It’s a busy life.

For a little while here I may be short of blogging time. Many things going on, and for several days, anyway, little time at the computer.

I have hands-on remodeling work to get done for two old customers right now, estimating to do for two others, much studying and involvement with real estate investment lately, and plenty of effort toward a major possibility in my life.

That possibility is to go to New Orleans to try to help with the terribly dysfunctional atmosphere between property owners and contractors. How this possibility came about is fodder for much discussion in itself. I will give a quick picture.

For a few years I have gone to a yearly spiritual retreat held on the edge of mountain country in Georgia. Great setting, great event. I have known many of the attendees for a lot of years. And, a big bonus for me, and hopefully for some other people, is that I get to co-facilitate groups focused on the exploration of one’s personal spirituality. The stars of the show are whoever attends.

As facilitators we set the tone to help the participants take a dive within themselves and take risks in small group discussion with others. There is a little more to it, but that is the gist.

The results have been really powerful. And we the facilitators feel blessed to be present.

So I was there in April, and by divine providence there were two different men who I had know separately 36 years ago. Strange enough in itself. But one of the guys now lives in New Orleans, and when he and I caught each other up in our lives and I told him about Conscious Cooperation, he blurted out “We need you in New Orleans!”

Well, one thing has led to another, and this contact has led to that contact, and the short story is that going to New Orleans is real bright on my radar. I hope to make my first trip there in several weeks to make some presentations and meet people.

I am in awe of how one thing leads to another and how the Universe arranges for “chance” meetings and connections. Then it is up to us do our part while, for me, still checking in repeatedly with the Divine powers to work with the path being laid out.

While reading an email from Kent Blumberg the other day I noticed that he lives in Baton Rouge, about an hour from New Orleans. And he is quite a helpful and eager guy, as most readers here know. We talked on the phone yesterday, and he had one real good suggestion about furthering my contacts in New Orleans.

And, my good friend Daniel Stone who was the main subject of my recent blog CONFIDENT, HUMBLE SERVANT, just happens to be an important figure in the consulting team working on how to approach the rebuilding of New Orleans. Etc., etc….

So, that is a snapshot of my life right now. It is a busy one, and a good one. Many thanks for support from different sources, not the least of which is this amazing world of blogging.

Several days ago Karin from www.thekissbusinesstoo.co.uk tagged me to write about how blogging has changed my life, and business.  Interestingly, and in perfect synchronicity, I had been thinking about that for a few weeks before I was tagged.  Karin is usually a day or two ahead of my thought processes.  And I was thinking I am grateful for having been introduced into the blogging world by Dawud of www.dmiracle.com.

So, first off, I am Stuart, and I am a grateful blogaholic.

As Dawud was adding to my website for me a few months ago he said that the quickest way to get exposure was to blog and visit other worthwhile blogs and make significant comments.

Boy, he was right.

I have been exposed to a world of connection that I never dreamt existed.  I have come to write posts fairly easily that emerge from my gut.  I eagerly read other prized bloggers and make comments.  I eagerly look to see what comments may be on my blog.

Conclusion: There are some great people out there just a keyboard away!  There are people who say that computer-source communication has no heart.  This is not my experience at all.  I get inspired and warm and fuzzy from blog communication.

I have been an amateur and occasional professional writer for years, but I find that writing blogs, sharing them and entering into conversation with them helps me know myself, my passions and my priorities in a way that is far different than writing with no communication back.  Writing about what I really care about and then sharing it helps center me, renew me and expand me.  I am really appreciative of this experience.

In my efforts to work with communication and cooperation centered around the construction industry, time and time again issues of clarity, honesty and good will emerge.  They are fundamental to the process.

And, in my humble opinion, they are fundamental to rich blogging.

Thanks, Karin.

Recently Dawud Miracle at www.dawudmiracle.com has been having some rich discussion on the blog post “Would You Rather Be a King or a Fool?” The discussion started with a movie clip of Robin Williams telling Jeff Bridges the story of the King and the Fool in the movie “The Fisher King”.

The discussion has gotten into the area of contribution as a human being. Are you in a better position to contribute as a “fool” or a king? What about the lure of power, fame, worldly success? What about being the simple person in a very humble position who is sometimes profound in their simplicity, perhaps way beyond their own awareness?

The discussion happened to be very timely for me because of what my close friend Daniel Stone of Whole System Consulting and America Speaks is doing right now.

