Archive for March, 2009

Until One Is Committed

March 30, 2009

Many people have issues around commitment. This is probably because of the loss of freedom that goes along with committing to something, or someone.

Think about it. If you commit to something, what happens? Right after you make the commitment, everything that is the opposite comes up to challenge your commitment. If you commit to stop using profanities in public… the next time you are in public something will happen that will seduce you to want to use a profanity.

Then you think, “what does it matter anyway?” I will “just do it this one time”. And then before you know it your commitment is worthless and you find yourself back at square one.

This is why so many people have difficulty following through on their commitments. It is so easy to make the commitment when you are feeling good and are thinking about the theory of it, and another matter altogether to do it. The doing part takes emotional energy that was not needed when you first made the commitment. It is the emotional energy or the emotional aspect of the commitment that carries you through the difficult times as your commitment is challenged.

If you commit to something because you were threatened in the moment, then when you take the threat away – the commitment goes with it. If you get swept up in the emotion of a moment, and make a commitment – then when the momentary emotional drive is gone (for example in a meeting, or a company conference where everyone is excited about making a goal, objective or ideal happen) the commitment goes with it.

Spiritual Commitment

The best type of commitment and the most long-lasting are the ones that move you, so you emotionally commit. Then there is no going back. Your emotional energy in the positive direction of what the essence of the commitment is all about and the spiritual reason behind it – will have you unwavering. Typically a spiritual level commitment involves connecting with the higher purpose of the commitment. This usually involves the “greatest good for the greatest number of people“.

Overcommitment

If you commit to too many things without taking the time to emotionally and spiritually commit to seeing them through, then you will end up overestimating what you can reasonably achieve and will make more commitments than you can keep.

Good As Gold

The key is to “make your word as good as gold” which means that you make small commitments – and keep them – before committing to huge, big and overwhelming commitments. By making and keeping small commitments you build trust with yourself. And others will also trust you more.

And this trust, is the essence of building lasting relationships and is the key to success as a leader.

***

Below is a quote from a book by William H. Murray. Its an old one but relevant to this subject:

Until One Is Committed

William H. Murray (from his book “The Scottish Himalayan Expedition”)

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it”.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

Posted in Feelings, Flow, New-Paradigm Leadership, Relationships, Success | 3 Comments »

Everyday Terrorist Confession (PRIVATE)

March 24, 2009

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Posted in New-Paradigm Leadership, Polls | Leave a Comment »

Everyday Terrorism

March 23, 2009

Roadside bombings, drive-by shootings, tourists held at gunpoint, we are familiar with these headlines describing terrorist activities. Desperate for a method to get what they want, terrorists resort to tactics that invoke fear in the hearts of even the most secure and confident people.

Terrorists feel totally justified in taking other peoples lives, and see their victims as guilty of one thing or another. Even so far as suicide, and sacrificing the defenseless and clearly innocent – like children as a means to the end of their cause.

Perhaps, more insidious than the headline terrorists are the everyday terrorists who operate in the corridors of the modern workplace. We don’t have to look to the streets of a distant city for these people.

These people hijack our businesses and our time. They covet our attention, energy and talent. They are charmers, masterful, manipulators and seemingly everyone’s friend. They are intellectuals, who look very busy and have all day to talk about your feelings, but no time to talk about theirs. When the real work is being done, they are nowhere to be seen; yet when the work is over they take all the credit! When things go wrong, it is never their fault.

Does this describe anyone you know?

These everyday terrorists use intimidation and domination tactics so masterfully that you don’t even know they are doing it. Just like the headline terrorists, their “real” target is the strong leader, the powerful group, the successful, responsible person.

Their underlying motives are fueled by insecurity and jealousy. They bulldoze anyone who is in their way. They demand all the attention and will “take down” anyone who is taking the limelight from them.

Any kind of attention will do – positive – or – negative.

They “hit and cry”, when confronted with what they have done, they claim they are the real victim and are innocent.

Systems are the enemy of the everyday terrorist. They hate them, and anything that holds them to account for their results, and their behaviors. These people will say yes, yes to your face, then turn around and do exactly what they want to do.

With the current economic crisis putting extra stress on our organizations and our workplaces, many of these people who were hidden and undiscovered are now being flushed out and are acting up even more.

Many of their colleagues describe them as being “out of control” and bullying anyone who stands in their way.

Some research has indicated that 81% of these everyday terrorists are in fact the supervisors, managers and executives in charge! Many people think most of these characters are men… however there are as many woman as men!

Having said that, it is interesting to note that 71% of the targets of these everyday terrorists are women.

Victims live in a constant state of fear and often suffer both emotional and financial harm. Symptoms include headaches, depression, inability to sleep and feel drained to the point of exhaustion.

You may be thinking that bulldozing is necessary to get the job done, or “the end justifies the means” (headline terrorists think this too) or that people are easily replaceable. However, if you consider the true cost of lost productivity, the resultant absenteeism and the replacement cost of these people, you will soon realize that the cost of this behavior is very high.

