Thursday, August 31, 2006

I’m A Lustful Person Part 2

If you attack what I’m passionate about should I not get angry? If you give me what I’m passionate about should I not become excited? Should not the pursuit of my passion make me joyful and give me purpose. Do I have to live according to a set of rules that tell me who I am and what I should feel. Who am I and what makes me, me?

If I tried to take away what you love, would you die fighting for it? If not, I wonder if you truly loved it at all. Words come cheap in our society today. Yes, I get angry. Yes, I get excited. Yes, I have passion that lures me into acting in an unconventional manner at times. Is that not the spice of life? My love of life produces the passion that can be seen by those around me. It can be felt by those that hear me. It can change those that understand me.

Changing the world around you doesn’t always mean that you have to make sense. Sometimes the fact that it doesn’t make sense will rapture you into a world of believing that one person can make a difference.

Passion, Desire, Lust, It is the thing that causes you to act against all reason. It does not replace reason. It gives reason strength, emotion, and life. It takes what I know, what I understand and moves it into relevance. It gives my education purpose by giving it motion. To deny it would be to deny who I am. To suppress it would be to steal from those around me. I am a lustful person. My desire is to grow and change, to fulfill destiny to change the world around me, to make a difference in my generation and the next. Who cares if anyone ever knows who you are? At the end of this life, what else is going to matter? I am a lustful person.

Ahh language wreaks destruction again!

Bear.

Park.

Fly.

Each of these wonderful words has multiple meanings. The english language is a trap. It's often a loop that traps full discusion because your mind puts things together differently from mine.

Let's try something. I want you to read this, then close your eyes and picture a dog. After you picture it for a moment open your eyes and continue reading.
Ok go for it.


Ok, what kind of dog did you see? I saw a little pickanese (I hate those little mutts, who knows why I pictured one). I bet some of you saw an entirely different kind of dog. Mine was red. I bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?

So why did I have you do that? Because language has unique and diverse meanings to all of us. It gets in the way of relationship, and yet you cannot have relationship without it.

Anger,for me, is not an action. It is not yelling and screaming (although it can precipitate that), and it is not being out of control. Anger, to me, is a position of intentional frustration. It is caused by a recognition of potential versus manfiestation. Anger comes about when the standard is above the actual. It's not the spur of the moment reaction though, that is madness. Anger is a intetional expression of irritation at the present reality versus the future potential.

Maybe this helps? Just let us know. It's certainly a safe place to swing from your pendulum no matter which direction you are extreme.


And I'm gonna leave the lust comment alone for now. LOL. Another great post Andy!

I’m A Lustful Person.

I’ve heard a lot about passion lately. Passion, desire, lust it all means pretty much the same thing. We don’t use the word lust a lot though, that just doesn’t sound as politically correct. I don’t hear many people saying “I’m a lustful person.” A lustful person will seek out other lustful people and even reproduce more lustful people. Lustful people are fueled by their lust. They live for their lust. Man, I feel dirty just talking about it. Where is my wife? Look out baby, Daddy is coming home tonight!

I love it when over educated people make things so complicated that we have to have university professors to interpret their meaning. I guess everyone has to have a job though. Maybe I oversimplify things, but I feel like if the emotion is there then it is being produced by some system of thought. People do not get angry just to be angry. They are angry because of what they think about or believe.

I have to disagree with the theory that if you are passionate you are angry. I do get angry about what I m passionate about, but I also get joyful, excited and happy. Jesus was a pretty passionate person. When they make a movie about your passion I would say that in some way you were perceived as passionate. According to the writer of Hebrews, It was for the joy that was set before Him that he endured the cross, not because He was so angry.

Where was His anger in the garden of Gethsemane? Where was His anger when He was moved on with compassion to heal the multitudes? Where was His anger when they spat on Him? Where was His anger when they hit Him? Where was His anger when they nailed His hands and feet to the cross? I do believe that passion will produce anger, but I think our focus is off. Instead of asking what are you passionate about maybe we should be asking what you love. Maybe passion isn’t measured by anger, but by what you love so much you’ll die for.

What do you love so much that you would fly a plane into a building for?

My passion is all about me and how I feel, but let my death be about others and what I love. And may I leave others gawking at “what could a man love so much that he would give his life for it?”

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Pendulum of Pursuit . . . or Keep it Between the Ditches

I have found that there is no such thing as the middle of the road person. We are all in a ditch somewhere. There are those people who think they are in the middle of the road who are often sitting in the ditch and not moving anywhere. Then there are those people like me. We see things in black and white. We refuse to make exceptions, we think that everyone should radically change to the opposite spectrum. We live life on a pendulum.

Quite frankly, I think it is the only way to live life. The fact is that if you live life always trying to take the moderate step you are already stagnant. I find myself continually balancing the paradoxes of great leadership within my life. On one extreme, I can’t lead people I need, while on the other extreme I must put a demand on (need) every person that I lead. Greatness will always be a paradox, and it is my ability to ride the pendulum from one ditch to the other that will manifest my internal design.

I have posted before on my black and white world, so if you want more on this search back and find the post.

More importantly, I want to know what you are currently swinging hard for one ditch in. What are you an extremist about? What are you so passionately motivated to change, that you are willing to charge into it even if it means you could be wrong?
I have found that to break old habits I generally have to overcompensate with new ones? What are you strategically over compensating for?