He has become a central figure in the design, implementation and moderation of a wonderful world health initiative forum spearheaded by Donna Karan the clothing designer and manufacturer. You can see about the overall initiative and the present forum at www.urbanzen.org.

Through personal tragedy with the illness and ultimate passing of her husband, Donna became quite involved with blending Eastern and Western medicine practices. She became enamored of the Eastern spiritual dimension in facing illness, dying and death, as well as some Eastern health practices.

And so my friend Daniel, already a highly-placed organizational consultant, was asked first to design and orchestrate much of the present forum being held in New York. When the powers that be saw his abilities to carry out much more than design and event management, namely to moderate discussion and present, his role grew.

This forum has become the highlight of Daniel’s career and a high point in his life. He has stepped into another dimension as a consultant. He is gracefully and humbly working daily with world famous people at this event, and he is in wonder over what has been taking place there. Hearts are being touched and stretched at deep levels. Powerful, genuine connections are being forged and furthered. Commitments are being made to contribute in profound ways as human beings.

Daniel is confident in his abilities while he also constantly turns to the Divine for guidance and inspiration. He knows where the Light really comes from, and he is delighting in the extraordinary things that have been occurring at the forum.

So, aside from letting you know about Daniel and his work and this remarkable gathering of people taking place, and how some rich and famous people are really joining to make a difference, I can’t help but notice the makeup of the confident, humble servant.

Isn’t that a wonderful foundation for running a business or holding a position of influence?

It takes a strong, well-centered personal base to serve from a position of strength and humility while also not being taken in by tantalizations of the world. To me this calls for being well-anchored in your heart with firm and true priorities.

Whether your business or your slice of the world stage is large and visible or real mom and pop, what do you think of offering yourself as a confident, humble servant? Does this ring true? Is your business based on an attitude of service?

Some of my cohorts and mentors in various ways, Mark Silver, Dawud Miracle, Adam Kayce and Jim Keeley all promote and guide the journey of serving from your deepest self, whatever your role or profession may be. This rings very true for me. I learned the truth of this stance in my construction business, and these men have helped me deepen and clarify it even more.

To be truly able, confident and humble at the same time; this is an orientation that attracts my greatest respect. I see it as a position of genuine strength and fullness as a human being.

I welcome any discussion. I think there is plenty of room for it here.

I am still on the learning curve in this computer world- how to make links, trackbacks and all kinds of other things. Being low on the learning ladder has slowed me down, but I am getting there.

Several weeks ago Dave Schoof of www.thedisquiet.com interviewed me for a podcast on his website. Dave is doing wonderful things with his specialty of helping men with their “disquiet”, their often-unspoken unease in their lives. As an aside, he is also addressing this unease in women to some extent. I have mentioned Dave a number of times previously.

In any event, I am way overdue in posting a link to this interview and in saying just a little about the interview. Being interviewed by Dave was a pleasure. He asks great questions about personal unease which is often taken as something wrong but is, in fact, an invitation to travel into a deeper, fuller life.

Dave has keyed into the fact that so many men (and women) struggle to one degree or another with this very important phenomenon. His work is well worth the visit to his website and his blogs.

I asked Dave if he has been interviewed, and he said no. So I told him that I would like to interview him in the near future. I will keep you posted about that!

Here is the interview link

Thanks, Dave.

Well, in an exchange with Karin from www.thekissbusiness.co.uk in my last blog, I came out of the closet as a person “oriented toward Spirit”.

I am not out to convert anybody.  But I am out to promote listening to the personal gyroscope.  And this personal gyroscope is linked to the spirit I just wrote about in the last blog.

In that last blog I mentioned my agnostic father who had clearly arrived at his own formula of warmly respecting others and himself.  He found a lot of fulfillment in his business life.

In his own way I am sure he heard his personal inner gyroscope quite well.  We all have one.  Call it whatever we will, it is the inner guide, the quiet “voice” of deeper perception, the voice of intuition.  It is the voice that nudges us about right and wrong, that perhaps feeds us flashes of brilliance in our business lives, the voice that sometimes warns us and might keep us from danger or bad decisions.

It is the voice that really is behind all that I promote in Conscious Cooperation.  No, I can’t take any credit for creating it.  In fact, my wanting to take any credit would interfere with perceiving this voice.

