I dragged myself out of bed this morning while it was still dark, threw on my running shoes, and went for a run. It was both heaven and hell…but mostly hell.

I had been unable to run for nine months following an ankle injury sustained while running in the Sonora desert last August. I went over on a rock and that was that. Doctors and chiropractors worked on it to no avail. Finally I found a great Osteopath, Pam Ennis. She had me back on my feet in a few weeks and I returned slowly to running.

Boy, am I out of shape! It wasn’t like I didn’t keep up a fitness regime while I was unable to run – I was in the gym four times a week. The elliptical just doesn’t demand the kind of strength and stamina that an outdoor run requires.

So, now I am back outdoors and while it is marvelous to return, it is also challenging. The layoff really shows. I’m up to 50 minutes per run, but a year ago the same distance probably took 45 minutes. My gait is like what you see when an old dog rises unsteadily to meet you at the door. Yikes!

An astute nephew pointed out, “Uncle Pat at least you’re still out there doing it.” Yes, in a manner of speaking, I am. Huffing and puffing, moaning and groaning…but out there…getting it done…

It occurred to me during one point in the run this morning that it’s important to notice what you’re noticing when you’re on the come back trail. It’s very easy to focus on the moaning and groaning, the huffing and puffing, and making comparisons between now and then.

But that’s not only counterproductive, it’s also demotivating. The past is not always an accurate benchmark of the fresh challenge of the present.

With that insight, I began to focus more on the progress that this run represented from six weeks rather than one year ago. Fifty minutes is nothing to sneeze at when you look at where I started – 5 minutes.

It’s easy to stay in bed – but I was up and out before daybreak. That’s worth something.

I was able to breathe comfortably throughout most of the run – inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the mouth. Not easy to do even when you are in shape.

No pain at all in the ankle and foot.

A beautiful sunrise over Lake Ontario.

An abundance of migrating birds, including wild canaries. Fragrant late summer wild flowers.

All in all, maybe it wasn’t such a bad experience after all? Maybe, experiences are gathered, not imposed? Maybe The Comeback Trail is a really good place to practice self-compassion? Maybe the self-critic shouldn’t be invited on the morning run at all?

My next run should be even more pleasant than today. A change in vision always produces a breakthrough.

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

I have just returned from a two week trip to Puget Sound and the Bay area. The work was good, the weather better than here in Toronto (we had three tornadoes touch down just outside the city, and that never happens!).

This past week, I was with Angeles Arrien for the Four-Fold Way five day intensive. As always, Angeles was superb. Her ability to transmit perennial wisdom from a cross-cultural perspective is always inspiring and thought provoking.

Visionmakers have a lot to learn from The Four-Fold Way. I recommend that you read the book and if you can, to participate in one of Angeles’ offerings.  She provides many formats: year-long programs for those in the Bay area; intensives in both the San Francisco area and the Arizona desert; week-end introductions; and speaking engagements.

She is a very wise, very engaging, very funny teacher. Of course, I am biased. I have been working with her for 15 years.

One of the best things about the Four-Fold Way is the people that come to the workshops-from as far away as Japan, South Africa, Austria, France, Brazil, even Canada. These conferences always attract a wide array of people from all walks of life.

The learning is rich and deep and Angeles is a marvelous guide to indigenous wisdom and cross-cultural practices from the four archetypes-the warrior (or leader), the healer, the visionary, and the teacher.

The Visionmaker book is an expansion of my own research and insights into the archetype of the visionary.

For more information on Angeles’ work, just hit the link at the side of the page.  You will be happy that you did.

Angeles Arrien

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Meet a disturbance,

Like mountain meets a storm cloud:

Without disturbance.

Equanimity–

The mountain’s true nature–

No force can alter.

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.”-Theodore Rubin

Sorry for the gap between blogs – a result of taking a well needed holiday from all things work.

Back to our series on the Conditions of Uncertainty. This is in response not only to our times, which are turbulent, but also to a new workshop that Angeles Arrien and I are leading on the topic. (For more information on this four-weekend conference, Meeting the Challenge of Uncertainty, please follow the link in the margin to the extraordinary conversations website. See “What’s New.”)

Problems, problems, problems. They are everywhere you look! Problems are commonly viewed as situations that are unwelcome, disturbing or harmful. As such, they are held as a threat to our well-being – and sometimes they are.

Mostly, though, problems are encounters with the unknown and unfamiliar that renders us uncertain. This, of course, is the terrain of Visionmaking, so you can imagine that Visionmakers hold problems differently from the average person.

Many of us see problems as dilemmas. A dilemma is a problem that can only be solved through a choice of equally undesirable alternatives. We can already see the negative bias in the definition. If we hold that problems provide only undesirable alternatives, of course we will search for those alternatives and prove ourselves correct. 