Understand this is a post praising your extremity, don’t give me insecure comments about how you feel bad about being an extremist, I want to know what you are willing to raise an outcry about and even pursue the wrong way, if you have to, in order to bring it to pass in your own life and in the lives of others!

For me, I'm a freak about execution right now. Stop showing me your dang plan, stop telling me who is in charge, just show me some danged results! I want to see ownership, not just great ideas!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Gelded Age

The information age has so far produced to the gelded age. All this talk about systems has had me researching and thinking about how we got into this mess. After listening to a summary of one of Peter Drucker's final books "Managing in the Next Society", I think I have discovered a large piece of how we got into this shape. The information age has brought great change. It may be one of the greatest changes since the industrial revolution. Here is the problem, it has only changed the previous system. It is yet to become the information revolution.

Think about it, the information age has routinized every area of business, government, and our lives. You can now have a software program to do everything you were already doing. It does it faster, cheaper, and with more efficiency. We have developed routines that will do everything for us. However, we are just now starting to see on the horizon the real effects of the information age.

Up to this point, every routine has gelded us. (For those of you unfamiliar with this word, it is the word for castrating a horse). I know this has a certain comedic value, but I really want you to think about it. What does routine do to us? It limits us to repetitive tasks and an "in stone" way of doing things. We no longer are able to reproduce, instead we create clones. Pardon the expressive reference, but the information age to this point has taken away our ability to have intercourse. Instead, we have an "enter" course that merely allows us to hit enter and it repeats. The power of reproduction is the unique combinations from each interaction, however SO FAR the information age has merely created repetitive action that mechanizes the process.

This leads back to our discussion from yesterday. It is the millions of individual processes that make up the system. However, when the processes become more important than the function then they become useless. The power of interaction is in the ability to do the exact same thing multiple times and have unique purpose and function for the action. Motive is more powerful than action. It is the motive of the action that will create the next piece of the process. The information age has gelded all motive from action and has created a lifeless system of repetition.

However, before we all commit suicide at our dark and desperate system. . . there are rays of hope. The information system has the power to be so much more. It has the potential to revolutionize the entire way we think about systems, functions, and processes. I think the revolution has started and we are just starting to see the first shots. Cross cultural and unlimited communication is beginning. We have torn down the sectorized markets of the word to create the Global market, however now we are beginning the global village. Even this blog is a shot at the old system of meaningless, powerless repetition. . . if you let it be.

The problem has been that we haven't had REAL information systems, we have had read broadcast systems. We have been in the broadcast age. Where we listen to the news, we listen to the radio, we listen aTV watch tv, we receive systems that do things for us. The information age must become the COMMUNICATION age. A global village, a commune. A place where there is shared interaction. It is a place of intercourse, where your course and my course enter together to create something much more powerful than they ever could be apart.

This demands robust and honest dialogue. You have to comment on my blogs what you don't like for this to work. You have to tell me that you agree when it is in your heart. You can no longer passively observe. I wish I could attach a shock signal to your keyboard so that when you are thinking anything about the post and refuse to write it, it would shock the devil out of you. Of course that would perpetuate the system I'm trying to diffuse, but I still want to!

It is in the creative mix and confrontation of the "egg" and "sperm" of our ideas, the incubation places and the seeds of thought, that will reproduce greatness and change in our lives. For us to truly see the information revolution, we must make it the communication revolution. No more thinking of Hurricane Katrina as a 2-block storm because that is all that the television can effectively show us. No more believing the spin that CNN or FOX puts on the news. No more settling for mere rote information, but demanding. . . no let me rephrase that. . . angrily demanding to know the hearts, intents, and fullness of what you hear. That is Reality! That is Change! That is what it takes to be a real Change Addict!

We might die trying, but our cry must be "The Truth No Matter What!"

Monday, August 28, 2006

Putting Passionate People in Purposeful Systems - pt 3

A system… when we think about our bodies, a system is the chain of organs that interconnect together to perform a common function.

As we talk about systems we must look at two pieces, functions and processes. Functions are the ultimate purpose of the entire system. It is the goal that the system was created for. Secondly, we have processes, these are the minute routines that occur to operate the system. So if we want to extremely oversimplify a system we have the internal function and the external processes that assist the function.

So how does this all tie into passion? Don’t worry I’m getting there.

The problem that most of the world has is that we think that all our systems need are the perfect processes. We look for strategies for business, and we look for teamwork skills, we look for a 10 step plan to get our system to work right! The problem is, a system without a function will not work. Just think, if you stop putting food into your digestive system, eventually it will shut down. It locks up, it freezes, it becomes completely stagnant. A perfect system is useless without its function.

So what is a function… thus enters passion. Passion is the raw material. Passion is the food that we put into the digestive system. It is where the energy, the life, the strength comes from. However, passion without a system is merely potential. And potential that is never developed will rot. Therefore the function of our systems should be to shape and develop passion.

For too long, businesses, churches, the arts, education, media, government and any other area you can think of have all been limited to trying to create perfect systems that create perfect people. The problem is that we have had the wrong ingredients, so the system has been shaped for the wrong function. I’m really not sure which came first the wrong system of the wrong ingredients, but at any rate, somewhere we started building things for the wrong function. Look around, the entire world is a clone! Teenagers all dress exactly the same. I was teaching one night in the teen room at our church and we stood up a “redneck” kid and “thug” kid side by side. What was so funny was that they both were wearing hats, they both were wearing necklaces, they both were wearing belts with big belt buckles, they both even wore glasses that were shaped almost identically. My point is not that everyone should be different, my point is that we think everyone is different when they aren’t! When the system merely try’s get the same results with different ingredients it is bound to fail. This is why it is VITAL for us as leaders to be able to recognize the different passions in people. In a comment from Friday, Cyn said that she was wondering how passion connected to our “natural bent” (this is the word from where the bible says train up a child in the way he should go (it actually says when translated more acutely from Hebrew “according to his natural bent”). We have tried to make every single person have the same natural bent. We have tried to create a system that creates the same product from every person using exactly the same processes.

