There’s one more secret to a flourishing practice. It’s the one I’ve held to for so long, I didn’t even think of when I was writing Secrets to a Flourishing Practice. Sometimes you just don’t see the nose in front of your own face! It didn’t even come to mind until I saw the comment from my friend, Jeff Brunson. Jeff is a deeply effective leadership coach, eliciting the authentic leader. In one comment, he makes me better. That’s some wicked skill. Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff reminded me of something I said a long time ago, “’I’m looking for a marketing strategy that is congruent with who I am.” This aim crystalized the sutra-like sankalpa that has guided me for many years, BE A LIGHTHOUSE.
One meaning of sutra is aphorism. While the closest English translation of sankalpa is intention. Sutra also contains the understanding that the crystalline language itself contains the energy of the statement. That is more than an aphorism. Sankalpa holds the energy of the intention and the will to fulfill the intention. BE A LIGHTHOUSE.
Over time, the expression of this ‘sutra’ in practice changes. As we are all dynamic rather than static beings, how you and I show up as lighthouses will change. Be a lighthouse is not just something I say to myself. It’s more than that. It’s an inner stance and an evolving practice.
In practice, I think of being a lighthouse as spiritual collaboration. Even my understanding of spiritual collaboration has changed over the years. We evolve.
Fundamental to this collaboration is a handful of assumptions that I hold as beliefs – some grounded in science, all grounded in my own experience:
- There is a unified field of consciousness to which we are all intimately connected and cannot be separated.
- This field is a network FAR bigger than any networking group I could possibly access by going to networking meetings. Therefore, I ONLY go to meetings that I feel inspired to attend.
- We can all enjoy a wonder-filled collaboration with this field.
- Each of us can access an inherent wisdom, unfolding the richness and insight that comes from any meaningful collaboration.
- Like other relationships, a collaboration bears fruit through the two wings of grace and self-effort. Grace, for me shows up in the mysterious serendipitous play of life. While self-effort includes ALL the doings to align with that mystery. Self-effort is keeping my oars in the water, while grace is the current.
What about you? What guides your flourishing practice?
