Workweek: an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the location where the self meets the world. Whatever business we’re in, what projects we’re working on or what interests we have in the world — we’re all in the company of relationship building. In business we are constantly cultivating relationships with workers, with prospective clients, with colleagues.
Private life
In our private lives the place of connection is often more evident and more fundamental. And our deeper connection with ourselves is at the heart of how we handle and grow every one of the other relationships and our lives. At each moment in our personal and professional lives we’re confronted with conclusions — one after another that create and continue across the landscape of our lives.
What criteria do you use to make good decisions, what benchmarks would you use to measure your decision making process? The issue of decision-making and relationships are closely allied. If we’re in close, clear contact with our own beings, our wisdom, our intuitive faculties- the choices we make have more likelihood of keeping us moving along a route that is in integrity with our values and actual objectives.
Let’s see…
When we let the rush of events to detach us from this deeper well of vision and understanding — all that we do suffers. I hear over and over again from customers how there isnt the moment, the way the bottom-line is exactly what must determine their decisions and frequently their leadership. I’m not immune to the pressures and demands of the world most of us live in.
But if we are to, in some way, affect the world positively and create a life that’s worth living we need to find some time to allow for the growth and development of what will give us the basis, imagination and energy to create moment-to-moment sound decisions. How can you cultivate this important connection or relationship with yourself? What nourishes it? For me sometimes in a hectic work environment it’s the existence of beauty or the type and friendly relationship I’ve developed with my colleagues. My everyday habits of thoughts and inspiring walk contribute to this.
Take a pause
Sometimes it’s taking the time to stop and allow silence to be current so I can feel the next move. I understand that if I do this my conclusions are more balanced. We all must look to ourselves, to teachers and educators to cultivate even simple practices which we are able to incorporate into our day. When we have the ability to do this — to keep a stronger link to this core in us there is a feeling of our own power and strength that then comes forward in our relationships and decisions.
Obviously our decision making takes into account details, weighing of possible outcomes, the history of the problem at hand. But if you’re making a decision the context in which it’s made is really the condition you’re in, your ideas, your clarity, and your connection to a deeper wellbeing. These affect directly your senses, understanding, openness to choices and solutions, and also the flow of your creative juices.
We must call on our own deeper understanding and vision to inform our decisions. Usually when we’ve cultivated this essential connection it is simpler to see or feel what is needed from the circumstance. We more readily feel our own ability to stand firm in the face of contradictory opinions or forces. We can maintain a perspective that serves the situation and starts to move it in a few creative and affirmative way.
Choices
The word “Choices” itself gives us clues to the elements of great decision-making. I feel that good choices are ones that bring more skill, more freedom for ourselves and others and ones which allow for continued growth in the circumstance. Here’s a means of looking at your daily decisions and seeing how they are or aren’t contributing to this.
- C: Creative A fantastic choice calls on your imagination, your interest in finding answers which might have been hidden. They actual feel great in your body as you can feel the energy of your imagination being engaged. This in itself is satisfying.
- H: Healthy Faced with a choice you could always look at what’s the healthiest route both for yourself, for those involved and possibly even for the long run. Healthy native cultures often make decisions based on the impact they might have for generations to come. We’ve lost that long-range vision and frequently make short-term decisions that are detrimental to the whole situation further down the street.
- O: Open- Opportunities — Objective Does the choice keep you open to possibilities? Does this bring in a bigger field of opportunities? Are you able to create it in an objective rather than an emotionally reactive state?
- I: Inspire Inspiration is generally the outcome of a fantastic decision. Even if the solution is difficult or the upcoming steps hazardous you know that you’re doing the best thing possible in the circumstance. Once more that in itself increases a self-esteem and increases the energy available from the situation or system.
- C: Connections Isolation of some sort is often the by-product of questionable conclusions. Whether this isolation is from the others, our own selves or our talents and skills. However, as soon as we maintain those fundamental connections we can more safely navigate the new and unknown territory that some options bring.
- E: Empower At the end of the day do your own decisions leave you feeling empowered — the writer of your own conclusions or do you feel caught in a web of confusion. If the later is true it is time to return and start to have a larger perspective of the issues at hand.
- S: Soul Finally choices which both use your connection to your spirit and function to support that bond are the ones which will bear the richest fruit. We’re the authors of our own lives and our organization. Although we are within a larger field of forces, anxieties and history every one of us has at our disposal imaginative wisdom, creativity and connection that help us navigate the sometimes-chaotic landscape of every day.