Full Disclosure - Blog Relay
As a track coach in Junction City I learned that the precision of passing the baton in a relay race is often the difference between winning or losing the race. Watching the young women practice the handoff taught me the value of team work and the art of relying on your team mates. I often rely on my friends to provide insight and support as I travel my race through this earthly journey. When Kelli Spencer asked me to be part of a blogging relay I immediately said “Yes!” For me it was an opportunity to be part of a team and to pass the baton onto others.
Kelli is an amazing individual who taps
into nature, angels and people to help others restore their natural
state of well-being. I met her through a mutual friend, Twyla as we
participated in a book club for several years. Today Kelli has her
own blog www.lovethelifeyouhave.com;
she is working on a book and enjoying ever minute of her home in the
country. I turn to her blog when I find myself asking “What the
heck is going on?” I read about her insights and there in the
message is the information I need to make sense of the universe's
lessons.
She has passed the baton onto me, and
now it's my turn to answer four questions as we run the race of full
disclosure.
- What am I working on?
- How does my work differ from others of the same genre?
- Why do I write what I do?
- How does my writing process work?
What am I
working on?
Right now I'm finishing the long awaited teen book; It's Your Life
Don't Ever Forget It: Eight Keys to Independence. The book is
full of stories from those I work with and ideas about how to make it
through the teen years with less stress and more opportunities. Like
always it teaches the basic ideas of Perceptual Control Theory. (More
on that later.)
I'm also working on the second book in the BE-Print series. The
first was Creating Your BE-Print: Drafting Your Personal Blueprint
for Living which encouraged individuals to examine their beliefs,
establish key principles and then live in alignment with their
beliefs and principles. This second book will focus on the four
transformational life skills of: letting go, imagineering,
mindfulness, and healthy self-evaluation. In preparation for the book
I have been reading, studying and testing out ideas on my radio show,
(www.blogtalkradio.com/becreating)
on my blog, in the courses I teach and with myself. In fact Glenn
Smith and I are preparing a series of short evening sessions the
third Thursday of every month starting in August on these four life
skills. So if you live in the Charlotte area I hope you come join
us. (www.shop.creatingshift.com)
Unlike most summers when I teach Connected Schools concepts
this year I am traveling for SkillPath teaching business writing
skills. I've taught everything from general business writing, email,
copy-writing to technical writing. It has been fun working with such
diverse audiences as engineers who design and write tests for Black
Hawk helicopters, to those who write ad-copy for kitchen gadgets.
One thing I've learned is that active voice makes a huge difference.
We all love a great whodunnit!
How does my work
differ from others of the same genre?
It's grounded in hard science. Everything I write, teach, and do is
through the lens of Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). This lens
provides me a clear understanding of the ways in which all people
think, feel, and behave in a whole range of situations and contexts.
William T. Powers developed and tested PCT through quantifiable ways
so that functional models could be built and tested to prove its
accuracy. PCT is turning the psychological world upside down, in the
same way that quantum physics changed the way we view our physical
environment.
Your actions in life are all part of an ongoing process of creating,
achieving, and maintaining your goals. PCT asserts that all distress
happens when you cannot reach or maintain your goals. Helping you
help yourself then takes the form of facilitating your ability to
restore control in those parts of you life where you currently feel
out-of-control. The practices I employ are designed to get out of
your way and let you do the work you need to do. Helping you examine
your own thinking at deeper and deeper levels, until your internal
conflict is exposed. The focus is on the distress rather than the
symptoms, this allows for significant change with little effort.
Once you have identified the conflict it's rather magical—you gain
clarity and the actions you want to take appear obvious to you.
In the works is a combination online course with shorter face-to-face
sessions to become certified in applications of PCT. The idea is to
help helping-professional (life coaches, managers,therapists, social
workers, counselors, teachers, probation officers, etc) enhance their
present practices. It's a case of less is more.
The beauty for me is that this strong scientific underpinning aligns
beautifully with the thinking around cutting edge ideas, including
the idea that you are a co-creator of your world. As the wrist band
I wear says “I Am Creating...The Best Me I Can BE!” Are you?
Why do I write
what I do?
I write what I write because, I believe
in it, I love it, it has made a difference in my life and the lives
of others. I have often been told I would be a great salesperson—I'm
not good at selling—what I'm good at is sharing what I am
passionate about. Helping people know they are worthy and deserving
of creating the life of their dreams is something I'm passionate
about. I love to learn and I want others to share in my love for
learning so I teach! Teaching is one of the greatest learning tools
available to you.
For me being told what to do has never
been enough. I want to know why I should do something. When I was
growing up and still today, we have three different drying towels for
dishes at the lake. Why? One is a lint free towel for glasses and
silverware. One is for the plates, serving pieces and other plastic,
because it is more absorbent. The third is for the pots and pans,
because we have a gas stove and it sometimes leaves soot on the
bottom of the pans. Once I understood why, I had not problem using
three different towels.
My unquenchable thirst for
understanding the why behind everything has been the catalyst for
researching and learning throughout my life. I not only want to
understand why, I want those around me to understand why. Writing is
one way I teach. I understand that some learners are visual, some
are auditory, some are kinesthetic and others like to read/write
therefore, having multiple pathways for learners is crucial to
constructing knowledge. It is also why I have a radio show, videos
online and I am looking to develop a multi-media online course.