Imagine if your digestive system did that. Many carbs would go undigested, lipids would be another story, and who knows what would happen to fats. The fact is, that our system has to account for all kinds of “ingredients” and be able to adapt to “digest” and activate the potential energy in them all. Ultimately the system does create the same product (energy) from the materials, but how it gets there is very different. As we continue with change addicts we will look in depth at different strategies and systems that extract the potential energy from the passions of people. However, we have to start by recognizing the root of the passion. Not just the actions, but the roots. Not just seeing the potential, but seeing what activates the potential and what it takes to unlock it.

We will look much more closely at processes, at systems and at functions, because that is what true leadership is about. It’s not about charging into battle for all the glory, it’s about activating the “nuclear” (internal bound-together nucleus) energy that is in each and every person around you! It’s about creating messy, elaborate, beautiful systems that activate not performance, but activate real potential. No matter how messy or how unorthodox.

Start today, crack your system. What “law” have you created that worked for someone way back when, and has no bearing on anyone you lead today. Stop trying to create passion with your systems and find passion then create systems from the passion you find. Start seeing, recognizing, and activating the potential in the passion that you see. Shape it cultivate it, multiply it and ultimately release it to be productive and world changing!

Friday, August 25, 2006

Putting Passionate People in Purposeful Systems - pt 2

Due to the awesome comments and the obvious rabble rousing that yesterday’s post caused, I feel that I need to go back and define what passion means… The reason many people take such a profound exception to my definition of passionate people is because they have no idea what passion is. Many of us call people passionate and have no idea why we even think they are passionate. For this reason, I think it is vital to be able to “define” a person’s passion.

Let me start by saying this… we have a screwed up linguistic system that assigns positive and negative connotations to every word that we use. Therefore, we have just assumed that passion is always a good thing. Passion is neither good nor bad. I think great leaders must have passion, but passion is not inherently a positive thing. Just ask any police detective. Passion without a system is deadly, thus the reason for this post. Passion is vital, but passion is not inherently good. I can be passionate about killing people, passionate about drugs, those men who attacked the world trade center were certainly passionate. The problem is the system that their passion had to work in. So, let’s back up and start with what passion is.

Passion according to dictionary.com is;
a. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
b. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.
c. strong sexual desire; lust.
d. an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.
e. a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.
f. a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire of anything: a passion for music.
g. an outburst of strong emotion or feeling
h. violent anger.
i. the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, esp. something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior


So what the heck does all of this mean?

Here’s my definition… passion is the inward motivation that is beyond reasonable intellect. It is an emotional response that is rooted in truly valuing a thing. Passion is a motivator that elicits some kind of response or action.

This leaves it devoid of positive or negatives and clearly indicates the practical pieces of what passion is and does.

But why do I need to be able to identify passion in other people. There are two key reasons, one of which will be addressed on Monday. However, for today I want to talk about the fact that people are ignorant about what passion really means. They think that performance is passion. Although passion does lead to performance… performance is not passion. We often think that just because someone can really sing that they are passionate about singing. We think that because Terrell Owens can really play great football, that he is passionate about the game. The problem is we have taught ourselves to evaluate passion by a person’s performance level and not by REAL INDICATORS. If T.O. really loved the game of football and was passionate about it, not even a small injury would keep him from playing. If he really was passionate about his skill and ability he would be cocky about showing it off… not just talking about it.

The reason we must be able to identify that passion is because without a proper system (which I will discuss on Monday), passion is reckless and can easily become a negative. However, if it is put into the right system, with the right structures, then passion can be truly multiplied. However, the system must be created to develop the person at the level of passion that they are at. That is why it is important as a leader (system generator) to be able to recognize a person’s passion.

We ignorantly go through life assuming we know passionate people by their performance and giving them credit for an internal work that really is only an external system. For example, I can put someone in a dead system and teach them to sing. They will even do a good job of singing. They can even be the best singer in the world, but I’m not looking for the best of the best, I’m looking for the most passionate of the passionate. Passion can’t be trained, systems can. The problem is we define who we are by our gifts and talents, not by our call and purpose. That is like going to your birthday party and celebrating the presents and not the fact that you are another year older (which by the way is what we generally do, perpetuating this system of ignorance into your children). The system must be great, but you must start with passion. However, passion without a system is no good either (More on this on Monday). I’m going to stop here for today, because this is getting long winded, and I’m thinking it may still take at least two more days to finish this topic up (if that is even possible). Maybe this will give you some more to think about!

* passion. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved August 25, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=passion

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Putting Passionate People in Purposeful Systems - pt 1

Passion… what is it? Where does it come from? How do you recognize it? Do you have it?

Systems… what are they? Where do they come from? How do you recognize them? Do you have them?

The new paradigm of leadership is forgetting about the 1-man show. It is about each and every person leading, regardless of position. It is about moving people beyond a “job description” and into a “pursuit description”. It’s about finding what makes a person rave and telling them to fix, build, or promote it. It’s rooted in releasing people and their passion. It’s about challenge, it’s about development, it’s about purpose, and most importantly it’s about people!

