First of all ... (click here first) Happy Holidays to everyone!!!
So I realized that I haven’t posted here in a while and I wanted to write a new blog entry while the mood is upon me ... so here it is, enjoy all ...
First let’s catch up a bit, then I’ll post a little on where my latest thinking about what’s been left out of the model has been ...
As usual I’ve been busy since the last time I posted here ... I’ve been writing a little on the MythoSelf E-List at Yahoo Groups, in fact I posted an especially long message there a short while ago about modeling, Models of Models, about NLP and modeling ... and the lack thereof.
I’ve also been developing an international retail strategy for a world-class client, which is both hard work and a blast ... especially as we’re beginning to see real results emerging. And, of course, I’ve had my attention on the schedule of upcoming projects and programs for 2008 ...
So far I’ve got plans in place for a MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training Intensive in Italy and I’m also planning on renewing the MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training in NJ that will run over the course of the year. But, both of these programs will be virtually brand new in terms of both content and construction ... I’m completely revamping these programs for 2008 based on some new learnings and leanings that have developed over this past year ... stay tuned for more details as I unveil them. I’m also working on a brand new program that I’m currently in the process of developing that I’m calling Intentional Performance ... The Warp and Weft of INTENT, A Program for Professionals Integrating the Hero’s Journey and the Graves Model - this program will unmask the stories we tell ourselves and others, the stories others tell themselves, us and others, the way these stories weave into the construction of the social identities we share and the power of the stories we tell to shape and create the realities we manifest - personally I think this program will truly be a kick-ass program for those who are up for it, and as usual with my professional development programs of this kind I’m limiting the group size to about 20. This program Intentional Performance will be held in Langebaek, Denmark at the Blue Butterfly Retreat Center where I held last year’s MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training Intensive.
It’s also possible that I’ll run the Exquisite Performance Coaching and Consulting Series Workshops sometime in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. These are two four-day workshops, one each on the coaching and consulting models I’ve developed. I’ll present one of the four-days in 2008 and the other in 2009, or I may move both to 2009 and present one in the first half of the year and the other in the second half of the year. Finally, sometime during the year I’ll plan a MythoSelf® Advanced Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training (Mytho4/16) that will be a four-day workshop limited to folks who have completed a MythoSelf® Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Training program before.
Whew! ... (deep breath in ... hold it ... let it out slowly) ... even thinking about all that tickles me to no end! It’s actually a lighter schedule than I’ve run before, but we’re revving up the production of our programs to a level way beyond what we’ve ever produced before. A lot of that has to do with Nancy being on board full-time and really running things with her typical “iron hand in a velvet glove approach to things. I’ve also got plans to revamp the MythoSelf.com site in a big way come 2008 ... but,enough about all that for now, I promise I’ll post a bit more about it all as it unfolds
What I’ve been observing and opining about lately to my inner group of confidants has been in relation to a very simple idea really ... in the same way that “body” and “mind” get separated ... “words” and “deeds” get separated as well ... when in fact they are very much one thing, Body-Mind ... Words-Deeds. Now I could have substituted “action” for “deeds” but in actuality “deeds” more accurately conveys the intention of my reference.
Deed \Deed\, n. [AS. d[=ae]d; akin to OS. d[=a]d, D. & Dan. daad, G. that, Sw. d[*a]d, Goth. d[=e]ds; fr. the root of do. See Do, v. t.]
1. That which is done or effected by a responsible agent; an act; an action; a thing done;—a word of extensive application, including, whatever is done, good or bad, great or small. [1913 Webster]
As you can see deeds are all about doing ... what I like to think of as “performance.”
