Ok Life is hectic and I'm making excuses!

Ok so I haven't posted in quite some time. I want to thank Paul for his continued support and sending me some fantastic posts. Christmas time has been rather busy for me... and I've also been a little bummed that less of you have been posting. If this is going to be a center for change and transformation, then I expect someone to challenge something that somebody says!

Apathy kills. It kills when you sit and watch someone else do something stupid, it kills when you let people fall away from their core and you just sit idly by.

So yes I'm making excuses for not posting... so don't let me! Call me out on the carpet. Don't let me quit! Otherwise I just think I'm not very missed and why bother. And if that IS the case then I will continue to not post! LOL

So don't let your apathy kill me and I won't let mine kill you!

Heroes...

Ever wonder why a TV show called Heroes can become the most popular thing going?

Why now? Why this generation?

We will talk more and more about this... but the first question I have is Who is your favorite hero (or heroine)? I wanna know!

I'm finding that I love the rugged western outlaw type that plays both side of the law and determines his own brand of "justice"...hmmmm sounds similar to me...

I wonder if we all live our lives vicariously through our hero... or if the hero lives his life vicariously through us?

I watched the new tv show 3 lbs last night. I really like the show... but it was missing something. For me it wasn't believable... it was too perfect. It's like the 1st Matrix that Mr. Smith talked about that was utopian and perfect... yet everyone rejected it.

The doc just tells the patient her chances of living and dying and click she decides to do it. (the surgery involved stopping her heart) ... ok I don't care how much faith I have in doc... I'm gonna think about that one for a minute! It seemed like a tv show and not like real life. The odd thing is that there are alot of details that would make it more like real life that I don't mind it leaving out ... like the woman having to shave her head for surgery and those kinds of things my mind just lets them slip by and doesn't have an issue with... but the accuracy of the emotion ... that peeves me.

I guess I wondered a touch from just "heroes" but the point is that I think we find metaphors of our life on tv. I've heard accusations that we live vicariously through tv but I think the real danger is that TV lives vicariously through us. So the "decrepit" state of television today is merely a mild reflection of the reality that is us. .... scary thought.

PS I still want to know your favorite superhero.... I was always a Batman fan myself (or Spawn).

Idle Time

paul said...

24 hours in a day. 7 days in a week. 52 weeks in a year. How many years in a life? How much living in a life? How much idle time, conversation and action? Can you afford it? Idle always seemed innocent to me until I dug in a bit. I think it may be one of the greatest enemies we as people will ever face. It's like AIDS or cancer. It's a silent killer.

Def: Idle–adjective
1. not working or active; unemployed; doing nothing
2. not spent or filled with activity
3. not in use or operation; not kept busy
4. habitually doing nothing or avoiding work
5. of no real worth, importance, or significance
6. having no basis or reason; baseless; groundless
7. frivolous; vain
8. meaningless; senseless
9. futile; unavailing

Thanks Paul for this fantastic reminder and for posting! I look forward to many more!

SWAMPED!!!`

Swamped!!! HELP!!! I NEED WRITERS!!!

I'm sure you have noticed the recent drop in frequency of posts here at change addicts. I apologize repeatedly for not getting more posts up, but I have been swamped! More time wasters at work and more meetings when I'm not at work!

I need writers. Many of you frequently contribute fantastic comments and I want to encourage you to go one step further. Please... even if you don't think you are a good writer... post to me! I would love to see a bounty of ideas flow through this place.

It's in the group supply... not in mine alone. So either post as a comment to this post, or contact me at kenhendrix24@hotmail.com and I will add you as a contributer. Thanks again for listening and I can't wait to hear your thoughts and ideas.

What stifles passion?

What Stifles Passion?

- A lack of release.
- Confining Structure (physical, situational, and emotional).
- Fear.
- Someone else seizing the moment.
- Routines.
- Too big of a place.
- We say we don’t want the one man show, yet we never make room for anything else.
- A lack of site and purpose.
- A lack of size of vision (understanding of the size).
- Too many people for “too” small a task.
- A lack of direction. Targets are required.
- Aspiration without activation.
- A lack of importance.

Who made violence bad?

Who made violence bad?

Ever thought about it? I guess we should start by defining violence...

According to dictionary.com

vi‧o‧lence  [vahy-uh-luhns] –noun
1. swift and intense force: the violence of a storm.

