“In the meantime, back at the ranch…” Tonto

Are you experiencing an extremely slow, painful and protracted death doing something you no longer enjoy? Or have you been pushed out of one setting and are desperately seeking to re-enter a similar setting and replicate the same scenario that had you feeling trapped and unfulfilled in the first place?

You know that something is missing, and you also know that unless you find that missing something you will continue to feel even more alienated from yourself and your inspiration. You are about to hit the proverbial wall and you are feeling desperate to find a way forward.

Is it time to shed that old skin and move forward to embrace what inspired you in the first place?

Do you need to be liberated?

(more…)

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin’ man, the Skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour. A three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost. The Minnow would be lost. The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle, with Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the Professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan’s Isle.
Theme song to Gilligan’s Island

Survivors are interesting subjects and their stories come in handy during times like these. Why does one person survive while all of their compatriots don’t when confronted with the same crisis? Ben Sherwood the author of the Survivor’s Club states that three different types of people emerge when confronted by a crisis:

• 10 % take decisive action organized around a vision and a plan.
• 80 % are bewildered and go into a freeze or wishful thinking mode.
• 10 % react in a fear based flight or fight mindset and make bad choices that lead to…

Interesting to note that the great majority of people, 90%, when confronted with a crisis, revert back to very primitive and basic instincts of the fight, flight or freeze options, thus sealing their fate.

(more…)

“Let my people go.” Moses

Now where were we…. Better yet where are we? Is anyone else wondering how we landed in this “Not so enchanted forest” of an economy? Or better yet… How to get out? For those of you who are just tuning in, I’m talking about these most interesting of times that we are in and how we might create a new way forward… and to possibly gain our freedom. That is if you are interested in that sort of thing, because we do get pretty comfortable rationalizing our constraints and they are if nothing else, familiar to us.

I would advocate for your take a close look at exploring your own personal liberation. The old Faustian deal that we made in which we traded away our freedom for a little piece of what was described as security has come unstuck… or haven’t you noticed that this old living arrangement is starting to feel like it’s not working?

Instead, you find yourself in the midst of a major economic transition with layoffs, shrinking budgets, and clients that are not so much looking for a creative solution as a quick fix. Has the fun factor been replace by fear and loathing in what ever city you now find yourself?

Are you on the threshold of loosing your job, or have lost your job, not to mention that connection to your original passion for entering your chosen field in the first place? Maybe you just want to find a way to reignite your passion for what you are doing where you are right now and feel stuck when you try to imagine how you might feel inspired again.

We can all feel that something has shifted under our feet and that change is in the air… because it really truly has this time around.

(more…)

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Janis Joplin

I had a great conversation with one of my fellow coaches from the Adler School the other day and it reminded me of the importance of sharing ideas without attachment to the outcome. Remember Play It Forward?

Please note! That all ideas here are presented as a catalyst for additional dialogue, and are not an end in themselves. Even though my sharing does come with the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”, I share information without attachment as to what you choose to do with it. I leave that choice entirely up to you. (Forgive me if this feels pedantic). Simply see it as a helium balloon that I offer you, and you can either hang onto it or choose to let go. It’s all the same to me as I understand and respect your role as that of a resourceful creator with lots of free will.

(more…)

“You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward.” Lily Hardy Hammond

Yesterday we were contemplating random acts of kindness in your life that have impacted you in some way. Now how about moving our focus for a moment from the externals of life, like the house, car, career, status etc. to an inner focus, and ask these questions: why not explore activating that unconditional love that is there within waiting for us to activate it? What are you so fearful of, and what do you think you are going to lose? You really should consider just sticking your toes in the water, because without this love you are forever poor, even if you do not know it. With this love you are able find the key to becoming all that you are meant to be in this world.

Oh, and then there is that something called the Golden Rule in which all of the major world’s religions have some variation on that theme.

Is love not the underlying principal behind the Golden Rule? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” So simple, and yet so elusive to so many of us much of the time.

So let us take this opportunity to declare the worthiness of everyone for acceptance of our love. Not just the people that look like you, go to your church or synagogue, belong to your political party, or clubs, but each and every person. Because it is only love that has the capacity to elevate all of us equally in a way that nothing else can.

So let us choose love, choose love over living a life in fear. Choose love over seeing yourself as separate from others. Choose love over destroying yourself and the planet that you live upon.

But, when you make that choice for love remember that words alone are not enough, because love is not just an intention. Love is a Verb, a call to Action. Don’t hold back, give it a try, again, what do you really have to lose?

I hope that you don’t feel too put upon here but I’m going to ask you to try a little exercise after you finish up here, or now if you like, (some of us are just not so good with deferred gratification) as a way of test driving this unconditional love thing. Just click on Resources and go to Life Lab Experiment #1; Unconditional Love. On the other hand, this experiment is much better if you have someone to walk you through it as it requires that you close your eyes to execute it. So if you are really committed to exploring, opt-in and I’ll walk you through the experiment together.

Pay It Forward: The concept of asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead.

But remember that when you do put love into action, that it is it’s own reward. Love is not about an investment or deal making with some kind of expectation of getting a return or a pay back. Love is more about a “Pay It Forward.”

In the meantime do you still remember the Golden Rule? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” All you need to do is hope that the recipient of your love is so inspired by your action that they do the same for some one else, and that they in return do it for someone else again… By jove I think you’ve got it…”Pay It Forward”. So go ahead and give it a try under the heading of experimenting in your own Life Lab. Just consider the potential for what a wonderful world this would be if we were all on board with that concept.

I am a witness to the power of love to transform…thanks to good old Fred.

