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Remembering The Good Times
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Saturday, August 26, 2006A different kind of world demands a different kind of wisdom to produce your outcomes ... go way beyond either “New Age Thinking” of “Unbridled Capitalism” ... remember “these are the good old times ...
Hello all,
Some people think, "all the good times have come and gone" I think nothing can be further from the truth. However I do think it funny that earlier today I was thinking about writing an article (or a book maybe) with the title,
"The "New Age" Has Come And Gone - And You Missed It!"
What I wanted to write about has to do with the pseudo-scientific/pseudo-magical thinking that I so often associate with those of the "New Age" persuasion. This position can be summed up as in the kind of thinking that suggests,
"If you just believe strong enough and hold onto the good feelings that everything will work out you'll be fine ... BETTER THAN FINE ... everything you've ever hoped or dreamed for will be drawn to you by the powerful attraction of the "love" and "light" you hold in your being and "manifest" right before your eyes."
Well you can count this as equal to the bullsh-t line that, "Capitalism will cure all the ills of humanity." While I am no fan of pseudo-scientific/pseudo-magical "New Age" thinking, I no more of a fan of the "Unbridled Capitalism Club". These positions are just more of the kind of polarity positioning that I find so prevalent in the way the mass media wants to present what they call the "NEWS" and how so many people, especially supposed intellectuals, want to carry on their "discussions" these days.
Yet what I'm finding from my clients when they put their hard-earned money on the table makes it simpler for me to hold an opinion about what really seems to count for more and more folks who are committed to building better lives.
Learning how-to hold a position that allows for noticing "What Works" in the face of all evidence, especially what seems to be evidence to the contrary, and connecting that to "real" skills that produce outcomes - both on one's own and with others - makes all the difference when it really counts.
This has absolutely nothing to do with "just believing in the face of all evidence" nor "unbridled capitalism that justify any and all behaviors intended to produce results at any cost" - it has more to do with how-to operate in relationship to the total system producing outcomes to the greater benefit of all.
This doesn't position getting your outcomes in conflict with the total system, nor suggest that getting your outcomes has any negative overtones in regard to the total system. Let's begin from a different presumption entirely - when you are successful in producing your outcomes as you are acting from within and in regard to the total system, you benefit personally and the system-at-large benefits as well when you succeed.
What you'll find unique in the statement above has to do with the integration of the idea that you can act from a position that organizes you action to produce your outcomes from within and in regard to the system. I'd argue that starting from this position you are residing at the center of a "socially responsible" initiative - one that honors both you personally and the system that contains you.
What makes this position so powerful includes at least two specific aspects:
From this position you are considering both the impact of your actions on and in the system you are operating within (and in relation to), and the impact of the system upon your actions as well. When you hold yourself "at the center of the world" or even "as the center of the world" you are in a powerful position from which to direct your actions to produce specific and potent effects in the system. You are also in a much more powerful position to update in relation to "real-time" information/data as you perceive and experience it emerging in the environment/context.
This last bit about "updating in relation to real-time information/data as you perceive and experience it emerging in the environment/context" holds a real key to being successful in producing your outcomes.
In my mind and from my direct observation this makes what I'm proposing almost diametrically opposed to both "New Age Thinking" and "Unbridled Capitalism" - offering a path that works based on "What Works" as the starting point. Then it continually points to "updating" as the essential quality that allows you to take the precise action in any given moment most likely to produce your outcome - regardless of how you "feel" about doing it or by ignoring the total effect in the system-at-large.
By acting according to the evidence in regard to "What Works" and continuously updating in relation to producing the outcome you move beyond the limiting positions represented by "New Age Thinking" and/or "Unbridled Capitalism" - and this sounds like a good idea to me in these perilous times.
For instance, when half the country wants to pull out of Iraq immediately and damn the consequences, and the other half wants to stay in Iraq indefinitely and damn the consequences - it seems to me that considering the system-at-large from an extraordinary perspective in relation to holding either of those two positions might be called "wisdom" of a different kind.
I'm no political scholar, nor have I ever claimed to be one ... but I do know a bit about how exquisite performers create exquisite performances and they always begin from "What Works" ... and then choose to hold that position, making decisions and taking action, especially in face of all evidence to the contrary - including those who would damn them for their "unreasonableness" in continuing to move in a direction that sometimes only they alone can see.
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ
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