There are 2 critical pieces of information in this definition.

It is a noun.... violence is a noun! It is not an action... Often violence creates images of actions that we often associate with violence, but those are seperate actions. They are not violence.

Secondly it is swift and intense force. It is a noun that is swift and intense. Boy doesn't that rock your thoughts of violent people.

For me it clarified what it means for me to BE VIOLENT. The bible says that since the time of John the Baptist the Kingdom of God suffereth violence, but the Violent TAKE IT BY FORCE.

Therefore, if I am going to truly be a radical agent of the kingdom, then I must BE, not momentarily in action... but I must be (a noun is a being thing) a SWIFT & INTENSE FORCE!

Are you violent enough? Are you swift and intense? Or are just some of your actions swift and intense?

One difference in the Islamics and the Buddhist, is that they have figured out how to BE violent, not just ACT violent. They ARE swift and intense! You cannot seperate them from it!

ARE you swift and intense? ARE YOU VIOLENT?

Ruling the world can be a depressing job

Sometimes it is easy to fall into a funk. And not the cool kind from the 70's, but the kind that boxes you in, gets you into or out of your groove. Sometimes getting into your groove is a problem and other times it's getting out of your groove that's a problem.

So let me start by apologizing for the inconsistent posts from last week. I've been FUNKY hahaha.

I guess sometimes knowing you should be ruling the world and having to sit and answer phones at a seemingly dead end job seems a little pointless. Don't know if you've been there or not but it can be a difficult place... Enough of my pity party and on to changing the world.

I have a question... and you will hear alot about this in weeks to come.

What makes Islam such a rampant and viable religion?
Hint: It Ain't 40 virgins waiting in heaven!


What makes Buddhism and Zen the Religion of Thinking Leaders?
Hint: It ain't a little fat man with 3 eyes!


What makes Christianity the slowest growing (in the U.S.) of all of the major religions?
Hint: It might have something to do with "the reason you get saved is to go to heaven"!


Let me hear what you think!
And if you don't comment I'm hunting you down ... you will regret it LOL!

Back In Da' Day

The following is an interlude from the mind of Vickie Bowman.

BACK IN DA’ DAY . . .

Change- such a sweet & innocent word . . . until its required of you!

My life has never been completely without the hardships of change. For example, as a pre-teen I had myself convinced that was going to die of cancer. Yep, that’s right. I was sure that I had two painful, malignant tumors growing & eating painfully away at my bodacious body. Imagine the headache my mama had trying to convince me that it was just puberty & hormones, developmental change, running its course so that I could have breasts. Who knew?

But change wasn’t always such a devastating event. In fact, my whole life took a one hundred-and-eighty degree turn the year of 1996. I was an intelligent & beautiful eleven year old, and believe it or not, eleven was a HUGE year for me. I had decided prior to starting school that year [as a seventh grader] that nothing was worth anything! According to statistics, since I was a young African American girl raised by her single-parent mother in the middle of a low-income community, I was bound to be delinquent & pregnant by the age of seventeen. My biological father didn’t want me, so surely I wasn’t worth anything. My uncle was sexually abusing me for the seventh year in a row, so surely Hell was lined up around the corner waiting to take a stab at me. “What’s the use?!” & “Why try?” were my new approaches to life. Needless to say, that in addition to the sudden flood of hormones & confusion Middle School served, I was- in a nut-shell- a HOT MESS!

Did it stay that way? Yep, for about a month & then it seemed as if God flipped a switch that year & in came “The People,” a group of individuals that influenced great change in my life simply by caring, supporting & not pitying me. This team consisted of five major people- my Mama, the CEO & my consistent support at home, Marie Hendrix, the coolest lady with a gray afro I’d ever met in my life & the consistent support at church, & three school teachers, my consistent source of support at school: Lucy Floyd, my science teacher, Tammy Bellamy, my language arts teacher & Mr. Meadors, my social studies teacher. Each day with them, the “woe is me” attitude I’d started the year with desolated as a glimmer of hope begin to flicker in me concerning my future. After a few months, the glimmer turned into a glow that overshadowed the grim circumstances I faced. However, they didn’t disappear, though. My father still wanted nothing to do with me. Statistics stuck with the “hard, cold truth.” And, none of them, including my mother, knew anything about the sexual abuse I endured throughout the entire school year. Some how, those thing didn’t matter anymore & the process of change I though was killing at one point in my life, proved to be a life saver & stepping stone to the success I am today.