The problem lies in what we see as passion and how we think about getting passion out of people.

Passion without systems is hot air. Systems without passion is death.

This is going to be a 2 or 3 part post over the next several days so I want to challenge you to really read and confront yourself with the following material.

Lets start by “defining” passion. I’m not as concerned with the actual definition of the word, as I am in how we define a person’s passion. I define people by their passion, therefore it is very important to me that I be able to “read” what their passion is.

So how do we do this? I certainly believe that their can be a component that is directly tied to a “spiritual” connection and ability to read people, but I want to focus on physical and practical ways for defining a person’s passion.

The first thing to ask is … are they passionate? The following is a list of things to look for that should tell you if a person is passionate.

Do they ever get angry about something? A person who never gets angry is a person who has no passion. If I truly value something and am passionate about it, I will be gutsy enough about it to pay the price of being angry about it. There will be some part of me that is determined to “take on the world” over it if I need to. Think of it this way; have you ever seen a good husband who just let people call his wife fat in front of him? Of course not, because he is passionate about the fact that he finds her beautiful, and he will quickly let you know that you are wrong… because he is passionate about her. So what makes you and those you lead angry?

Secondly, do you think they are cocky? I find that people who are passionate about a thing, are not afraid to take ownership of it. Therefore, they will come across to most people as cocky and arrogant. People will call them brash and arrogant. Passionate people ooze a intimidating confidence in the things they are passionate about. So do people call you and your team cocky?
Finally, passionate people seem “hard to approach”. I am yet to find a passionate person who is “easy” for a random person to approach. It doesn’t mean that they are hard to talk to or even hard to reach, it means that their dedication to their cause scares most people. We think that we can only talk to passionate people about their passions. Because we aren’t passionate about the same things (if anything) then we find them distant. Their passions dominate their time, therefore, if you aren’t passionate about the same things that they are, then you will think they are avoiding you and that they always have something else to do. You will think they run away from you and avoid relationship, when really they are consumed by their passion.



We’ve just begun to touch the tip of the iceberg on this. We’ve just started to discover the characteristics of a passionate person. I think this is going to end up a 3 day post. Tomorrow we will talk about how to identify a person’s specific passions. Then on Monday, I will try to conclude by discussing systems for releasing passionate people (who knows… this may not fit on one day either).

As far as comments go, you know that they are always welcome… try not to get too far ahead… leave your comments on what has been posted today and any thoughts it has sparked, but know that more is coming too. On the last day if you have further questions that are lingering (which I hope you do) feel free to blast away!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Lay down, shut up, and die!

I love the information age. There is not anything that I can’t have detailed, intimate knowledge of. If I want to be a leader, I just buy a John Maxwell book. I can find out exactly what to say in front of the right people when the opportune time is upon me and shazam, I’m a leader! In fact, I think I’ll write my own book on leadership. Then I’ll have a Leadership Conference, Yeah, that’s what I need. After all, I’ve read How To Be a People Person, Developing The Leader Within You, Developing The Leaders Around You, and even The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I know everything there is to know about leadership. I’ve got all the information. If you don’t believe me, just listen to me talk. I know how to lead from the middle of the pack, the front of the pack, and even the back of the pack.

Oh and passion, Man do I have passion. Just the other day I was at Mc Donald’s and the girl at the window messed up my order. Well, needless to say, I went off! I was passionate about my order. That is what’s wrong with the world today nobody has any passion. I think I’ll write a book about passion. Then I’ll have passion conferences to teach people how to have passion.

After a while, you would think that some one would catch on the fact that, if it was about information alone everyone would change. My question is not, what should I change, but why should I change? Do I change so I can have a better job? Maybe its more money that drives me to pursue higher realms. A bigger house would be nice too, but then, all these things are about me. Surely, there must be something more.

I want to make an impact in my generation. When I leave this world, I do not want to leave it the same way I came into it. Still the question the echoes beyond to borders of self-interest, fame, and selfish ambition is “Why?”

If I answer this question, I don’t have to worry about the “How”. The “Why” will consume the “How?” When I find out the why Ill give my life for it.

Lay down, shut up, and die! Let others write the books about it when you’re gone.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Tom still says it best. If I can only live this way!

Ok this is the Manifesto of the Change Addicts. Visit the link, download the .pdf, change your world! NOW!

This is not an option. This is REALITY!

http://www.changethis.com/15.Tomato

Friday, August 18, 2006

Steve Farber is a Change Addict

Steve is a revolutionary. He is truly shaking things up. Check out his site. Some of his stuff sounds familiar... and I just found him today. "WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!!!!". I hope you enjoy. He is certainly spicy.

www.stevefarber.com/read/

Free Prize Inside! - Seth Godin

It's our goal here at change addicts to provide you with the most cutting edge books in personal growth and development. If you are truly a change addict you will do more than simply read a nice overview of a book, but you will pursue to the place that you do something about it!

- Ken (Founder/Editor of Change Addicts)


Check out Seth Godin's Book Free Prize Inside! This book actually originally sold in a cereal box. Now that is an in the box and out of the box paradox! This book stretched me. Where are we not living on the edge? Where are you not stretching your boundaries? People love extremes. I think extremes are what stir passion in us. It's the whole "black and white" world that we change addicts force ourselves to have. We will follow extreme or oppose extreme... but we cannot ignore extreme. Check out Seth's fantastic book today!