According to a recent study conducted by Psychologist Michael H. Harrison Ph.D., on 9,000 federal employees the total cost was as high as $20,000 per employee ($180 million in total.)

Under the current economic circumstances, why do some people adapt to the pressure while others use it as an excuse to behave badly? Do you find yourself having to deal with these people, or are you one of them and find it unbearable to be around yourself?

Is this an opportunity, a call to right action or is it permission to hold others hostage to your behaviors?

The most dangerous are the ones who can keep their feelings hidden and are numb to fact that they even have them. These people are in the denial-zone and suck the Lifeforce out of everyone around them with a smile or a stone face. You can recognize them by the behavior of the people around them. If you are reading this and think you are the level headed, intellectual who is so above having these negative feelings, then you are likely to be one of these people.

At the Goldzone Organization, we decided several years ago to create an environment that has zero tolerance for everyday terrorist behavior. The key to this is accountability and safety for everyone to report anyone – regardless of their position.

As a result, we created systems to make it easy to report and clear up incidents before they become serious and too costly. We then automated these systems and integrated them with our enterprise computer systems. We are currently in the process of making these systems available for free via an iPhone application that can be used by anyone, anytime and in any environment.

If the future success of your organization is dependant on creativity and innovation – these everyday terrorists – if left unaddressed will destroy the synergy, passion, creativity and spirit of your team.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Anti-Magic, Consciousness, Feelings, Financial Crisis, Innovation, Magic moments | 6 Comments »

Financial Crisis: Expansion

March 20, 2009

 

With the world embroiled in a global recession for the first time since the 40’s, a lot of what we had accepted as “the way things are” has been turned upside down. Sure, there have been recessions in most regions, however it has been over 60 years since we had a global recession.

One thing a lot of people had taken for granted was that we could keep on expanding forever. This caused a bubble from over expansion when prices lost touch with fundamentals and in the end turned out to be unsustainable.

Greed drove markets to higher and higher levels, and now that things have crashed back to earth, fear has driven and continues to drive markets lower and lower to such a level that we have, once again lost touch with the fundamentals.

As you can see, we have swung between these two extremes driven by emotions at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Often times it is fear of contraction that holds people back from expanding. This is similar to not wanting to try something in case you fail at it. The thought is that it is better to not try – than it is to fail.

The problem is, if we don’t grow, we don’t expand, we don’t stretch ourselves, we don’t set goals, we don’t visualize brighter futures, we have nothing to look forward to. We are living in our comfort zone.

When in our comfort zone we are NOT running into limiting beliefs, limiting paradigms, or limited ability.

It is only when we expand and grow that we run into our limits. It is only then that we discover what we don’t know, and what we cannot yet do. It is only then that we discover everything that is against our goals, visions and progress.

In a world that exists on the universal law of duality, we are either growing or we are dying. There is no such thing as a holding pattern. This means that the comfort zone is in fact a slow death. If we stand still we do not remain motionless. The world around us continues and we, in fact regress. So doing nothing is like regression and growing is the only way to move forward and claim the prize of a life fully lived.

So what is it that has people not growing, not expanding and not taking risks? FEAR. And the false belief that if they do nothing their situation will improve. If a company is losing money and the management does nothing… Then the company will be in a worse condition in six months time than it is now. Something has got to change in order to turn the financial position around. This is the same with bad careers, relationships, health etc. If you do nothing, you may become numb to the problem, however you will not solve the problem… It will only get worse and will be more difficult to solve later.

Most people only take action when an emergency is upon them and they can delay no longer. The pain of taking action is less than the pain of emergency. This is a very stressful way to live and it is completely unnecessary.

So, why do people stop growing, set no goals, visions and not commit to plans? The answer may surprise you. It is because at some time in the past, the person had a painful experience, made a number of conclusions based on that experience and formed a belief or precept on how they would live in the future so as to avoid the pain.

Whenever a person sets a new goal, plans or envisions a future, they invoke all the unresolved past incidents that are similar to their current goals, plans and visions. This can be very depressing and painful! Usually, the person will not realize that this mechanism has activated and will look for causes within their present time to blame for their condition and their feelings. Usually the blame is put on some person who is perhaps not faultless… But certainly didn’t do it to them. Blaming others or outside events only serve to avoid the real truth of what the cause of the failure is. And, unless the truth is uncovered… It will reoccur again, and again.

If you think that you will arrive at a point in life where you have “arrived” and your learning and growing will stop… Then you don’t understand how life works!

The worst thing you can do is hope that this problem will resolve itself… And therefore do nothing.

How do you end this cycle and accelerate your expansion?

This is perhaps the most difficult thing to do… set new goals, dream new dreams and do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. It is at times like this when the most opportunities exist. Take some risks, venture out and know with confidence that the recession will not last and the market will soon be back into growth.