What about you guys? We’re all addicts of change, but at what point in your life did you become addicted to change? When were you marked by change? Who & what influenced you?

Shaking the World - When strategy meets Reality!

I am actually out of town today... and I only have a few minutes to post so I'll keep it short and sweet.

I had an opportunity to begin to listen to a series of messages by Lance Wallnau today. I haven't been this excited in years. I can finally see a purpose behind the strategic thinking that drives most people crazy. I found another piece of the niche I am designed for. I now know why I think in years instead of days. Why I want to be planning 3 years from now more than I do next week. I may be a freak, but at least I'm a freak with purpose. You will be hearing more and more in the coming weeks about what I heard today, but right now I want to soak in it a little more.

Let me just introduce it as the most Strategic moment of reality that I have heard in recent years. It is the most intentional description of the kingdom reality and its practical application that I have heard. The way I have understood the Kingdom of God, has always related me to my small part in the Kingdom. What I need to do on a day to day basis to be a Kingdom Heir, however this series of messages is viral. It has completely changed my perspective on what the Kingdom is and what it will take for us to see it. It will demand strategic initiatives that will see the entire kingdom equipped with specific tools and a in depth strategic plan for "WORLD DOMINATION". Dr Evil has nothing on me LOL! I now know without a shadow of a doubt that I am designed to help build that plan! I have been built as a piece to develop practical strategies for arming, training, and aiming people!

So, how does this apply to you? You have a piece as well! You have a part in taking the kingdom. Whether it is business, arts, education, politics, or any other mountain that you want to take, scout, or infiltrate you have a place. Your success is not seperate from your "spiritual life". There are places that you are called to that do not fit inside of the traditional mold of "spiritual callings", but there is one thing about it, when you find your place you are one bad motor scooter! You will know that you know that you know that you have discovered a piece of the puzzle that is yours!

Seth Godin - Killers

Seth Godin shares what not only kills marketing creativity, but I believe is what kills business visionaries. The things he mentions will limit and disarm any progressive thinker within your organization! Do you suffer from these?



The two things that kill marketing creativity
The first is fear.

The fear that you'll have to implement whatever you dream up.
The fear that you will fail.
The fear that you will do something stupid and be ridiculed by your peers for decades.
The fear that you'll get fired.
The fear that there will be an unanticipated backlash associated with your idea.
The fear of change.
The fear of missing out on the thing you won't be able to do if you do this.

The second is a lack of imagination.

I believe that every single person I've met in this profession is capable of astounding creativity. That you, and everyone else for that matter, is able to dream up something radical and viral and yes, remarkable. So why doesn't it happen more often? Sure, fear is a big part, but it's also a lack of imagination.

Basically, most people don't believe something better can occur. They believe that the status quo is also the best they can do. So they don't look. They don't push. They don't ask, "what else?" and "what now?" They settle.

Fear is an emotion and it's impossible to counter an emotion with logic. So you need to mount emotional arguments for why your fear of the new is the thing you truly need to fear.

As for the second issue, just knowing it exists ought to be enough. Once you realize you're settling, it may just be enough to get you wondering... wondering whether maybe, just maybe, something better is behind curtain number 2.

Can a Leader be a Follower?

I know the religous answer to this question. Yes.... but since we have redefined leaders and followers... once you are a leader and once everything matters can you revert to just not caring? Can you actually will yourself back to a place of merely being a follower?

I guess a better question is AM I AN IDIOT for not being able to just sit back and let what happens happen and me not give any supply whatsoever into it? As a leader when I am put in a situation, not to submit, but to become merely a follower, someone who doesn't give input but merely follows directions I really have trouble doing it. I think because everything I do matters to me, that if I am put in the position to where I cannot at least exert my supply into what I am doing then I have a really really hard time.

Maybe it is just still more of my possesive flesh nature dying out... but I just have a hard time believing that "impotence" in what I do is God's plan for me. Some of this is me venting but I really don't believe that I can be THIS dissatisfied without some deeper reason. But then again maybe I can... Patience is a virtue so I guess I'll know when I'm supposed to know!

Apology

I wanted to apologize for not posting on Thursday or Friday, I had trouble accessing the blogger server to post. We will pick things back up again on Monday! I hope you take this opportunity to look back over some of the previous posts and really think about them. See ya on Monday!