Thursday, August 17, 2006

Seth Godin is Awkward

WOW!!!!

I wanna be awkward too! Writing that post yesterday was AWKWARD FOR ME! I wanna hear what makes you guys awkward. Check out Seth's post then let me know. If you don't have an answer... you aren't changing much!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/08/awkward.html

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Do You Enjoy Change Addicts?

I want to start by saying thank you to all of the faithfull readers and contributers who help to make change addicts a success. I want to encourage each of you to let your friends know about our blog. WIth the recent addition of new authors we are growing by leaps and bounds and strive to provide you with some of the most up to date and challenging material out there.

I want to encourage you to let your friends know about the blog itself, as well as encourage you to take care of the feedburner links on the right hand side of the blog. These will allow you to receive change addicts in your email each day.

I am always excited to hear the fantastic comments and the powerful posts that come through this site and I look forward to it growing to new levels. However, we can't do it alone. We need your help.

So invite your friends, be a catalyst for addicting them to change! Be the leader you are designed to be.

Once again thanks for reading and KEEP ON CHANGING!

Mediocrity Killed the Cat! Curiousity Saved it!

Mediocrity Killed the Cat, Curiosity Saved It!

I am tired of whiney people. I’m not tired of the people; I’m tired of their whining. For a while, I blamed them for their whininess, but now I’m beginning to realize that they are innocent of their guilt! It truly isn’t their fault that they are guilty of being whiney! The fact of the matter is the only person I can blame is myself, and all of the other people in the world who perpetuate a system that glorifies mediocrity.

Where are all of the fanatics? Iran has a few. North Korea has a few. Hezbollah has a few. We call them fascist, we call them psychotic, we call them crazy, and yet they have more commitment and dedication to their cause than we can muster in our pinky toe. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying what they believe is the answer, however their belief is. Not the things they believe, the degree of faith that they put into it.

Often times we talk about all the great ways that we need to change. All the hundreds of things we see that we need to do to be great leaders, but then we sit our lazy butts down on the sideline and watch the game.

Excuses like; “I don’t have enough time”, “Well, everyone has a life”, “I might get hurt!”, “I don’t know what to do”, and even “I just don’t understand” become cop-outs that let us live in the complacent and powerless world of mediocrity.

Where are the radicals? Where are the flakey psychos? Where are the people who make me gawk and stare? Where are the ones who challenge me with their lifestyle?

Those are the real leaders. Those are the real revolutionaries. Those are the ones who know what it is to be a real change addict.


What I’ve found is that mediocrity will kill the danged cat. When the cat gets in the middle of the road and wavers is when it gets ran over. Curiosity is what will drive us to the other side. It’s curiosity that will save us. Are you getting run over… or are you crossing the road?

We have made an exception that says we can believe in something without acting on it. We say that you can be a Christian “believer” without having to pay any price to be that. You can live the way you always have and you can still “have a life”.

We need more “radical jihadist”… not more crazy Islamic factions; we need more people who are willing to die for what they believe in. Once again, I’m not promoting their beliefs or even their methods, I am promoting their BELIEF. I am promoting their “commitment” to living and dying. The thought that they really have no life anymore, except what they find in their purpose and their cause. People don’t fly planes into buildings to get virgins… they fly planes into buildings because they have a radical BELIEF that they are doing the RIGHT thing! They are 100% sold out! Let me re-emphasize, I do not believe that it was the right thing for them to do that, but without a doubt they had to believe it. They were not incoherent psychotic murderers. Murderers… yes, but incoherent and psychotic… definitely not. They knew what they were doing and knew they would not live through it, and still chose to die for their beliefs. Dying for it didn’t make it right, and dying for it didn’t justify what they did by any means, however it is a level of commitment that we should envy. Look at our own history! What happened to that streak in our own beliefs? What happened to radical “tea parties”? What happened to the Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty and give me death!”? What happened to the Martin Luther King’s who said “I have a dream”, and were willing to die for it? It was the radicals who shaped this country into a great nation, not the mediocre conservatives, liberals, and what we have defined as “christians”.

Last time I checked, the New Testament Church got killed for their beliefs (like many of you want to kill me right this moment). There was no middle ground. If you believed, you gave all. That’s the reason radical belief will divide mother, brother, father, sister, and anything else that gets in your way.

CHRIST CAME TO DIVIDE, not to unite. Jesus said that he had come to DIVIDE… I DIDN’T SAY THAT! The problem is we want everyone to accept us. We want everyone to “join our cause”. People don’t join causes, they join people. A cause is dead without the people behind it. If you want to be a real leader and you want people to give to your cause… set the example. Stop your mediocrity and give all! It’s called covenant, it’s called relationship, it’s called REALITY!

Don’t get me wrong… Curiosity WILL KILL YOU! But at least you get to choose your death. I would much rather die, chasing curiosity than die by getting run over in the middle of the danged road!

Stop giving yourself the option of a middle ground! Lose your life to your cause! Lay it all down. Even Christ said that, “he who loses his life will find it”. If you would hurry up and die you would find a lot better life! Not DIE physically, but die to all the petty mediocre things in your life that limit you from being truly bought by your cause.

Look, don’t go be a flake and a psycho just to be an idiot. Have a purpose for your “insanity”! If you are weird just for the sake of being weird, you are as annoying as the whiney people. YOU MUST HAVE A CAUSE!