Now is your opportunity to lead. Go for an extraordinary existence, living an extraordinary life, with extraordinary people and achieve extraordinary results.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Change, Expansion, Financial Crisis, New-Paradigm Leadership, Transformation | 3 Comments »

Zone Tips: Cause & Effect

March 19, 2009

One of the key components to getting into “The Zone” and staying there is understanding and mastering Cause & Effect.

There is a lot to this subject and it is a bit technical however, master this and you are sure to experience a transformation in your results!

What is Cause & Effect?  Everything that happens is an Effect that was Caused by something. Nothing occurs without something else Causing it to happen.  For example, a glass that was sitting on the table, does not fall onto the floor by itself.  A person walking by, may bump the table, Causing the glass to fall off the table and onto the floor, breaking into pieces.

In this example, the EFFECT was the broken glass.  The CAUSE was the person who placed the glass too close to the edge of the table, which then combined with the person walking by. Often times, we get upset and angry at the EFFECT — and never really identify the CAUSE. Blaming the person who walked by and bumped the glass — doesn’t solve the problem.  Yelling at them, punishing them, getting them back later… All achieve nothing as the TRUE CAUSE has not been identified. The CAUSE in this example was the person when they placed the glass on the edge of the table.  The person walking by only played into it and is the SECONDARY CAUSE.

Without the true Cause being identified — no lasting change is possible. For most of us, when something happens that we don’t want, don’t like, or detest, we blame the SECONDARY CAUSE rather than the TRUE CAUSE. And we can make all the changes to Secondary Causes we like – only to discover that our results remain unchanged.

If you want lasting change in any area — identify the TRUE CAUSES — and change them. What is the TRUE CAUSE of the financial crisis? If you are experiencing financial difficulties, or investment losses, what is the true Cause? Think about it. Have you identified Primary Causes or are you focusing on Secondary Causes?

The challenge for most people is that they spend a good deal of time being at Effect and not often being at Cause of their life, career, relationships, health etc. Designing and living your ideal life requires you to be at Cause. Being at Cause simply means to make decisions and operate from the perspective of Causing or SOURCING what you want versus accepting the Effects of others.

In order to be at Cause requires you to be able to be at Cause and at Effect. Sounds confusing, but in fact it is quite simple:

  • When you avoid being CAUSE, you automatically put yourself at EFFECT. If you run away from something, you are at the Effect of the thing you are running away from.
  • When you are at Effect, it Causes you to be in REACTION to what is happening to you. Reacting to things that happen to you is very different from RESPONDING. Responding has you being at Cause.
  • If you just want to be Cause and avoid Effect, you automatically put yourself at EFFECT.
  • As a leader you are at Cause, on the other hand as a follower you are at Effect. This is why a lot of people don’t want to follow others, they don’t want to be at Effect of them. Choosing who you follow puts you at Cause over the Effect of the person you are following! (now that is a dichotomy!)

The bottom line is that in order to be in The Zone, we need to master being CAUSE, and being EFFECT.  Being Effect means being able and willing to experience anything. Sounds tough, but that is where true freedom is.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Change, Consciousness, Financial Crisis, Transformation, Zone Tips | Leave a Comment »

Has The Economy Hit Bottom Yet?

March 18, 2009

bottomyet

This graph is very interesting (from The New York Times). It shows the price-to-earnings ratio and gives us hope for the future as well as some relief that the bottom is not far away – if not here already. On the other hand, you can see that there is a possibility we will get to the lows of the 20′s, 30′s and 80′s – which means more pain on the way.

What explains the huge run up from the 80′s to the early 2000′s? and why was this period very different from the previous ups and downs? The widespread adoption of new technologies. Some of the gains from applying technology have been overrated, however for the most part these gains have resulted in significant increases in productivity.

Even if you don’t follow the markets, you are impacted by them. When the market moves up (prices rising) it is a lead indicator of what we will see on the street in the not too distant future. What happens to stocks usually preempts what happens in the overall economy. Prices rising indicates optimism, prices falling indicates pessimism. The better the future looks, the higher the ratio of price-to-earnings will go.

You may be thinking, “wow, sounds like the markets are run by emotion”! You are right, with the two primary emotions being fear and greed, with a diverse range in-between.

To be fair, there is more at play in the markets that emotion… there is also the data, the facts, the ratios. Emotion without facts is irrational. Facts without emotion are inaccurate or incomplete. As you can see, it takes both to be successful.

For those of us born in the 70′s and 80′s this is a new experience (in the 2000′s). I was born in the 60′s, so you can see the slide down to the 80′s. The benefit of the graph is that you can look back a hundred years or so and see the repeating pattern. Which brings me to the good news; we will hit bottom and the wild ride up will begin again!

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Charts > Graphs, Credit Crisis, Finance, Financial Crisis, New-Paradigm Leadership | Leave a Comment »

I.O.U.S.A.

