In many cases this is true, one partner loses their job or runs up unknown debts, which leads to relationship disharmony and eventually breakup or divorce. But what if there were a little discussed, often avoided cause that preceded the symptoms and was in fact the “real” culprit?

We all know that if you address symptoms and do not fix the cause — the problem won’t be resolved and it will continue… often from one relationship to another. Kind of like a silent serial killer that lurks in the shadows undetected only to pounce at the most inopportune moment and wreak havoc.

After working one-on-one with thousands of couples from all walks of life, I have come to the conclusion that relationships are one of the most challenging areas of life for most people — and yet they have an enormous impact on ones quality of life. If you sit down with any couple it doesn’t take long to notice patterns of behavior that either add to or take away from the relationship.

Many money problems first manifested themselves in ones relationship dynamic (which includes all relationships — home, work, family etc.) which then shows up tangibly in the money dynamic. So if money problems are often (but not always) the symptoms and relationship disharmony the cause — then no amount of focusing on money and finances will solve the money problems.

You won’t succeed in keeping a leaky boat afloat if all you do is grab a bucket and bail out the incoming water! What is required for sustainable, long-term success is to first bail the water out, then plug the holes in the boat to prevent more water from coming in. Yes, this sounds logical and easy… and yet how often do people do the logical and reasonable thing when it comes to money?

So if your money dynamic isn’t flowing the way you would like, perhaps you could look to your relationship dynamic for some other causes of the problem? And at the end of the day, your relationships all reflect the most important relationship of all… the relationship you have with yourself.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

Taking the lead means you put your reputation and your ego on the line. You take the risk that things may go wrong and you may end up with a learning experience… a public one!

Avoidance of the risks associated with leadership has a lot of potential leaders taking a back seat and waiting for someone else to step up. The people and companies who succeed and end up dominating businesses and markets – are those who have taken more calculated risks than others.

Is it time for you to step up and take more risks?

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

How long will it take for the consciousness of peace (you can’t fight violence with violence) to win?

[click on the image below for a larger version]

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

The emotional state of fear will have us wanting to slow down, or even stop.  In the financial world this translates to “wait and see”, “panic and sell”, “follow the crowd”, “run and hide”,”shame and be shamed”, “blame and justify”, “judge and be judged”.  The mass fear is palpable and unbearable to be around and the results are showing up in the markets, the media and everywhere.

The solution to this is to get in a different state, where we can move faster, make better decisions and keep ourselves from being sucked into the vacuum of fear, like particles in space into a massive black hole.  In order to do this, we have to step back and observe, speed up and change, and take the actions without hesitation.  Buy great opportunities and resist selling those that will recover. History will prove that even though the market hibernates like a bear, it does make room for the bull sooner or later.  This is the time to be bold and resilient and  the internal state of fear is our enemy.

Below is an article I wrote in 2004 about the speed of the zone, for a group of leaders that I was working with.

The zone in sports is that magical moment when an athlete is totally connected to winning, physiologically and psychologically and releasing chemicals that enhance the state.  This emotional state takes us into a different reality beyond fear and into bliss.  Everything is optimized and enhanced.  I feel understanding this zone is a key to moving past the fear and into action again.

The Speed Of The Zone (copy of original article written in 2004)

Thank you for your courage and commitment to this journey that we share together, which can be very personal and alone sometimes. I have written about “the speed of the Zone” to support in your understanding of what you have available to you.

The Zone is a very magical space; even though it can seem graceful and slow from the outside, it is actually moving very fast. What does this mean?

As we move up the zones the speed increases exponentially. What this means is that the feeling of each zone is dramatically different. As you move in your own personal journey up the zones you will hit invisible walls. This can feel uncomfortable and will have you plotting against yourself to move back into a lower zone that is more comfortable. We call this your havingness, or upper-limit. I will discuss more about this later but for now let me explain the speed of the Zone.

The important thing is that you will adjust and adapt and then it does get more comfortable again. However in the middle of the adjustment it can feel confusing. Let‘s begin by understanding the context of the personal journey you are on as a Leader.

The Personal Journey

The voice of your Spiritual-Self, compels you to let go of your comfort zone and embark on a personal journey that seems to have no limits, no restrictions and no end. In a life driven by goals, achievements and deadlines this voice is seldom convenient, comfortable or timely. And yet when it’s time, the spirit moves quickly and ruthlessly like a storm from which you cannot protect yourself and there is no place to hide. The only solution is to stop the struggle and surrender to your spirit. Your spirit is much faster than your ego.