To me this inner voice or inner urging is the gyroscope that helps set a course for us and keeps us on track, if we listen.  It feeds our connections with others.  It recognizes what rings true and what doesn’t.  Several weeks ago Karin said that customers know when we are being ourselves and when we aren’t.  She said basically that trust is built on our genuineness.

My point here is that our genuineness is tied to the personal gyroscope.  This gyroscope has ancient wisdom running it.  It can guide and inspire our thinking, but it is not born of rational thinking.  It is a voice of ethics, respect and humility.  And it is a voice of warm connection, because that is its foundation.

It can also be easy to lose the thread to the inner gyroscope if we aren’t careful.  I know!  It is subtle.  It takes nursing and feeding.  To have lost good touch with the gyroscope can lead to much disquiet, as Dave Schoof of www.thedisquiet.com works with.

What I am talking about here is very much in keeping with the work of Mark Silver of www.heartofbusiness.com, Dawud Miracle of www.dmiracle.com and Adam Kayce of www.monkatwork.com.

So, how do you live with your personal gyroscope?  How does it affect your life?

Would you like to be better in touch with it?

If you have followed this blog at all, you know that matters of the spirit are of core importance for me.  Call it spirituality, focusing on your deepest inner self, communing with your higher power- it doesn’t matter what you call it.

For me this energy, wisdom and mystery of spirit are what drive everything.  I have to do my best to pay close attention to my relationship with spirit, or, if I may, Spirit, multiple times a day.  When Karin of www.thekissbusiness.co.uk tagged me to list my personal factors for productivity, the first thing I noted is that every morning I have to make a connection with the Divine, as some good friends put it, and connect with my heart.

It is from that place of Spirit and heart that I know I get the “juice” to connect with others and to approach my business from a place of giving.  And this is the fundamental basis of what I do and what I want to do.

Mark Silver of www.heartofbusiness.com guides his class students through a deep look inside themselves at what unique gift they have to give to their clients, and through a deep look at what is the “pain” of their clients, what it is they truly need help with.  Mark guides his clients and students through their personal link with Spirit inside them.  He says that if you clearly answer these fundamental questions then you have started to open a door to both a more fulfilling and successful work experience for yourself, but also to providing unique gifts to your clients in a way that really answers what they need.  In truth, life-changing experiences can open up.

That is a serious win-win!

And it does not matter what religion you may follow, if you follow any at all.  My father didn’t even believe in God, but he connected with his business clients in a way that made them feel fully taken care of.  And he enjoyed his business life.  He valued his clients, and he knew what he could offer them.  I guess you could say that he loved his clients, and they loved him.

I was with him once when I was a little boy, and we ran into one of his clients.  I will never forget the joy and respect that this man spontaneously showed when he saw my father.  Fifty years later I can still picture the moment.  In his own way my father had found the truth of answering his clients’ “pain”, as Mark Silver says, and treating his clients with respect while he also respected himself.  A real good model for me that resonated inside me even at that early age.

Another key element of connecting with “Spirit” is that there is this endless source of guidance and inspiration!  It can be such a relief.  When I feel overwhelmed I know I am too much in my own mind and pictures of things.  Time to give it a rest and tap into the deeper well.  It is a fundamental truth for me that I simply have to repeatedly step away from my own looking glass to live a fuller life.  There is available at all times, if I tune in, an endless source of guidance, supply and surprise.

Such a refreshing dip into renewal and shifting may work on my own, or I may need to connect with a close friend or colleague to broaden my perspectives and link more closely to my heart again.

Then, there is also the remarkable phenomenon that in doing something for someone else, however small the gesture may be, your life and horizons expand.  Amen!  I get tired of too much of me.  And having the approach in business to be in service, while honoring yourself at the same time, feeds into this orientation of giving.  When I started to approach my business in this way it was like a steel band was loosened from around my chest.  I could breathe more deeply, enjoy what I was doing more.  The world actually got brighter, and I felt more present.  My relationships with my clients changed in a fundamental way.

Maybe you think of it as your personal inner guidance or “knowing”.  The terms don’t matter.  I believe we all have a deep inner voice that wants to help us to the extent that we can listen!

So, do you agree with my main messages here?  Disagree?  How do you relate to your inner spirit?  What do you do to feed your spirit and feed yourself with it?

I welcome any comments.

Karin from www.thekissbusiness.co.uk tagged me to list my keys for productivity, and to hopefully note my one main productivity factor. Ben Yoskovitz of www.theinstigatorblog.com began a meme to put together the “ultimate” guide to productivity.