March 17, 2009

This video is very well done. I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. The graphics are awesome and the content is very well presented. The full version is available (highly recommended) on DVD from PBS.

youtube-i-o-u-s-a-byte-sized-captioned

youtube-i-o-u-s-a-byte-sized-captioned

This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Credit Crisis, Finance, Financial Crisis | 3 Comments »

Financial Crisis: What To Say To Your Loved Ones

March 17, 2009

Many people have their self-worth hardwired to their net-worth. I referred to this phenomenon in Towers of Glass, Feet of Clay. And perhaps this is the single biggest reason to build a glass tower around your-self in the first place. So, what happens when the waves of impact touch your reality and this tower is about to blow apart from the tension, shattering everything within its shadow?

For those of us that are fortunate enough to free ourselves from this thought form, it is easier perhaps to keep our sense of self, our self-worth in tact as these waves impact our net-worth. Not easy, not comfortable, not separate from the tension, not immune from the judgments of others but rather perhaps more objective in the way we are able to view ourselves through the process.

Psychiatrists and psychologists report that 80% of their clients who are seeing them on stress related issues are stressed the most about finances and the economy.

Chronic stress leads to many physical problems, and some of these are life threatening. How you manage this emotionally is everything. BBC news reports that the wealthiest people have been impacted, in “Rich list hit by economic crisis” http://budurl.com/64e6 it states; “The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world’s richest people, wiping 332 names off Forbes magazine’s “rich list” of world billionaires.” This represents about one third of the list and the average loss for those that remain is 23% of their net-worth. Only 5.5% of those remaining on the list increased their income over the past year.

This is truly a reversal of fortune.

How do you communicate what is going on to spouses, life partner’s, children, parents, friends and family? How do you reassure those that are close to you, with such uncertain and volatile circumstances? Especially when you need reassurance too!

How do you cope with those closest to you failing to stand by you in your moment of vulnerability when they are used to leaning on you?

How do you communicate the truth without scarring and terrorizing the people around you, when you have been bred to be silent or angry when things are not right? What do you do when they only know you as the provider, the hero, the one who is strong? What happens if everyone close to you has abdicated financial responsibility to you, and you have taken it, leaving him or her powerless to fend for him or her in this area?

Step one is to re-build, re-negotiate and redeem these relationships from the foundation of who you are separate from your net-worth. Establish your self-worth as being most important, and free from the highs and lows of the marketplace.

Truthful honest communication requires a quiet confidence that allows you to be authentic and natural, to be safe and secure, like an oasis in the middle of a dry desert. The challenge is that if your self-worth is hardwired to your net-worth then you will feel ashamed and fearful and these feelings will suppress your expression, your truth, your spirit.

The other option is that you get frustrated and angry and this will cause you to be over-expressed and reactive. Regardless of the words you say, the positive attitude you force upon yourself, the feeling you exude is what people respond to. Your feelings are what creates the oasis, the re-assurance, the support. Your feelings are what allow those you are used to supporting… to support you or abandon you as quickly as your cash.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Feelings, Financial Crisis, New-Paradigm Leadership | 5 Comments »

Zone Tips: Staying “In The Zone”

March 16, 2009

Most people know what “The Zone” is and have experienced moments in The Zone in their career, sports, money etc. Typically these moments are infrequent, unpredictable at best and most people have no idea how to get in The Zone whenever and wherever they choose.

The Zone feels like a quiet excitement with intensified focus. You feel a sense of confidence, total concentration and an intense awareness. Your movements are easy, flowing and especially coordinated. You lose all sense of time as if another dimension has been added. You are completely focused on what you are doing and all other thoughts and feelings diminish.

When you “slip’ out of The Zone, it feels like the opposite. Nothing flows. Movements are awkward. It is difficult to concentrate.

Here are some tips for getting and staying in The Zone:

  1. Whenever you engage with people ask yourself if you are in The Zone or not? If you are great! If not, ask yourself what one thing you could do that would move you into The Zone the fastest with the least amount of effort.
  2. You do not need to be in The Zone all the time, just when you are doing the most important things.
  3. Take time at the beginning of each day to postulate your day and at the end of the day to review and contemplate how your day went.
  4. If you focus on what is WRONG and what is not working, you will stay out of The Zone! If you focus on what is RIGHT and what is working – you will get more of it and migrate towards The Zone and stay there more often.
  5. On the other hand if you ONLY focus on WHAT IS WORKING and do not consider WHAT IS NOT WORKING, you will become one of “those people” who only see the positive and not the counter to positive (what is working) which is negative (what is not working).
  6. If you find that you are worried and in a serious mood – this is not in The Zone! Make an effort to shift into a more playful, light and fun mood. Fun and laughter will have you moving up and into The Zone. Worry and seriousness are certain Zone killers.
  7. If your primary relationship is not working, and you have conflict and disagreements on a regular basis, it will be difficult to sustain long periods in The Zone. The maximum flow comes from harmony. Like music, disharmony is painful!
  8. Take time to choose and organize your environment. Chaotic, harsh and dramatic environments are certain Zone killers. Think about it… if you are sitting on an uncomfortable chair, with bright fluorescent lights with lots of loud noise – how difficult is it to get in The Zone?
  9. Whatever you are feeling on the inside can often lag behind your actual reality. So focus on what is working and make the changes necessary to bring your “inside” in alignment with your “outside”.
  10. Focus on your wins and celebrate your success. If you are part of a team, create a culture of acknowledgement and support.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Change, Consciousness, Creativity, Feelings, Flow | 7 Comments »