OH …. AND ANOTHER THING! There is no such thing as a grace period for the truly sold out! There is no “ramp up time”. There is no “acclamation period”. Think of it this way. When you go to buy a car, do you pay the dealer then drive the car about an hour a day for a couple of weeks, then decide… now I can drive it 2 or 3 hours a day… then maybe 4 or 5 hours? Do you?! No you buy the car and it belongs to you! You drive it whenever you want, however you want, as long as you want. Your car doesn’t decide that it only wants to be yours for these fifteen minutes and then after that it will go back to “its life”. NO! THE CAR BELONGS TO YOU and it HAS to do what you want it to.

Do you really believe that you are bought with a price? Do you really believe that your life is not your own? That Christ truly died for you? If so then you belong to someone else. No acclamation time, no trial period, no test driving for Jesus. NO YOU ARE HIS WHENEVER, with WHOEVER, and HOWEVER He wants you!

If you aren’t a Christian, your cause still should own you. Otherwise, why are you even alive? What is the point in living if you aren’t consumed by a cause…destined for a purpose? Tom Peters is consumed by innovation, Seth Godin is obsessed with marketing, John Maxwell is psychotic about leadership… what are you? What has you so thoroughly unbalanced that it gives your life real value?

WRITE IT DOWN NOW!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Response-able

Are you responsible?

No really, are you able to respond?

What areas of your life are you responsible in/for?

What I have found is that just because I have to do something does not make me responsible for it. When I was growing up I had to clean my room, but ultimately I was not "responsible" for it. I was equipped with how to "do" it, I knew how to pick up clothes, how to vacuum, and how to dust, but my room never was clean. I knew the pieces of knowledge but I lacked the actual wisdom to effectively be RESPONSE-ABLE without someone else pointing out what needed to be done.

How often do we go through cycles in our life and become very good at doing something but totally disconnected from the real guts of why and how we do it. We may know all of the details and may be able to do it really well when someone asks us to, but why does it always require someone to ask us to.

I think we are missing the wisdom. We have the knowledge but we don't have the "wise-dominion" to fully have authority in every moment of our lives.

So once again I ask you... ARE YOU RESPONSE-ABLE?

Why Are You Changing?

What is your reason for changing?

Change can occur readily if the purpose for the change is clear.

For example.. Overnight, becoming a parent changes the habit of sleeping soundly through the night to getting up multiple times.Overnight, the desire to live can motivate one from a pack-a-day smoking habit to stopping cold turkey.Even moving from the couch to the bed or the bed to the bathroom is motivated by purpose.

Perhaps we need to become addicts of purpose and change will just naturally occur.

Just a thought...

Friday, August 11, 2006

Tom Peters... there is no tommorow.

Ok Tom (My SUPERHERO) has outdone himself with this one. I think he talks about where this blog is headed in the next week or so... why change? The concept is not to change for change itself... (as Tom puts it "have longevity, for longevity's sake") but instead it must be to Live IN the Fullness of the MOMENT! The reality, the fun, the JOY OF BEING! Seems like there was a Indie film on the "Unbearable Lightness of Being"... It's gotta be that unbearable heaviness of LIVING!

Check out Tom's post and the ensuing debate. I found it gave me those fun tingles. Maybe thats just me... but check it out anyway!

http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=009133.php

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Change is Rooted in Environment

Have you ever noticed that change is often not related to your mere choice to change?
Yes that is a part of it, but I have made up my mind many times that I was going to change... and still never changed. So there has to be something more than just my "choice" to change that will bring about change. Actually there are alot of other pieces, but there is one key that I have found that must always be present to bring about permanent change.

You must be in an environment of change. Just like baseball player doesn't truly get to be a better player by just playing baseball, but instead by playing on the right field, around the right people, and with the right rules. Many times I have found that I try to change by merely playing the game, but if I never have anyone in the environment to bring me back the reality of my actions, to challenge their correctness, and to make me think about more than "did I hit the ball". It brings me beyond the performance mindset of just "getting it right", and takes me down to the root of why I get it right.

How many times have you heard professionals say that it is all about knowing the fundamentals? Yet we have found ways to "just get it done" and we have flaws in our fundamentals. Eventually these flaws will show up; for example when we try to play the game at a higher level. We are ok with not having all the fundamentals down if we are still trying to play against the Kindergarten team, but when we move to a higher level of play suddenly all of our flaws show up.

That means we must find a safe environment for us learn the games fundamentals at the higher level. That demands knowledgeable "master teachers" who can bring us back to reality and reveal the fundamentals behind the symptoms in our "swings". It also means that we must have a safe place to fail. In other words, the environment must be safe for me to try something new, to push for something more, and my failure doesn't crush me or other people. Instead it is an opportunity for me to push forward into new things. An opportunity to fail forward.

Finally, the environment must be challenging. It is a challenging environment that will push me to develop new response-ability. This is what activates me to go to another level, and ultimately what activates my purpose.



Now time to evaluate...

Do you have this environment in your life?

Who are some of the people holding you accountable to the higher level?

What is one area that you are still playing against "Kindergarteners" and need to step it up?

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Steps to Change from "Human Being Curious"

I thought this was a fantastic post from the guys over at the "Human Being Curious" blog. It really aligns with alot of what we have talked about on here and I thought it might be a fantastic opportunity to gain a little more insight on HOW to change.