Well, thanks, Karin, although sometimes these days I feel like I am doing an awful lot but it is sort of jumbled up. You see, my entire life has been in revamp mode for a little while now, so there is little that is a familiar anchor. New, exciting and daunting at the same time. The blog community has actually become an important anchor in a very short time. That is the honest where I am at.

Sometimes these days I feel like I could better help someone else in their productivity than help myself in mine. And yet I think there is a broad-daylight hidden point there- Have plenty of help from others!

So here is my list:

1. Greet the Divine first thing, make my first cup of tea and start in with some contemplation/prayer time. Make a conscious connection with my heart.

This really does set the tone of my day and open me to fullness and surprises that do not otherwise appear at the same depth.

2. Work from goals and to-do lists that stay flexible. My poor brain has definitely lost some memory capacity, although I love the person who said that this makes room for more wisdom. Whew! Thanks. Prioritize the goals and to-do’s. I do well with organization that has flexibility.

3. I am taking note of when in the day I seem to do some things better than others and what my natural rhythm seems to be.

4. Keep up regular contact with my “team”- close friends, buddies, collaborators, mentors, etc. I am still working on getting situated with a master-mind team, but the important people in my life are crucial to truing myself and keeping moving in good directions. I do a lot of bouncing off.

5. Make commitments! I learned years ago from the Context Trainings Corporation to be very careful about what you commit to. And I learned the enormous power of commitment. I may meander a bit on getting somewhere, but my commitment to get there is paramount. And whatever I commit to put all of myself into it.

6. Do this all with a ready grin up my sleeve. Be ready to have fun with anything and everything. Take myself with a large grain of sea salt.

7. Throw some fun and exercise into the mix. My beloved old dog frequently gets me to the woods, the beach, the school yard for serious stick-throwing. If I can grab a daytime walk or lunch with a friend it is great. We typically end up being a two person mutual support group. Use my workout machine. Do a little yard work. Enjoy a little personal conversation in the midst of the work day.

8. Learn from others!! Get help as needed!!

9. Acknowledge all I am doing, and do my best to be merciful with myself.

10. Look for divine guidance with everything.

Whew! That is a list and 7/8.

As for the key factor, I think that commitment with full participation on my part, coupled with the personal spiritual connection are my “must have” foundation factors.

A while back both Dawud Miracle of www.dmiracle.com and Dave Schoof of www.thedisquiet.com tagged me to post my core goals for life. I thank them both for the tagging.

For a couple of reasons, primarily that I had trouble mastering linking and various computer skills, I wrote the goals and did not post them. So here is a belated posting. My apologies to my taggers for the delay. And yet I also found I wanted to edit slightly now.

So here they are. As Dawud noted for himself, all my primary goals center around things close to my heart.

1. To be as supportive and fun as I can be to my daughter.

2. To be as loving as I can be every day. This is both a general statement and a personal statement to the lady in my life.

3. To turn to God in my heart more and more and live from that place.

4. To passionately participate in the unfolding of my business Conscious Cooperation as it expands and I am able to share with more and more people through it.

5. To give freely and generously, both to causes and individuals.

6. To live in deep gratitude.

7. To live generously.

8. To be as much of a light on this earth as I can.

9. To have and be fun!

10. To be an excellent friend/companion to myself and to my friends and close companions.

11. To be a uniter.

12. To live in my integrity.

I would like to tag Mark Silver of www.heartofbusiness.com and Sean D’Souza of www.psychotactics.com

In mid April I attended graduation ceremonies for my 20 year old nephew Alex who just completed US Marine boot camp.

My sister and her husband, my brother-in-law’s brother, and my daughter and I were present.

Let’s just say that in thirteen weeks remarkable transformation was highly apparent. My nephew showed new stature and presence, new confidence and new appreciation of life that had not been revealed before. At the same time, as my sister said, he was still himself. He had not become a hard-butt. Rather, he had done significant maturing and blossoming in a very short period of time.

It was a wonderful thing to observe and be present for. Joining the Marines was not the first choice that his parents would have made for him, but Alex wanted the most thorough military training program he could get, and he recognized that he needed his butt booted a bit. So he chose the Marines.