Join me in sharing my gratitude with Freddie for all that he has taught me about what is possible when unconditional love is present. Let us all take this moment to make a choice to tap into that deep reserve of unconditional love each and every day knowing that it is it’s own best reward.

Love yourself enough to participate on a full-time basis in your experiment with love. It is time to pull the plug on the old you and move in the direction of another way of being. Enjoy your experiment… let me know how it goes and what you discover for yourself!

In loving memory of Fred

I have to admit that when when my web designers contacted me this last week looking for an initial entry for my Blog , I considered all of the possible entries relating to creating a new way forward for ourselves in this most incredible time of transition and transformation.

I wanted something that would set a tone for where we are headed together and it was then that I felt a gentle nudge from somewhere inside that reminded me that, it was coming up on the one year anniversary of the passing of a fellow that had given me the greatest gift that anyone can ever receive.

I figured that this ties into our theme of what inspires us. So here we go with a tribute to Fred, the gift that he gave me of unconditional love and how he inspired me.

This picture was taken just one week before we had to assist sweet Fred in passing over. What catches my attention is that in spite of the fact that he had 16 years under his belt, ( that’s 112 in dog years), you can still see in his eyes that he had that unconditional love for me and that it was in no way diminished by those 16 years.

You see Fred didn’t wake up in the morning, confronted with the question, ” Would I love him today?”, because it was integral to his very being . It was just who he was, because Love and Fred were one an the same.

Fred had other wonderful attributes as well that I came to admire through time. His ability to focus on his passions was one such attribute that I greatly admired, and chasing his tennis ball was probably at the top of this list.

One demonstration of his focus occurred when my brother, his new wife and their baby girl named Maggie, came to visit me shortly after my move to Tucson.

We had all sat down to dinner one night with lil’ Maggie on the floor next to us in her car seat when Fred saw an opportunity, and seized the moment by dropping a non too appealing tennis ball right in her lap, and when she didn’t respond appropriately by throwing the ball, he barked at her. After all she was breathing, moving her arms and making sounds…soooo why not take advantage of the situation, she was a candidate for fetch in his mind’s eye. We all had a good laugh and commiserated with Fred’s disappointment in lil’ Maggie’s not having quite perfected her hand, arm, eye coordination to throw a ball yet.

But when I look back I realize that what really inspired me was Fred’s commitment to unconditional love that he shared with almost every one that he came in contact with… that is except the mailman, and even he realized that Fred’s bark was worse than his bite as he would leave dog biscuits in the mail slot when he left.

And as I contemplate this, it made me wonder what if we, the supposed more “advanced” species in this equation, were able to focus our attention less on the externals of life and instead focus more on accessing and expressing that capacity for unconditional love that we have lying there within us?

What demonstrations of unconditional love that inspired you, have occurred in your life? Go ahead a and share your stories here in which you any have received an unexpected kindness that had no strings attached.

A subject definitely worth some consideration and spending some more time with when we pick back up here tomorrow.

Hello , my name is John and I am a recovering architect…..
This is the kick off for the Life Lab. A blog dedicated to my fellow travelers within the A&D community that still remember the original inspiration that fueled their passion to create.
If the intervening years have found you slowly being removed from the source of that inspiration and you feel stuck when you try to imagine how you might create a life that has you feeling inspired again, you’ve come to the right place.
This is an equal opportunity blog for self discovery, so if you are at any point along your road to finding your inspiration, jump in. I hope that you find that these waters a good for finding your what inspires you.

I’ve been traveling down my own road of self discovery for a few years now, and keep hearing from my clients similar stories of a desire to reconnect with what inspires them. As a result I came to the conclusion that this blog should serve as a place in which a community of similarly minded souls congregate and support each other.

This as a “watering hole” of sorts for architects, designers, and any of you other “creatives” out there that would like to gather and share your own stories while you are looking to make sense of these new times that we all find ourselves in.
Think of this blog as a Laboratory. A safe place for exploration, experimentation, for self discovery and expression, all within a community of like minded souls that share your same desire to create in the new reality in which we find ourselves.

See this as a blank canvas where we can experiment and paint whatever we choose. Experimenting often facilitates and leads to the emergence of something entirely new, so use this as a venue to throw your own creative ideas at the metaphorical fridge to see if they stick.

It’s a forum where each of you can entertain ideas about what you might do to rediscover what inspires you, and how to activate the creative forces within you. All in a setting of mutually supportive partners that are there to be your sounding board and champions for moving forward.

You are here for a reason : To find that something within your heart that you can feel passionate about. Something that inspires you in a way that motivates you to move forward and sustains you over the long hall.

I’m here for a reason too: I’ll be sharing my insights, revelations, ruminations and digressions with you, so consider yourself forewarned at this point. Many of which will draw upon the discoveries insights that I made during my own personal journey from out of the industry and back again into this new incarnation as a guide, on this most curious tour bus through this new reality.
It is my desire that you profit from my own experiences in creating a new life for myself by making you aware of some of the potential pitfalls, side tracks, and even hard knocks up side the head that can be avoided with the help of someone that’s already been there. If I can help and illuminate your path so that you can side step the “what you don’t know can hurt you” factor in all of this, I’ll consider this a successful exchange.

This is going to be fluid and elliptical in nature, so all of you project managers out there that like things in nice straight time lines better hang onto your seats. That being said, there is only one rule here , and that is Rule # 6 : “Not to take ourselves too seriously. ” So if you see me headed off in that direction , give me a nudge and tell me to lighten up.

So bring your most authentic self back tomorrow and in the meantime let us know what is nudging YOU from within to create out there? Or what are you looking for right now from me that might help you reconnect with your original
source of passion for creating.