Enjoy!

http://www.humanbeingcurious.com/files/category-15.html

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Mind numbing Stupidity

So most of us are ignorant, by choice. But there comes a threshold when it becomes stupidity. Stupidity is that point where you move from ignoring something to purposefully denying it. Dictionary.com says that stupidity is a "state of mental numbness". So here is the question. What areas are you stupid in?

See to me being ignorant is a choice, stupidity removes your choice. Stupidity is when you have become so Familiar/numb to a thing that you no longer have the sensitivity to make a choice. You expect nothing different from the moment, so you don't ever look for anything different. With ignorance, I think we often still make a choice to not look for anything more. With stupidity, we can't!

I have heard some people refer to what I am talking about as "searing you conscience". But it is about more than just conscience. It is searing your awareness! It is our awareness and our alertness that gives us the power of REALITY! Jesus' power came from the authority that he exercised in the REALITY OF THE MOMENT! But if we have become numb to the moment and STUPID because of our familiarity then we will never become "stewards" of the moment!

The only way that I have found to become "un-stupid" is to be angrily confronted with a new expectation or reality. This comes from many sources in my life. Friends, parents, leadership, GOD, and a long list of others. The key is that I have found it DEMANDS CONFRONTATION to break my stupidity.

So lets stop being ignorant and make a choice to be REAL. Then let's allow other people to CONFRONT us with their reality and break our STUPIDITY!

Numb only feels good, it never is good. Being numb keeps us from feeling the pain that will create change in our lives. Write down at least two areas in your life that are numb. Who/How can you position yourself around that will confront that numbness?

Monday, August 07, 2006

Ignorance

I find that many questions in my life concerning my relationship with others come automatically. I do not have to spend monumental hours thinking of all the right questions to ask. I can see where you are wrong and need to change. I might ask you the question that challenges your ignorance, or I may choose to keep it to myself and allow you to continue in your life of blaring ignorance. I can see clearly from my high and lofty position the subtle imperfections that limit your downtrodden existence.

The questions that elude me are the ones concerning myself. I seem to be gifted in the area of masterminding my own deception. I ignore the most important questions that hover just below conscious thought. Questions like, “Why does it hurt when someone challenges my belief system? Why do I become angry when things aren’t going according to my plan?”

Ignore-ance:- the art and act of ignoring.( My definition, don’t know if it is in the dictionary. I would look it up, but that would take away some of my ignorance.) Yes, I am good at it. Yes, I accuse others of it and that some how makes it ok for me to do it. Yes, I am the great ignoramus. I ignore the questions that really matter. My deception would be complete if it were not for the high and lofty people around me looking into my downtrodden existence and illuminating those subtle imperfections that limit my potential.

I do not know who the first ignorant man or woman was, but they were a great leader. The whole human race seems to be touched by their influence. As a true father of the faith, they have reproduced themselves rather effectively.

I have many people around me that ignore their own imperfections and constantly point out mine. I try to reciprocate faithfully. Working together, we have at least alleviated a small portion of our ignorance. “Thank You” to all the ignorant people in my life that believe that they are better and smarter than I am!

The Manifestation of Change

I've often heard that "change is inevitable". I would modify that
statement to "superficial change is inevitable." Things are constantly
changing around us. Change is happening to our bodies continuously. To
me environmental and physical change that happens around and to us is
superficial. But, the real catalyst for change is that that happens
within us.

Yet, a change in our thinking or in the way we feel is only a catalyst
for change-it is not the change itself. It is possible to think
differently and yet not change. It reminds me of the scripture "faith
without works is dead." Change is a process that is not complete until
there is an end product.

Changed thinking without a resulting change in behavior is incomplete.
Change is not change until our behavior is changed. Change addicts
that stop short with only a change in thinking are only philosophers.
True change results in new or different behaviors. What about you?

Humans are creatures of habit. Our personal challenge is to identify
and change unproductive habits into productive ones. Name three changes
in your behavior that you have made in the last 30 days. Ask yourself,
"Have I repeated that behavior enough for it to now be a habit?" If
not, keep going. If so, what's next? Perhaps you need to go back to the
thinking stage and address your thoughts and feelings. But I dare you
to truly become a change addict and complete the process from beginning
to end over and over and over and over again and again and again. Never
be satisfied with superficial change and never stop short with only
changing philosophies. Let's change the world instead!

Friday, August 04, 2006

Exciting News!

I have some exciting news for all of you change addicts out there. We are adding more bloggers! I am excited to announce the addition of up to 4 additional authors to our blog. I will be introducing and profiling each of our authors as they begin to post! So get ready for some exciting new perspectives from other change addicts!

Another Fantastic Book - High Trust Selling!

Once again, I read quite a few books, but only recommend the best of the best.

High Trust Selling is without a doubt a life changer. This book will revolutionize the way you see selling. Now, if you are thinking... "I'm not a sales person"... think again. Everyone around you is buying your product. Use this book to develop clear strategies for bringing success to every "market" in your life.



Todd Duncan will challenge you to step outside of your box and re-think the way you sell. This book will challenge you to change, not just sale.

Check it out today!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Where is the pain?

"If the pain is in you, the problem is in you!"

I have tried and tried but every time there is pain in my life, I can trace it back to a problem in me. If you poke a bruise on my arm and I yelp from pain, the problem was not the poke, the problem was the bruise. And the bruise is in me!

Do you know why we don't like people? Because they expose the reality of the pain in us! We don't want to change and we don't want to confront reality, so we run from those things that force us to... in this case relationship.

Relationships will always expose the reality in us! Not kind acquaintances, but real relationships. The bible says that the wounds of a friend are faithful!