Was it hard? Oh, yes. Did he get pushed to capacities he didn’t know he had? Definitely. And did he come out a fuller human being? Yes, he did. His whole family has new appreciation of the character-building aspect of this military training. I would not be saying that without having seen the marked changes in Alex, and without having gotten a taste of training life at the Marine base.

So, I ask myself, what are the components of his growth, and how was that growth stimulated?

He mastered tremendous physical and mental challenges. He had to LISTEN and not question. He had to follow orders. In one sense he had to give up his will, but his will to complete the training to the best of his ability actually strengthened while he learned to give up other will.

He was also trained to be a team member, at a deep level, and to be committed to being there for his fellow recruits. And, he did not lose his sense of himself. That actually became better defined. He clearly has new confidence.

I know there is a lot of reaction that says that the military wants mindless, obedient soldiers who will be obedient killing machines. Yet what I saw changed in Alex is that for the first time in his life he was able to really put aside his own desires and will in order to be the best contributor he could to the group he was training with, and to throw himself into something beyond his usual daily patterns.

Alex is a very intelligent young guy, very observant, highly verbal. He observed an awful lot. I think that part of the success of military training is that one is forced to step out of their usual mind and habits. You don’t get coffee just when you want it, or anything else just when you want it. Actually, for a few months you don’t get much of anything that you want. If you don’t like something you can’t just walk away. You have to deal with it and swallow your own reactions. You are taught to look out for your fellow human beings and work in cooperation, or else you all may fail.

In short, there is something very humbling about the training while there is also something that promotes tremendous confidence and ability to work with others.

The reason I have described all this is I wanted to deconstruct the connection I see between the changes in Alex and components that I believe are crucial to successfully running a business in integrity.

As I picture Alex now I observe some key qualities:

He has new confidence in his abilities to carry out difficult tasks.
He has new focus.
He has a new ability to listen carefully and translate that listening into appropriate action.
He appreciates life at a level that he previously took for granted.
He has experienced rewards of holding his own will at bay.

To me, being committed to working in cooperation involves certainly having your own way of seeing things while not being wedded to your way being the only way. You can be cooperative even if you don’t particularly like someone you are working with. And, you can also choose to look for the best in others and overlook a lot, which stretches your boundaries.

Such lovable, good-natured and influential characters as Art Buchwald have said that their Marine training was the most important developmental factor in their lives. For the first time, I think I can understand this.

I welcome any comments.

Do you feel like a juggler?

Do you feel like you have so much to do which calls for your attention that you have serious doubts you can do it all?

You have work schedules, which change all the time in spite of your best planning. You are somewhat at the mercy of the schedules and whims of others, no matter how well you try to orchestrate what you do.

You have family commitments, or significant other commitments, and/or friendship commitments that you would like to put the best of yourself into. Maybe you have community commitments and volunteer commitments of different sorts that also mean a lot to you.

If you are self employed you likely have the DOER genes that others value. People probably admire your abilities to get things done. People may well wonder how in the world you do all you do.

Maybe YOU wonder how in the world you do all you do.

Are you doing too much? Or are you geared toward what you are doing in a pushing kind of way that comes from much determination and a picture of things that sees no other way to do it?

Are you enjoying what you are doing and how you are doing it? If you feel pushed and stressed and on the edge, I doubt you are enjoying it too much. I have been there.

I have always loved the craft of construction. Often enough I have enjoyed the excitement of the work, of different people working together to create.

And, as you know from my blog, the relationships among everyone involved have been highly important to me and now form the basis of my focus.

If your personal circus is one that you enjoy, great! If it is one that leaves you stressed and worn down, that is trouble.

Here are some links to sites that I have a lot of respect for, that might be of help. These are some great people:

www.jasonstein.com Jason Stein is a personal coach, trainer and presenter who helps with personal efficiency, personal meaning and personal success. He helps you do your business well while being more in tune with yourself.

www.monkatwork.com Adam Kayce of monkatwork addresses similar issues in a somewhat different fashion.

www.thedisquiet.com Dave Schoof of thedisquiet, mentioned previously in my blogging, addresses the dis-ease that many men experience to one degree or another. He is a wonderful resource. Dave also is a coach and trainer.

All these men provide some wonderful resources to help with personal focus, fulfillment and success. All are worth looking into.

In the near future I will provide links to more resources.

And by the way, as some of my readers here will know, any of what I have written about today can apply to women, too. So, welcome women!

Here is to an enjoyable circus…