Once I understood that distress is
caused by two competing goals at the same level, exploring the
thought behind the thought and asking very different types of
questions made sense. When you understand not only what to do but why
you are doing it you become an artist. What is often in learning
circles describes as consciously skilled. I want everyone to be a
consciously skilled artist.
When I was four years old my father
built a blackboard in our basement so I could play school. I'm not
talking about one of the easel style blackboards most children have,
I mean one the size of a sheet of plywood nailed to the wall. I
have always been a teacher because I love to learn. My sons' often
complain that I can't shut it off. I teach everywhere – IT IS MY
PASSION!
How does my writing process work?
For me the key is being open and
curious. For example, yesterday morning I woke to the sound of wild
turkeys outside my window. First I voiced a word of gratitude and
then I got curious about the meaning attached to turkeys by native
cultures. So I got up and looked it up in a book I have by Steven
Farmer Animal Spirit Guides.
Here's part of what he had to say about turkeys, “It's important to
transcend the focus on your own needs to consider the greater needs
of the whole, such as your family, community , or world. You're
about to receive a gift of some sort—material, spiritual, or
intellectual—that could be anything from winning the lottery to a
simple gift, such as witnessing a beautiful sunset. Perform some act
that honors the earth, whether a sacred ceremony or simply picking up
trash. Volunteer your time in selfless service for some organization
that you want to support.” That night I went to a friend's cabin
to check on it for her, and then watched a magnificent sunset that
lasted over an hour. I took several pictures and posted them on
facebook to share with others who love the lake and appreciate the
spectacular show of nature that surrounds them. It inspired me to
write about being open and grateful for the small gifts all around
us. I'll save this bit to include in the chapter on mindfulness.
Besides being aware
of my environment when I read, which anyone who knows me means three
or four books at a time, I'm always writing in the margins and all
over the pages. Even when I'm reading blouse rippers I often read a
line of dialogue that is inspirational. Next to each of these I put
a little lightbulb drawing and a word of two about my thinking. When
I'm looking for inspiration I come back to these notes. In the back
of many of my books I create my own index where I list page numbers
and conceptual references. Right now many of the notes I'm taking are
about the four life skills.
I also pay
attention when others tell me a story or listen carefully when they
talk about how they are applying what I've taught. All of these
serve to feed my writing.
I've learned that
when I'm inspired is when I write. I once heard Wayne Dyer say that
the world inspire is a reference to being “in spirit.” I've
never found that it works for me to set a time frame and write each
day. I know that works for some it just isn't my style. I write in
bursts. Usually in the morning, after a walk or right before dinner.
In fact about a week ago I wrote almost all day everyday. Then I'll
take some time away from the computer and the next thing I know I'm
energized to write again.
Funny thing is that
once I sit down and start writing I usually end up writing about
something other than what I thought I was going to write about. My
mind is sort of like the power-ball machine of ideas and
inspirations—periodically one pops up and shortly a few more until
I have enough for an article a blog or book. It's like I store them
in my mind and they sort of bounce around a lot until they are ready
to be written. The trick for me in writing is to freewrite—what I
think of as vomiting on the page—and then go back and clean it up.
I write freely, without thought to spelling, grammar, syntax just
allowing spirit to move through me. Then I go back several times and
rewrite. I often say in my training sessions, “No one is a writer,
we are all rewriters!”
Being open to
what's around me, words, experiences, nature, people provides a rich
source for inspiration. Then my naturally curious nature leads me to
dig deeper through research and finally I let my thoughts flow onto
the page.
Just
now, as I was writing this I was lamenting the fact that I had put
out oranges for the oriels and although there was evidence they had
been eating them, I'd missed them each time. All of a sudden I heard
a different bird call looked out through the screen-door and there
was the oriel perched on a bench for a moment calling to me to pay
attention. He promptly headed to the orange and allowed me to revel
in his splendor. “Oriole
will teach by listening to the heart, you will sing your song with
the joy of many possibilities...
he brings a sense of joy to the world.” That's what I want to do
help people bring a sense of joy to their lives.
That's much how
writing is for me—something calls to me, I pause to be grateful and
then experience the joy of words as they flow onto page.
Jennifer Hoffman
has graciously agreed to take the blog baton and continue on. As
part of our book club experience Kelli, Twyla, others and I would
open our sessions by reading Jennifer's weekly articles. We would
always find them inspiring, grounding and food for thought. We so
enjoyed our discussions centered around her messages that we invited
Jennifer to Minnesota to do some work with us and invited guests.
Her
energy is amazing and calming, her insights are inspirational and her
gift for taking complex ideas and making them applicable to your
daily life is a delight. As Jennifer says “We
live in interesting, changing and challenging times. We also live in
times of amazing potential and possibility, where we truly have the
opportunity to be, have and do it all. This is the time for us to
dream big, spread our wings and choose to experience a wonderful life
because everything we could possibly wish for is within our reach,
when we choose mastery.” You can find her and continue the
Full-Disclosure blog relay at http://enlighteninglife.com.
Thank you Kelli Spencer and Jennifer Hoffman
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely disclosure Shelley. Although, I know you, I also realise we really never know anyone so this just brought out more about you and it was so enjoyable to read. :) Thank you for playing.
ReplyDelete