The problem is most of us start to realize that the pain is in us and we jump off of the cross! The bible also says to mortify the flesh, to daily take up your "cross" and follow Him. To do that, we have to stop jumping off the cross the second we realize we are on it. If you would hurry up and die to those things that are causing you the pain instead of running away from them, then before you know it you will be able to embrace those things! If it's people, you will even be able to lead them!

Take 5 minutes right now, and write down at LEAST 3 areas that you have been running from a thing because it reveals the pain and the problems in you. Then write down what those problems are. Finally, write down 1 practical step that you are going to do this week to put yourself in the position to die on your cross.

Remember, if any of these posts make you mad, or if they cause pain in you, its because the problem is in you. That problem may be good, and that problem may be bad, but the key is to realize that it is IN YOU!

Where is your pain at?!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Real Confrontation?

I had a recent comment on a previous post that asked the question..."What is good confrontation, what does it look like, how does it work?"

This is the heart of a change addict. Understanding confrontation is the key to becoming a successful change addict. I am going to summarize confrontation into 3 stages, I'm sure some smart philosopher somewhere has a much better description but this is my way of looking at it.

The best example I can think of for confrontation is semi-poetic. Think of the moment that a caterpillar begins to spin a cocoon. This is a confrontation. The caterpillar must recognize that there is something inside of him that is longing to do things differently (now bare with the metaphor, I know that caterpillars do this instinctively, but don't mess up my metaphor). Whether it is his innate design or simply a craving for something more we can't be sure, because none of us can communicate with caterpillars. However, either way there comes a moment that "just being a caterpillar" becomes a problem. This is the first recognition phase. The same caterpillar has lived its entire life without needing to be any different, content to crawl from one leaf to the next, inching along while living for its next meal.

What is it that caused that caterpillar to suddenly be unsatisfied with just getting around the way it has? I'm not sure about the caterpillar, but for me, it is when I suddenly recognize that there is more potential out there and I am able to TRULY see myself where I am at. The problem most of us have is that we think we are butterflies, so we never stop to think what we need to do to become a butterfly!
So the first step to "good confrontation" is that it must REVEAL REALITY!

Notice that the first step is not to condemn reality. It is to reveal it. If I am trying to condemn someone else's reality, then I have devalued them seperate from their action and now have no right to lead them anywhere. Therefore, my confrontation MUST come out of a desire to see them truly fulfill their potential because I value them so much WHERE THEY ARE!

There is much more to this and maybe I will post more on each individual phase in the coming weeks. For now I will move on to step 2.

The second phase of "Good Confrontation" is the chrysalis phase. This is a phase of seeming isolation. When I confront you with a "right" motive, then I there will come a time of you building up a walls that isolate you. This is contrary to our normal belief! We think we need to charge into change, but what I have discovered is that it is nearly impossible to "run" into change. It is a gradual process that forces us to become vulnerable. Now understand, isolation does not mean isolation. Isolation in this situation means a closing off to the exterior to deal with the interior. If I am confronting you "appropriately" then I will be on the "inside".

Think of it this way. We don't do surgery on the side of the road.

We do surgery in an "isolated" and sterile environment. We take you out of many of the circumstances that would "irritate" the problem and we deal with it. This chrysalis phase is an opportunity for us to "wound"/do surgery on you to help you become whole again. It's not about perfection, it's about wholeness. The bible says, "the wounds of a friend are faithful". It is the wounds that I give you that are faithful to you. It's my willingness to risk making you see something in yourself that is uncomfortable and wounding, that makes me a faithful friend. Therefore, I have to isolate you and help YOU see the problem. The only person that any of us can change, is ourselves. Therefore, my goal is not to "fix" you. My goal is to allow you to see that you are still just a caterpillar. It's the reality that will then allow you to change yourself. My only responsibility is to be sure that you see yourself with REALITY.

In the chyrsalis your world falls apart. Suddenly, everything feels like it is closing in you. You feel uncomfortable, you feel weak, you feel powerless, you feel like you aren't getting anything done, and you feel like EVERYONE ELSE is "boxing you in". If you feel that way, then it is a great sign that you are well on your way to a significant change!

More on this later as well!

Finally, the last phase is the Rediscovery phase. This is when you have finally "fought" your way out of the cocoon. (By the way fighting your way out of the cocoon is the thing that gives you the strength to survive once you get out!) Suddenly you try to crawl like the caterpillar you were and it doesn't work. Everything you have ever known feels like it is worthless. All the great knowledge you thought you had come crashing down around you. You now enter a new world, with a humbleness of reality. A newness of how to function, operate, and move. This can be a terrifying phase because you suddenly realize..."I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!" The fact is that you never "knew" what you were doing, you just thought you did. You could perform well as a caterpillar and you thought you "knew" how to be "you", but instead you were just good at performing and you had no idea what "you" really are.

It's that moment where you feel weak and powerless. It's intimidating, it's scary, and it's EMPOWERING. Because you suddenly realize if I am ever going to be able to be or do anything it is going to be because of someone else. Whether it is God directly or God in those people around you, you suddenly realize that YOU CANNOT DO IT ALONE!

Welcome to real leadership. Welcome to responsibility for those people around you! Welcome to REALITY!

Like I said, it's impossible to summarize the complexity of confrontation into a single post so there will be much more to come that will outline each phase of confrontation, but maybe this overview will get you started in the right direction!

Thanks for reading!