Heart - It Pays To Use Your Heart Over Your Head

Insights/Distinctions: A fundamental truth about this five sense experience is that we get to experience our separateness and our connectedness! Interestingly, what separates us is very little.We are truly here to give love and receive love – perhaps that is the essence of creating “heaven on earth”!

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." 
–Lao Tzu

The Adventure Begins Within

Joe Vitale writes in his book Zero Limits - "The purpose of life is to be restored back to love, moment to moment."

 “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
Carl Jung

Standing in Love

Stephanie Austin, professional astrologer, summarizes – “The Uranus opposition to Saturn that has been in progress from Fall 2008 to continue into July 2010 is presenting us with choices – democracy versus hierarchy, standing in love instead of collapsing in fear, waking up instead of staying asleep.” .

This era is bringing about change and new ideas to evolve and transform, resulting in tremendous resistance and fear and a longing for the past. Notice that this opposition has been concurrent with a recession of historic proportions – talk about being in the midst of a major breakdown. So are we going to resist with fear or be open minded and explore possibilities and opportunity? 

While a breakdown of any kind can be frightening on the surface, it is simply a deconstruction of what exists in order to clear the path for new creation. The key is to be able to remain in the creative flow rather than getting stopped by fear particularly with events that are a long time unfolding.

Seeing From a Mile High

David Icke illustrates this by saying, “Heart – Sees the river from source to sea; Mind/Body – Sees the next bend.” The photograph above is of the Amazon River.

Heart and mind work hand in glove to provide a different dimension to our experience just as love and fear do. Fear has its place as a very useful tool - as a way to mobilize tremendous energy. However, when we are in fear we cannot creatively guide and direct that energy. So a way back into the creative flow is by engaging heart intelligence – when we act through the head we do so seeing differentiation in the world around us which leads us towards separation. 

Knowing What To Do

David Icke reminds us, “If people come from the heart they will know what to do – come from the head and there will be a long list of why it can’t work – heart domination for consciousness instead of mind domination. Stay awake. Follow the path of Love, and the Universe will open its path to take you to safety. Just open your heart and listen to where it points.”


Law of Attraction 
Here is one of the most valuable distinctions that I have uncovered to date based on an ancient problem solving art from the Hawaiian culture called Ho’oponopno based on work by Dr. Hew Len as summarized by Joe Vitale – “Inspiration is more important than intention. Intention is a toy of the mind; inspiration is a directive from the Divine (his favorite term for source or God or oneness). At some point you'll surrender and start listening, rather than begging and waiting. Intention is trying to control life based on the limited view of the ego; inspiration is receiving a message from the Divine and then acting on it. Intention works and brings results; inspiration works and brings miracles. Which do you prefer?” 

Interconnectedness

Here is a fascinating discussion from Intelligent Infinity – The Awakening Project, “What lets us know we are on the correct path and working most effectively with the nature of soul evolution? Well, to answer this you must ask the source of your manifestation, not your brain. It is the pinprick access point to zero point energy within all of us - our heart. Love is the ultimate key. If you wish to develop your meta human abilities and further your evolution you must start with an open heart. This is easy to see even from behind the veil. As I mentioned in the beginning, evolution is an ecosystem. That inherently means that all the levels are dependent on one another to survive and thrive. The levels feed off of each other and when honor and love are shared with all, balance is strong, and evolution is advanced through life. Love is the primary factor in raising new life. Through love, compassion and acceptance of each other as a part of this interconnectedness within the web of life, we find inner peace in our unboundlessness. Children, new life, would die without love. Our hearts are needed more, to further life, than any logical activity of the brain. The brain is only good at comparing similarities and differences, while the heart, and love, shows the way back into unity and the inherent oneness of all things.” 

Courage and Power

These three treasures I guard, [love], [contentment], and [humility]. As Lao Tzu notes, only the loving can be courageous, only those who are content can be magnanimous, and only the humble have the authority from Universe to lead. 

Bill Birnes speaks of Admiral 
George Hoover – “He said that the biggest secret is the fact that we human beings are more powerful than we have ever dreamed that we are. That is the biggest secret. We don’t know our own power.” 

Quick Tip: To quickly and simply shift to heart domination, imagine breathing through your heart, and imagine that your heart energy radiates in a large circle around you - that you are breathing into the web of connectedness! Here's to appreciating each and every breath!

Find Your Dream Job By Using Your Unique Talents and Genius

Key Distinctions/Insights: Any significant accomplishment usually requires the involvement of many people. What if you could simply understand the unique genius of individuals, and further, to be able to assemble teams where genius and talents were complementary to others on the team to produce the required results?