Performance \Per*form"ance\, n. The act of performing; the carrying into execution or action; execution; achievement; accomplishment; representation by action; as, the performance of an undertaking of a duty. [1913 Webster]
Promises are not binding where the performance is impossible. --Paley. [1913 Webster]
2. That which is performed or accomplished; a thing done or carried through; an achievement; a deed; an act; a feat; esp., an action of an elaborate or public character. “Her walking and other actual performances.” --Shak. “His musical performances.” --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
Where action first and foremost implies movement, but not necessarily achievement or even intentional directionality,
Action \Ac"tion\, n. [OF. action, L. actio, fr. agere to do. See Act.] 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action. [1913 Webster]
Yet, I find it most interesting that today we tend to emphasize “action” in society over “deeds” ... e.g.: Action Heros. We seem to be addicted to action ... movement for the sake of movement ... despite the fact that it doesn’t necessarily get anyone anywhere or at least not where they want to be going. However, I also understand that the word “deed” implies a moral/ethical tone ... and the potential for magnificence, majesty and a lasting legacy:
[1913 Webster]
For many, maybe most, people the potential to think of themselves in terms of “magnificence, majesty and a lasting legacy” would be too much. They run away from that much significance, that much intentionality in their lives ... preferring to remain small and insignificant instead. This route has become familiar ... comfortable ... safe ... the one imposed upon them by their families, friends, society and culture. Even when folks feel like they are taking risks they are most often in the realm of the familiar ... comfortable ... safe kind of risks, essentially doing what has been laid out for them to do ... what they’ve been told to do. i>“Go to school ... behave .. pay attention ... speak when you’re spoken to ... don’t stand out too much.” ... “Get a good education ... get a good job ... get promoted ... get wealthy ... get married ... get successful ... get respected.” ... “Learn to fit in and find your place ... find yourself ... find your path ... live your life with meaning and purpose ... contribute ... help others ... be a good member of society.” All messages about conforming, not rocking the boat too much ... and most of all about gaining the rewards promised you if you succeed according to the rules laid out for you by others ... definitely not magnificence, majesty and a lasting legacy.
What I find most interesting about all this has to do with how it demands a repression of the soul ... the essential part of the individual screaming and clawing to emerge ... to extricate itself from the binding ties imposed by others ... family, friends, society, culture. And, of course, even when people feel their souls ready to explode from the prison imposed upon them they often don’t know how ... what to do or how to do it. So they begin to think in terms of what they’ve been taught ... TO TAKE ACTION! ... TO DO SOMETHING ... ANYTHING!!! ... although what they are trying to escape from begins in what they’ve been taught ... the bonds of family, friends, society, culture ... remember, “Resistance is futile”.
Months ago ... years really ... I wrote about The Matrix ... saying then that The Matrix signifies language ... that we are trapped by language. I didn’t make up this idea, I simply borrowed it. I got this idea from John Searle and traced the essence of it back to Heraclitus. Language has as one of its effects the ability to name things, i.e.: to bring things into being as something (specific) ... we’ll call this an ontological effect. When language names things they become fixed and permanent in that language form, one example of this would be the language of jargon. To the insider group familiar with and who uses the jargon, the meaning of the language becomes familiar and known ... purposeful and intentional, as it points to something known, perceived or intended. Yet to those outside of the group who are familiar with and users of the jargon the language remains meaningless ... purposeless and unintentional, pointing to nothing.
In the same way that The Matrix can be represented by language, those who create and use language to signify and manifest certain things, situations, circumstances, results and outcomes can be thought of in terms of being the societal/cultural Borg of the day ... think, “Axis of Evil” as one familiar example. There are others that are also familiar depending on where you have been inculturated, “Think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” or “For God, King/Queen and Country!” Yet the most insidious ones are much less obvious, “Education is the great equalizer.” What all these have in common are they are based in language ... language being the creator of form ... the ontological seed.
As soon as we become clear about the linkage between our language (words) and our deeds (acts ... n.b.: different from “action") we can become clear about how we create our lives. Taking charge of our language acts grants us the power to act with intentionality ... giving direction to our action ... turning what we do into our deeds and our deeds into our legacy. When we choose to attend to our languaging in this way we choose for magnificence and majesty.
So in closing for today I’m saying that I am opting for a life of choosing in this way in the upcoming year ... and urging you to consider how you will choose your life in the coming year for yourselves.
Buona Natale and Buona Fortuna ... ABUNDANZA!!! ... to a year of wholeness, fullness, joy and prosperity to all ...
Joseph Riggio
Princeton, NJ
Not to be remiss ... an essential point, but one that will have to wait for another post to explicate, has to do with the intrinsic, intertwining of attending to where language emerges and arises from ... the absolute relationship of the semantic and somatic form, i.e.: one and the other are singular at the level of form. This refers to the interplay between the pre-representational, representational and post-representational forms that are held semantically and somatically. That which precedes and exceeds language cannot be held in language, yet from the essential form that stands outside of language all language emerges ... followed by all of our acts and deeds. Only when we are perceiving ontologically can we create that which we desire to become manifest in a magnificent and majestic manner, both on our own and with others. Essentially, this has been the core of the work I’ve been doing with individuals, groups and organizations for two decades ... learning all the time to refine and redefine as I go ... producing with each iteration a new level of performance unknown to me before. As I’ve said for another time ... maybe at the start of the New Year ...