The Leader/Team Conundrum

Have you noticed how our definitions... even our redefinitions of leadership have difficulty working in the confines of the concept of a team. It is still very much focused on being aware of a thing and then taking action to "lead" in what you are aware of.

But how can this function within a team?

If we truly want team input, then are we not stiffling the innovative and spontaneous leader?

How do we balance this see-saw of individual awareness with team perspective?

I know that in this area I am only beginning to understand the very basics of this balance but so far the main key seems to be processes.

If a structure and processes can be built that encourage individual innovation, but then has a structure for facilitating this spontaneity, then leaders can truly be activated. Most of us are still thinking that teamwork demands decisions by the team as a whole. We are preaching a divided "gospel". We demand leadership in our team members but then don't allow them to act on the things they become aware of.

To lead effective teams, then we MUST find ways to activate them with systems and processes that shape and direct their awareness, not stifle their passion and action.

That means 3 radical perceptions must be prevalent.
1. Unquestionable support from the top.
Team members must know that without a doubt, they have the full support of their leadership. This means from the thought processes they use to make decisions to the tools and equipments they would use to implement the decisions that are made. They must know that you support their innovation and their creativity! You MUST, MUST, MUST be willing to relinquish control, allow mistakes, and trust your team.

2. Implement Radical Measures for RAPID idea development.
No more holding the reins to keep things steady. Unleash the beast. Let them run as hard and as fast as they can. When they overstep their bounds, correct them, ENCOURAGE THEM THAT THEIR PASSION IS APPRECIATED, then put them in charge of developing the next phase that they missed! YOU MUST REWARD REAL LEADERSHIP! Team player is a bull crap word that we have come up with. Real Team players make baskets, shoot goals, and know how to handle the ball! Even the best team players want the ball when the game is on the line... and on my team I don't want it any other way.

3. Tell Stories of Revolutionary Heroes!
Tell stories of heroes that screwed up completely out of their zeal. Idolize them if you have to. Talk about the heroes who gave up their weeknight to come radically change a problem they saw. Who didn't waste time waiting on meetings and decisions to get something done. Then provide the team you are encouraging (and the hero if you lead them) with a system of support for their decisions! STOP SHOOTING YOUR HEROES!!! To often we get upset and lopp off the heads of our best leaders because they broke the "chain of command" or because they didn't "work with the team". Most likely the reason they didn't is because no effective SYSTEM is setup/or has been made known for them to "submit" their ideas.

It's Time for real leadership teams to arise and playing paddy-cake with manipulative, controlling and limiting systems WILL NOT WORK!!

Up with the Flags you Crazy HEROES!!!

Blah Blah Blah

Blah blah blah blah blah wookie blah wookie wookie blah blah boo boo blah. Blah gack blah gack blah gack blah. WOokie blouie blahb blabh grapf da da.

Don't worry your computer isn't fritzing out.

That is the problem with communication. I can tell you exactly what I was seeing. I can share in (what I think is) detail what I was seeing... and all you hear is blah blah blah wookie blah blah blah.

Someone asked me recently who's fault it was when these miscommunications happen... The answer that I can truly arive at is no one directly. It is the problem of the medium. I cannot put you in my body and let you see what I see.

How do we fix it? Well we can't fix the medium, but understanding it gives us the pieces to know possible ways around it. Pursuit becomes the only answer, and not just by the hearer. As the speaker and communicator we must pursue what our "audience" is understanding. We must be sure that they see things from the same perspective that we do.

Then we must be willing to drop our perspective and empathize with theirs.

IT'S HARD AS ALL GET OUT! BUT IT'S worth it.

The final key is you have to be brutally honest. When you feel like someone is blowing smoke at you, you have to tell them. Not that they are blowing smoke at you, but that that is how you feel. You must believe that their heart is not to be an idiot, and that no one wants to intentionally cause you problems, but that they have something inside that really sees their perspective as the right one. Go after that and you will see Blah blah blah blah blah bllack and white. It will become clearer and clearer and the stronger and more honest the relationship, the quicker it is to get to clear communication!

Looking for ideas...

I can write a blog everyday for the rest of my life and never run out of ideas... but I want to know what you are interested in. Therefore... WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BLOG ABOUT... doesn't mean you want get whatever I'm feeling, but I want to know what you have questions, comments, or are passionate about.

Post away... I can't wait to find out!