Uncompromising Standards

March 9, 2009

uncompromising

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Posted in Quotes > Inspiration, Service | 2 Comments »

The Financial Crisis: Eroding High Standards

March 9, 2009

This article describes a phenomena that is behind some of the largest corporate collapse we have seen in history. Corporate collapses, particularly those caused by massive financial losses are not often the result of a single action or cause, but rather a combination of factors. This complexity can often cover up the most significant aspect of what went wrong. A thorough investigation by people who know what to look for can often reveal lapses in standards, honesty and ethics long before the entire collapse of the organization.

These lapses often (but not always) begin at the top – with the leadership and then filter down throughout the organization.

The Lower Truth Phenomena

We are writing here about businesses and organizations, however this same scenario plays out in interpersonal relationships with a similar effect.

Whenever you work for or with a person who operates at a lower level of truth, honesty, values and standards than you do, you will be pulled down to their level of lower truth, honesty, values and standards.

This does not happen overnight, it occurs slowly and insidiously over time.

Here is an example of this mechanism in operation:

Lets say you are a high standard, high truth person who values honesty and you enter into a business partnership with another person. This can also occur when you work as an employee for lower standard management. In the below example, we are using a partnership where each partner has equal say, in situations where management has more say and power over you, this phenomena is greatly exaggerated.

Your partner purports themselves to be the same as you, they say they value honesty, have high standards etc. On the surface this appears to be true and you believe them.

Taking them at face value you proceed to invest a significant amount of money, time and energy in the venture. In the course of doing business, you make a lot of promises and agreements on behalf of the partnership.

When things are going well, everything is flowing and proceeding to your satisfaction. And then one by one, things begin to go wrong. There is no apparent explanation for the small failures so you proceed forward regardless of the “taps on the shoulder”.

As things deteriorate, and more and more stress comes into the project and the partnership, you are unable to keep all your agreements and promises. This does not happen overnight, it occurs one small thing at a time. A supplier doesn’t get paid on or before the date promised. A client doesn’t get the exact order as promised. A team members salary is a few days late with no communication. A deposit is made late. A check bounces etc.

Slowly but surely your high standards and ideals have been compromised and you find yourself out of integrity with yourself. This causes you to feel ashamed and can be very painful.

In order to deal with the pain of violating your high standards and ideals, the first thing you do is lower your standards and justify these lesser ideals. These lowering of standards come through your language as justification statements that sound like this: “oh, you can’t do such and such in this business and be successful anyway” or “everybody has this problem in this business” or “in this country, it is normal to pay a few days late and no body takes any notice of it, so it is no big deal” or “it is my intention that matters, I am not deliberately misleading people” etc.

Eventually a few days late on payments becomes 30, 60, 90 days etc. If the cycle continues unchecked, you will even justify not paying people at all, in order to pay others. This is often called, “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

The next thing that occurs is that you don’t get paid on or before the date promised. A supplier doesn’t get you the exact order as promised. A payment to you is a few days late with no communication. A deposit is made late. A check bounces on you etc. In other words what you have done to others comes back to be done to you…

For you, as a high standard person, you take all this very personally. Your partner appears upset too, however is more aligned with these lower standards anyway and will lower their standards further in order to “make it work”. This leads to conflict between you and your partner over keeping agreements and maintaining high standards of conduct and honesty.

At first you take full responsibility that it must be your problem and your partner reaffirms this. Your partner somehow convinces you to be the front person as your standard of responsibility is higher than theirs. So they will naturally tend towards blaming you and abdicating responsibility to you.

As your standards continue to decline, it becomes more and more painful.

In order to deal with the pain, you lower your standards more and deny that you had higher standards in the first place. Before you know it, you are operating at a very low level of truth, honesty, standards and much reduced in your power, charisma and confidence to the point of giving up.

It is often at this point that the entire project fails and you experience a paradigm crash. Everything stops working.

To recover from a situation like this takes personal courage to review what actually happened and to reclaim your level of truth, honesty and high standards.

