological issue - what we call something gives it form.
I get that my audiences (folks like you reading this right now for instance) are typically comprised of individuals, couples, families and even business organizations going through the experience of wanting to resolve their ontological longing - coming to terms with a deeply satisfying sense that you know who you are and more importantly that you're living your life from your own center while holding this position. I would call this ... living, working, playing, loving ... INTENTIONALLY.
So - so far the name that has most resonated with/for me has been "Intentional Profit". I think I have something to say and something that I want to say, to:
"People who are coming to a greater awareness of themselves - while they remain firmly implanted in the work-a-day world at-large - intending to give meaning to their lives, to do good in the world and to do well for themselves ... all while coming to terms with their ever expanding awareness of themselves and the larger contexts and systems that they operate within."
To some extant I am modeling out what I believe and want to be talking about by choosing this direction for the show ... knowing myself and moving out into the world from my center. I want to be creating an example about doing what you believe in and what fascinates you - represents the best way to do good AND do well. And, I want to be demonstrating that, the line between who you are and how you go about making a living never requires that you compromise yourself.
I've become comfortable over the years of developing and deploying the Mythogenic Self Process work internationally that the general model of beginning from going to the center of one's being and then moving out again into the world from there has profound value. I've seen it work wonders in the lives of individual clients and in the business/organizational clients I've worked with as well. It doesn't matter so much what particular path you follow to get there -
... getting to one's center ... beginning from there and holding that position - regardless of the circumstance or situation - makes all the difference ... especially in the presence of evidence to the contrary or when faced with holding that position diligently amid life's unfolding chaos.
The ability to choose your position and to hold it - in the center of the playground called "ordinary life" bestows a remarkable gift to you, the chooser. You get to creating a life worth living, and if you do it very well you'll also be leaving behind something worth remembering.
I've come to refer to this lately as "moving beyond consumption to contribution" and I think that one of the greatest field's of discovery we have to doing this will be in our work, in our professional lives, in our businesses, in our organizations and institutions - and most especially those operating "for profit" as we've all seen first-hand how powerfully these entities are shaping our world.
So, my intention with my new show, Intentional Profit will be to share this point of view, as well as complimentary and contradictory points of view through my guests, with my audience. I hope when the time comes you'll find yourself among us. In the meantime I'd love to hear your comments and your suggestions - including what you think of the name for the show (there will still be time to change it if you blow me away with a suggestion! ;~>).
Spreading the word ...
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Flt. CO 448, somewhere over the Rocky Mountains at 34,000 feet above sea-level
The show will air on "VoiceAmerica" Live Internet Radio at 1:00PM-PST(13:00 or 9:00PM/21:00 GMT) each Monday beginning on 2 October 2006 and then re-broadcast each time it's recorded twelve hours later (1:00AM-PST (01:00 or 10:00AM/10:00 GMT) each Tuesday).
I'm building the "Intentional Profit" show schedule now and thinking about guests I'd like to invite - guests who have something to say, say it well and are engaged in the idea of living and working Intentionally, as well as pushing the envelope a bit, as they nudge the system forward.
If you have any suggestions for guests I'd love to have them. I'd really like it if I could be providing you with a listening experience in this direction that you'd like to have and haven't found yet.
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It sounds like a really interesting show! As for guests: I would bne interested to meet, through you, people who are truly living from the center, who have hunted for a life with meaning ferrociously… alternative heroes, if you wish, celebrities of life rather than of media. People who have made it. Volunteer doctors to the death zones of Africa, survivors of fatal diseases like cancer or Aids, people who have made it against all odds, I am thinking of this gifted hairdresser I know, who became even better at his work after he lost one arm to disease. And so on and so on… Also scientists who can teach me more about human geography and response. Such kinds of people.
Agnes,
Thank you for this response - I love the phrase: “… who have hunted for life with meaning ferociously ...”.
I do intend just this kind of show ... both speaking to and speaking with folks who have “hunted” for just this kind of life. As I’ve said I’m especially interested in those who have are are doing so in the “middle of their lives” - that is out in the world, making a living, raising families ... not necessarily those who have devoted themselves to a monastic way of being.
I have had some comments about the name “Intentional Profit” as well - and they have been varied. Some like it because it resonates for them when they consider living “intentionally” and what it means to be making living as they do. Others definitely have voiced that it has been difficult for them to get beyond the idea of the literal meaning they see - “intentionally earning a profit” - and that raises for them only the images of greed and self-interest ... most definitely not what I want the show to be about!
Thank you again and I’d love your comments about the name as well ...
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