“All children are born geniuses; 9,999 are swiftly and inadvertently degeniusized by grownups." Buckminster Fuller

Talents Versus Skills
Here is a very useful distinction as a starting point from Steven Covey’s The 8^th Habit where he writes – “There’s a common misconception that a person’s skill is their talent. Skills, however, are not talents. Talents, on the other hand, require skills. People can have skills and knowledge in areas where their talents do not lie. If they have a job that requires their skills but not their talents, organizations will never tap into their passion or voice. They’ll go through the motions, but this will only make them appear to need external supervision and motivation.”

“The key to creating passion in your life is to find your unique talents and your special role and purpose in the world. It is essential to know yourself before you decide what work you want to do”.

What and How of Talents

Talents can be understood in terms of ‘what you do and importantly, how you do it.’ 

When we recognize that we have striving instincts and are free to use them, our instincts can become our energy sources that propel us toward personal productivity. The job of leaders is to manage for results rather than manage the process. 

As Kathy Kolbe writes in her book Pure Instinct, “The joy in the creative process comes through productive effort. When all hope for attaining the thrill of success is put out of reach, it follows that many people will turn to artificial ‘highs’. History will undoubtedly take note of our era, one in which human beings’ instincts to strive have been largely ignored. Substance abuse is rampant, along with crime, suicide, and failed relationships. Self-confidence, the by-product of productivity, has eroded along with the economy.”

Acting on Instinct

Kathy Kolbe has identified four primary sources of energy:

The probing instinct creates a need to investigate in depth.

The patterning instinct causes us to seek a sense of order.

The innovating instinct is the force behind experimentation.

The demonstrating instinct converts ideas into tangible form.

Each of us operates using these four sources of energy however we do so from differing perspectives or operating zones. We either 'will',' won’t' or 'be willing'.

Freedom To Be Yourself

Kathy says, “My definition of success – the freedom to be yourself – is tied to the Striving Instincts and their Operating Zones. Successful people are those who have found paths that allow them to use their instinctive powers freely without stepping on others."

Action Modes

Each action mode leads us to perform in a certain way.

Fact Finder is the instinct to probe – relating to gathering information – some people have to define their options and examine possibilities in great depth becoming experts or authorities in specific areas while others are generalists who attack a broader scope of pursuits 

Follow Through is the instinct to pattern – relating to structure – ranging from acting sequentially to sporadically

Quick Start is the instinct to innovate – relating to a perspective of risk – ranging from being highly negotiable to irrevocable – people who initiate Quick Start create the chaos that others have to clean up but in the process these change makers add vision and risk to the mix 

Implementor is the instinct to demonstrate – relating to objects and physical space – through use of three dimensional or tangible implements or tools – some people are hands-on needing movement and space, building solutions rather than talking about them 

True Equality

“Everyone has the same amount of instinctive power – and an equal need to act freely according to those instincts.”

Examples

Here is my Kolbe Index A - briefly I am an 'Innovator' - in other words I will use innovation to problem solve. Starting with my longest Striving Instinct since that mode is the most predominant - I initiate in Quick Start (long green) creating innovation and original ideas, seeking challenges, taking risks and acting on intuition. 

Here is the Koble Index A for my friend Colleen (see her profile) - she is a 'Strategic Planner' - who uses a strategic way of problem solving. We are unalike and therefore highly complementary - we make a great team. Starting with her longest Striving Instinct which is her most predominant, Colleen initiates in Fact Finder so she will collect data, analyze, define options and examine possibilities and in Follow Through, she follows procedures, maintains order and she completes what she sets out to do. In Quick Start she is a great check by providing stability to my instinct for innovation and risk. 

Coping

Imagine the freedom and relief for the Quick Start child who has to contend with a school system designed by Follow Throughs that works best for students with the same profile - that Quick Start child could be considered ADD (Attention Deficit Order) to a teacher struggling to maintain order and a systematic approach within the classroom. Kathy once told a Quick Start child, who wanted to be a musician, to consider the teacher to be like the band leader who keeps everyone on the same page - this helped the child to understand in his own terms how to create harmony with his teacher's mode of striving. The shift can be that simple!

Famous People

Follow Throughs - Aristotle created the terminology that scientists use today - he was the great organizer who founded and classified the various sciences; Melvil Dewey set up the Dewey Decimal System for library classification.

Implementors - Thomas Edison worked with physical objects in all his experimentation.  