To maintain high standards it is imperative to connect, work and associate with people of similar or higher standards than you.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Consciousness, Credit Crisis, Ethics, Financial Crisis | 3 Comments »

Goldzone iPhone Application

March 7, 2009

goldzoneiphoneWe are excited to announce that the Goldzone iPhone/iPod Touch application will soon be available for download from the Apple iTunes store for FREE.

The first release will include streaming content as well as some of Goldzone’s best productivity tools; Magic Moments and Action Requests.

First release functions include:

  • MAGIC MOMENTS allow you to send anyone who does something special for you, or creates a WOW experience a special acknowledgement – right from your iPhone/iPod Touch. It feels great to receive MM’s and it feels even better sending them!
  • ACTION REQUESTS allow you to send a request to anyone; colleague, supplier, family or friend. Typically we ask people to do things verbally and these requests often get forgotten or done incorrectly. Sending an AR via iPhone/iPod Touch allows you to keep a record of your requests, and for the person receiving your request to know what exactly you want and what the priority is. This makes it easy for you to follow up and follow through to get what you want done, when you want it!
  • STREAMING CONTENT from www.renaissanceforleaders.com includes anytime access to; articles, tips, ideas and thoughts.
  • TWITTER feed keeps you up to date with the Goldzone founders who write messages and update on this microblogging service.

We will be announcing the pre-release Beta Version shortly. Click here if you would like to participate.

The Goldzone iPhone Application is being developed exclusively for the Goldzone Leadership Center by Violet Enterprise Solutions Pte. Ltd.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in News | 4 Comments »

Qualities, Virtues & Values

March 7, 2009

Sometime in 2000 I made a list of values and virtues that were important to me. These represent qualities that I am working on and enhancing within myself. This is part of my quest to be the best person I can be.  By the time I had completed making my list, I had two conflicting thoughts; “wow, look at how many of these I have already acquired/developed” and the other thought “wow, this is a long list am I ever going to be able to do it”.

Nearly ten years later, I can say that this list has been an invaluable tool to remind me of who I am and who I want to be. It is amazing how much you can get done over time if you set your mind to it.

Many people consider investing in houses, stocks, bonds etc. however never consider investing in developing their own virtues. After all, what is the ROI (Return On Investment) of a virtue? From my point of view, the ROI from virtues comes back to you for your entire life. There is how you feel about yourself and there is how other people feel about you. If you develop the virtue of trustworthiness, how do you feel about yourself being trustworthy? How do others feel about you, knowing that they can trust you?

To me, add the virtue of trustworthiness to your other investing activities and you will see your results flourish. Think about the lack of trust that the public feels towards Wall Street and Banks at the moment…

Take an hour or so and write your list of values and virtues. Who do you want to be? How do you want to show up in the world? What is important to you?

Identify the top few that you are are committed to work on now.

Please note that this is not a goody-two-shoes list… for each quality there is an opposite negative quality. Often in order to acquire a virtue we “play out” its opposite. In other words we can swing from one virtue to its opposite and back again until we complete the lesson and fully develop the virtue.  Once we have acquired one virtue it becomes a part of who we are and we move on to the next virtue. This is consistent with the concept of duality. Consider; up & down, in & out, black & white, male & female, active & passive, motion & stillness, yin & yang. These are all examples of duality.

Here is my list:

  • Adaptability
  • Adding Value
  • Adventure
  • Aesthetic
  • Affinity
  • Alacrity
  • Aliveness
  • Art
  • Articulate
  • Attractiveness
  • Authenticity
  • Awareness
  • Beauty
  • Beingness
  • Bliss
  • Brotherhood
  • Caring
  • Certainty
  • Charisma
  • Cheerfulness
  • Cherish
  • Chivalry
  • Clarity
  • Commitment
  • Communication
  • Community
  • Companionship
  • Compassion
  • Confidence
  • Congruence
  • Connection
  • Conscientiousness
  • Considerate
  • Contribution
  • Conviction
  • Courage
  • Courteousness
  • Creation
  • Dependability
  • Discernment
  • Discovery
  • Empathy
  • Energy
  • Enthusiasm
  • Environment
  • Equality
  • Excellence
  • Expression
  • Fairness
  • Family
  • Flexibility
  • Flowing
  • Focus
  • Forgiveness
  • Freedom
  • Friendship
  • Fun
  • Gentleness
  • Giving
  • Gratitude
  • Growth
  • God
  • Happiness
  • Health
  • Heart
  • Honesty
  • Honor
  • Humility
  • Humor
  • Inclusive
  • Inspiration
  • Integrity
  • Intelligence
  • Intention
  • Intimacy
  • Intrepidity
  • Joy
  • Justice
  • Kindness
  • Knowledge
  • Learning
  • Life
  • Love
  • Loyalty
  • Making a difference
  • Meditation
  • Money
  • Music
  • Nature
  • Nurturing
  • Openness
  • Partnership
  • Passion
  • Patience
  • Peace
  • Perception
  • Perseverance
  • Playfulness
  • Presence
  • Productivity
  • Purpose
  • Quality
  • Rational
  • Receptivity
  • Relationship
  • Reliability
  • Resolution
  • Resolve
  • Resourcefulness
  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Self-determinism
  • Sensitivity
  • Sensuality
  • Serenity
  • Sharing
  • Soul
  • Spirit
  • Spiritual
  • Spontaneity
  • Strength
  • Success
  • Synergy
  • Team
  • Technology
  • Tenderness
  • Togetherness
  • Travel
  • Trust
  • Trustworthiness
  • Truth
  • Unity
  • Valor
  • Value
  • Vigor
  • Vision
  • Vitality
  • Vulnerability
  • Wealth
  • Wisdom