Visionmakers prefer to see problems from the perspective of opportunity.  They recognize that every problem initiates an inquiry. Inquiry, a formal and systematic investigation to gather knowledge, is the response of the curious mind to a mystery.

Problems, from the vantage point of Visionmaking, open a doorway into a state of immersion. Only immersion-deep involvement that requires the full application of heart, intellect and will-can penetrate to the depths of a problem.

This is where the path of a Visionmaker and conventional behavior diverge. Most people avoid their problems until they are forced to deal with them. Visionmakers embrace problems as an opportunity to learn and grow.  

Sufficiency, courage, objectivity, tenacity, flexibility and creativity are the chief resources required-and developed-by problem-solving.

Sufficiency is the allegiance to our knowledge, skills, gifts, talents, resourcefulness and creativity over the fear that we will not be able to solve a problem. Sufficiency allows us to trust that we can prevail, even in the face of uncertainty and adversity.

Courage is required to face our problems directly, without blinking. Courage, the strong-hearted ability to stand our ground in the face of a challenge or threat, allows us to confront a problem despite our fear. When we confront our problems and overcome them, courage grows.

Objectivity  allows us to meet a problem with curiosity, dispassion and detachment. From this stance we can examine how the problem is constructed, its components, where it springs from, and what keeps it in place. This information is necessary because within the composition of a problem lies its solution(s).

Tenacity is the capacity to stay with a problem as long as it takes to see a solution. Many times, problem solving is sabotaged by the inability to maintain the quest for an answer. Albert Einstein maintained, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Flexibility allows us to view a problem from multiple perspectives. Expansion of vision is critical if we are to see hidden opportunities for forward movement and flexibility provides the latitude required for the search. 

Creativity is the capacity to approach a problem from an original perspective and construct a resolution that is bold, inventive and resourceful. Creative solutions are the product of problem solving. In devising them, we expand our vision of possibility and open new frontiers in our thinking, behavior and relationships.

Just when we thought that problems were terminal afflictions, we discover they are doorways to expansion and growth. Who knew? 

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

As many of you know, much of the work that I do in organizations is conflict resolution. That means I get to work quite regularly with pissed off people. I know. I’m just lucky I guess.

One of the great contributors to conflict is uncertainty.

Conflict can be defined as “incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles and interests that leads to a clash.”

Most people would rather stick pins in their eyes than be in a conflict. They see conflict as a threat. They fail to recognize that conflict is an opening to deepen knowledge, relationships, understanding and skills. 

Visionmakers see conflict as a natural byproduct of deep engagement. You don’t get mad if you don’t care passionately about something.

Rather than adopting the coping strategy of conflict avoidance, Visionmakers seek to strengthen their ability to manage two forces that lead to conflict-creative tension and compression. When outcomes are uncertain and unpredictable, both of these forces are present. They can provoke irresponsible behavior if they are not managed effectively.

Creative tension is the perceptual stretching required to hold two or more opposing realities or viewpoints. This requires flexibility, discipline, respect and patience.

Without these four practices it is easy to become positional and hostile. This leads to behavior known as snapping. Snapping means “to cause to break suddenly.” In other words, the loss of self-control that can result in lashing out.

Compression is the force that “condenses, squeezes, and restricts.” It has the power to distort our perception of time, creating the impression that there is insufficient time to slow down the velocity of debate and expand our vision to include perspectives that we may find foreign, challenging, even distasteful.

Balance, tolerance, patience and buoyancy are required to counteract compression.

When Visionmakers fail to handle compression, they become harshly expedient. Buckling is the consequence of compression, meaning “to give way under pressure or strain.” Forms of buckling include yielding by giving power away or collapsing emotionally or psychologically from the pressure.

Notice that both the practices associated with creative tension and compression feature patience! Patience is the ability to hold creative tension and compression with equanimity-the ability to meet a disturbance without becoming disturbed.

Conflict provides a Visionmaker with the opportunity to examine their fixed perspectives; what fears they may carry; their relationship with winning and losing and being right; and how they react in the absence of respect.

This is important information. It reveals the places of congruence and incongruence in our nature.  It is one thing to espouse values and principles in our philosophy.  It is something else entirely to follow these ethical guidelines when our passions have been aroused.

Ultimately, conflict is an opportunity to deepen relationships and knowledge through the expansion of vision, not its reduction. By managing creative tension and compression, Visionmakers learn to see past artificial barriers and impediments to the heart of the matter. Issues, needs, and fears all contribute to conflict.  If they are not addressed successfully, they persist and renew ill will and aggression.

Even in the most difficult disagreements, there are always opportunities to discover mutual gain.  Without conflict it may be difficult to reach the depth of  vision that is home to such insights.

As the Persian poet Rumi reminds us, “Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there’s a field. I’ll meet you there.”

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.

Be Sociable, Share!

•