5% of the population will have your particular MO whereas 95% of people won't be able to do it your way! That allows each of us to appreciate that we have unique talents to contribute and by being free to do so, can create joy and fulfillment all around!

Quick Tip: Taking your Kolbe Index A takes about 20 minutes by answering approximately 40 most likely/least likely questions - the Index A result is good for life since in most instances your Striving Instinct varies little if at all throughout your lifetime. You can visit Kathy Kolbe’s site to take the Index A on-line.

Also visit Oprah's site for an article written by Martha Beck to give you her summary of the Kolbe wisdom.

Enjoy Kathy's recent book!

Valentine's Day - Make It Extraordinary

Firstly, the greatest gift we can give to the world is truly loving ourselves! That is one of the most healing of all acts in the world as it prepares the bedrock for all our acts of compassion and kindness for others! In that case, why not spend some thought on how to demonstrate that love and get in the habit of being kind to yourself. Here are some ideas to inspire. Spending money is not the object - many ideas will not involve buying something to evoke your love and passion - a simple homemade card with poem as a gift or doing together what you both love. In any event, go ahead and enjoy yourself! It's the experience of your creativity at work and the act of giving that matters - and one of the biggest gifts we can give is our time!

Kind Over Matter

Start With Homemade!

Give your loved one a gift to sponsor their own creativity...truly priceless! When you do spend money, do so as an investment. I promise you that when you make space in your life for creativity in smaller ways, you build a path of confidence to allow creativity to show up in bigger ways. Let your imagination loose and begin to "experience" creativity - in simple arts and crafts, bringing beauty into your environment, connecting with the earth, nature, your food and so on. Step away from you computer and tv for awhile - embrace your hobbies and create new ones to encourage that creative force to flow through you. Let Valentine's be a catalyst for opening up that powerful channel within you - whatever it is you do, do it with passion!

Inspire the green thumb - start doing some of the things you love! You do have time - truly you do.

Or visit the nursery for plants that just need water and light!

Connect with nature in your own backyard!

Sweets!

Make your garden beautiful to greet the Spring sun for your vitamin D3!

Reading!

Flowers burst with amazing energy - that's why women love to receive flowers!

Quick Tips: For more ideas and inspiration for giving, browse From Titanic To Ark store - and click on some of the photos above for links - order on line for convenience or better...visit your favorite local small neighborhood shops for an outing while you help keep them in business and strengthen your local community - make it yours!

The Power of Two or More

Key Distinctions/Insights: Since we can't get there by ourselves, our greatest contribution will be in adding value by becoming part of a community where we can work together collaboratively to mutual benefit. 

We will likely start to see the organic emergence of SOCs (Self Organizing Collectives) each with unique values, purpose, objectives, and commitments. Keep your eyes peeled for an evolution of our relationships and communities in response to unfolding events. 


Three Generations Working - The emergence of SOCs may become apparent in your life in small ways. In my life, my vision of a 'three generational family' is beginning to emerge where each generation brings special knowledge and qualities to the others. Besides education, as we create self sufficient environments, we'll appreciate the physical effort that everyone can contribute relating to growing, harvesting and preserving healthy foods; making things for personal use; and creating value within a larger community, and so on. Here are four generations at the Ellms Family Farm in Ballston Spa, New York raising pumpkins and Christmas trees.

Buy To Share - Financial Times February 15, 2010 Members of a London art-buying group pool their knowledge, enthusiasm and £35 a month to build a shared collection to hang in their homes. 

Bee Colony - Australian Research Council project Adaptiveness of Self-oganized Collective Decision Making - Groups of humans or animals often make decisions collectively without any central control or coordination. The paradigmatic example of self-organized groups are colonies of social insects whose strikingly organized and seemingly purposeful behavior at the group level is organized without any central "master plan". Despite the involvement of up to millions of individuals, there is no leader making the decisions: the complex behavior at the colony level emerges from simple interactions between myriads of individuals that only process local information.

Start Small - Napoleon Hill has this to say about the power of two or more: "Unlimited power may be available when two or more people coordinate their thoughts and actions in a spirit of perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose. A Master Mind alliance involves two or more people working together in perfect harmony toward the attainment of a common purpose. Such a partnership creates a superpower that enables each of its members to do far more than either would have been able to achieve separately. Choose your Master Mind partners carefully. Align yourself with people whose strengths complement yours. If you are a right brain person, for example, a logically-driven left brain person may be a perfect counterbalance to your creative bent. Above all, choose to associate only with people who share your positive values and your commitment to similar levels of achievement." Here is my favorite book by Napoleon Hill!

Let us know of your examples!