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Transformation May Not Be What You Expect

March 6, 2009

transformation

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Thoughts About Money

March 6, 2009

Many of us would agree that our results in life are created by our actions and our actions are preceded by thoughts and our thoughts are created by our feelings.  The challenge is that most of us have thoughts and feelings that are hidden deep in the subconscious mind – out of our conscious awareness. The easiest way to see what is in our subconscious is to look at our results.  Our results will reflect the inner workings of our mind.

Over a lifetime we hear thousands of comments about money and observe the money behavior of the people closest to us – our parents, relatives, teachers, friends and colleagues.  Many of these comments reinforce patterns of thinking and beliefs that over time become buried in our subconscious.  Our day-to-day experiences confirm and validate that these thoughts and beliefs are true and accurate.

In order to change the relationship we have with money requires that we reprogram our subconscious mind – replacing negative thoughts and feelings that are inaccurate with positive thoughts and feelings that give us the results we want.

Most people would like to increase their income, however negative thoughts about what they have to do to make more money often counters their intention.  For example, if you have the belief that you have to be dishonest to make money – and you see yourself as an honest person – you will avoid making lots of money so you don’t compromise your status as an honest person.  However this belief is not true.  You can make as much money as you want through honest means and all the while maintaining the highest levels of honesty and integrity.

Making a list of your most negative thoughts about money will help you to bring these deep-seated thoughts and feelings to the surface so you can view them and choose a replacement thought and feeling.

Many years ago I sat down with a note pad and created two columns.  On the left I listed my most negative thoughts about money and then in the right hand column wrote a positive affirmation that would reprogram the negative into the positive.

This process totally transformed my relationship to money.  I highly recommend that you make your own list and pay attention to the thoughts that come up as you read the list below.  Feel free to use any of these and add them to your list.

moneythoughts11moneythoughts2

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Consciousness, Feelings, Finance, Financial Crisis, Money, New-Paradigm Leadership | 6 Comments »

Get On The Fast-Track

March 5, 2009

fast-track

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Unleash Your Self-Expression

March 4, 2009

selfexpression

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The Master Game

March 4, 2009
The Master Game
By Robert S. De Ropp

Seek, above all, for a game worth playing. Such is the advice of the oracle to modern man. Having found the game, play it with intensity – play as though your life and sanity depended upon it. (They do depend on it.) Follow the example of the French existentialists and flourish a banner bearing the word “engagement.” Though nothing means anything and all roads are marked “no exit”, yet move as if your movements had some purpose. If life does not seem to offer a game worth playing, then invent one. For it must be clear, even to the most clouded intelligence, that any game is better than no game.

But although it is safe to play the Master Game, this has not served to make it popular. It still remains the most demanding and difficult of games, and in our society, there are few who play. Contemporary man, hypnotized by the glitter of its own gadgets, has little contact with his inner world, concerns himself with outer, not inner space. But the Master Game is played entirely in the inner world, a vast and complex territory about which men know very little. The aim of the game is true awakening, full development of the powers latent in man. This game can be played only by people whose observations of themselves and others have lead them to certain conclusions, namely, that man’s ordinary state of consciousness, his so-called waking state, is not the highest level of consciousness of which he is capable. In fact, this state is so far from real awakening that it could appropriately be called a form of somnambulism, a condition of “waking sleep”.

Once a person has reached this conclusion, he is no longer able to sleep comfortably. A new appetite develops within him, the hunger for real awakening, for real consciousness. He realizes that he sees, hears, knows only a tiny fraction of what he could see, hear and know, that he lives in the poorest, shabbiest of the rooms in his inner dwelling, but that he can enter into other rooms, beautiful and filled with treasures, the windows of which look out on eternity and infinity.

Here it is sufficient to say that the Master Game can NEVER be made easy to play. It demands all that a man has, all his feelings, all his thoughts, his entire resources, physical and spiritual. If he tries to play it in a halfhearted way or tries to get results by unlawful means, he runs the risk of destroying his own potential. For this reason it is better not to embark on the game at all than to play it halfheartedly.

The solitary player lives today in a culture that is more or less totally opposed to the aims he has set himself, that does not recognize the existence of the Master Game, and regards players of this game as queer or slightly mad. The player thus confronts great opposition from the culture in which he lives and must strive with forces which tend to bring his game to a halt before it has even started. Only by finding a teacher and becoming part of the group of pupils that that teacher has collected about him can the player find encouragement and support. Otherwise he simply forgets his aim, or wonders off down some side road and looses himself.

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Contemplate What You Really Want

March 3, 2009

contemplate

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Confront And The Financial Crisis

March 3, 2009

With the financial crisis deepening, many of our worst fears are being realized.  With the Waves of Impact continuing to wash over us, we are being confronted by financial losses on a never-before-seen scale. Entire industries are at risk of being wiped out. Previously invulnerable mega-corporations are being brought to their knees. Hidden weaknesses are being exposed.

As individuals we are being faced with the complete loss or at least dramatic reduction in the value of our retirement accounts. It can feel like we are being confronted on all sides. How do we cope with the uncertainty?

Now is an excellent time to consider the meaning of the word CONFRONT. Most people don’t think about their ability to confront and what can be done to confront difficult situations more easily, with less stress and more effectively.

Here is the definition of Confront:

CONFRONT: n. 1. An action of being able to face without flinching or avoiding. 2. The ability to be there comfortably and perceive.

So confront means to be able to see what is there, comfortably without flinching, wanting to withdraw or running away. Often, to fully understand a word, it is easier to look at the opposite. What does “non-confront” mean? It simply means the inability to see what is there. An inability to face something. Why can’t we confront something? Because to confront means PAIN. It is too painful to view so we withdraw and refuse to look at the area.

Notice that the definition describes confront as an ability? It isn’t something you do, it is an ability that we develop over time. The ability to see more and more of the truth.

There is also what is called “low-confront” which is where a person can confront a little, can see a little of the truth of what is there… But not all of it.

How do you improve your ability to confront? The same way you improve any other ability, focus, attention and practice. And, dealing with the pain that had you not confronting the area in the first place.

As you can see, the ability to confront is directly connected to the ability to handle change. If a person can’t confront the future, or the unknown… Then they will stay in their comfort zone, and remain stuck in the past.

© Goldzone Foundation. All rights reserved.

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What Can You Do?

March 2, 2009

whatcanyoudo2

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What Is A Leader?

March 2, 2009

New-Paradigm leadership begins with personal responsibility and combines vision, commitment, relationships, communication, compassion, courage, decisiveness, integrity, organization, strength, and the ability to influence and inspire others.

Leadership in the knowledge economy is vastly different from leadership in the information, industrial and agrarian economies. In the old economies dictatorship, domination, command and control where the prevalent models.  It is easy to lead through domination.  Hold a gun (or a paycheck) to a persons head and you can get them to do almost anything, however when you take the gun (or paycheck) away – you no longer have the ability to get them to do what you want. And chances are, they will pay you back for forcing them to do something they may not have wanted to do without the gun (or paycheck.)

Today’s new model involves partnership, cooperation and team. This involves people following you – because they want to. They are moved to action for reasons other than an external motivation – they are choosing to follow.

Because most of the world is still engaged in and dependent on the information, industrial and agrarian economies, today’s leaders are mostly operating from the old leadership models. This weblog is about the new model needed for the knowledge economy of today, and the experience economy of tomorrow. As you embark on this journey you may discover that there is little agreement for this new model from people invested in the old model (of domination, command and control,) however this is the way of the future.

New-Paradigm Leaders are on the top of the Leadership Scale which is as follows:

The Leadership Scale:

* NEW-PARADIGM LEADERS (early adopters of a new paradigm)
* LEADERS (conventional)
* EXECUTIVES (not all executives are leaders)
* MANAGERS AND EDUCATORS (you can mange and educate without leading)
* SUPERVISORS (you can supervise without leading)
————————————————————-
* WHITE COLLAR WORKERS
* LABORERS (blue collar workers)
* STUDENTS
* UNEMPLOYED

The higher you go up the scale and above the line you are dealing more and more with PEOPLE. The further down the scale and below the line the less you are dealing with people and the more you are dealing with THINGS. To be an effective leader involves mastery of people and things. The most important skill of a leader is the knowledge of and relationship with people (what inspires, motivates, challenges, demotivates). This requires knowledge and a relationship with YOURSELF FIRST.  If you can’t lead and inspire yourself, how can you expect to lead and inspire anyone else?

It is to this end that this web site is dedicated. The knowledge, understanding and development of YOURSELF and the people you lead. It is important to note that artists, musicians, mothers etc. are leaders even if they themselves it! The Dictionary defines a leader as one who leads or has followers. If no one is following you, then how can you call yourself a leader?

“The key to a leader’s impact is sincerity. Before he can inspire with emotion he must be swayed by it himself. Before he can move their tears his own must flow. To convince them he must himself believe.”

~ Winston Churchill ~

© Goldzone Foundation. All rights reserved.

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