In a world of accelerating acceleration, where change is unpredictable, and complexity is growing at levels that are becoming evermore challenging, your ability to adapt must transcend previous limits in order to survive. You are on a personal journey, a quest for meaning, an evolution that takes you from your social act to your authentic self, from specialist to generalist, from dominance to partnership, from competitive to cooperative, from fragmented to integrated, from an ego-centered person to a comprehensive whole spiritual being.

You are for the first time making room in your life for spirit and ego to walk in partnership, side by side, each making peace with the needs of the other.

From Surviving To Thriving

Human beings are complex and evolving beings, who thrive on problem solving, adding value and contributing to others; once survival is handled you are fulfilled only by things that move your heart and challenge your mind.

“It is not the strongest nor most intelligent of species that survives; it is the one most adaptable to change”.

- Charles Darwin

Change is something that requires action and is by its very nature not a passive energy but rather an energy that has force. This force is required to take action from a lower zone because there has to be a dramatic increase in energy. Not only is more energy required as you move up the zones but also more velocity or speed. Things happen faster, and more powerfully. At first this can feel draining and tiring, but as you adapt you begin to have more energy and power available to you. This is the same as someone learning to run their first marathon. It takes persistence, determination and commitment. The body has to adapt physically and they have to increase the distance in incremental steps not run the whole distance the first day.

Let me explain through an analogy from a story.

A Clue From The Red Queen

For Alice, in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” advice from The Red Queen is that “in this place it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

“Through the Looking Glass” is the imaginary life of a young girl who while playing the game of chess, walks through a mirror into another reality where the pieces of the chess game become giant and real and The Red Queen is showing Alice the way. This statement inspired Evolutionary Biologist L. Van Valen to come up with a principle called the “The Red Queen Principle” which states that “for an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its fitness relative to the systems it is co-evolving with”. The evolution here is in our consciousness, our collective knowledge and how we individually operate within this.

The zones are the equivalent to our own personal evolution as human beings. Only the whole thing is happening in one life and not over millions of years.

Understanding The Landscape

Like Alice in “Through the Looking Glass,” understanding what it takes to thrive in the Zone, begins with looking into the mirror and stepping into a future reality that is at present a possibility only as surreal as the room inside Alice’s mirror. Where things are operating differently than you know, the rules are different, the players are different and everything is unpredictable, outside your current concept of time and space.

Let’s imagine the world inside the mirror, on the surface looks similar, and yet everything is on different sides. Things that were on your right are now on the left, the sizes and proportions are constantly changing as you walk in. To see further into the mirror you have to literally step past your current limitations. In the story, Alice a self-centered girl who is insensitive to her cats and to her sister has an opportunity to learn some valuable lessons. Her journey begins after she steps out of the room in the mirror (her previous limits), and steps into the landscape outside and is joined by the Red Queen (who has transformed from a few inches tall on Alice’s chessboard to a full size woman, taller than Alice. She looks over the hills and sees that everything is divided into squares, like her chessboard and realizes she is in the game. The queen is showing her the way and, they have been moving very fast and take a break when:

Alice looked round her in great surprise. `Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!’

`Of course it is,’ said the Queen, `what would you have it?’

`Well, in our country,’ said Alice, still panting a little, `you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.’

`A slow sort of country!’ said the Queen. `Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’

A New Reality

This dialogue is a great analogy of the world you are stepping into, fast and unpredictable and where the rules feel as different as a reality without gravity. This is the context of the “The Red Queen Principle” where running is an analogy for adaptation to the environment. The characteristics that you developed to achieve success in the past, the ACT will only manage to keep you at the same place even if you are playing at full speed. So what will it take to achieve success in the future? The single word answer is CHANGE.

Your individual ability to change and re-invent yourself, to adapt to the new rules of the game. Literally going from a mono-dimensional thinking to multi-dimensional thinking. Imagine the two-dimensional chess board now surrounds you, you are in it and the pieces have come to life and you can move in ways you do not understand from your current perspective.

The challenge presented to Alice is “If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” On a purely physical level, the fastest runners in the world are not twice as fast as their peers, only milliseconds faster. The change that is required is in the way that you perceive, think and respond, not a physical adaptation that would take many life spans to accomplish.

You have thinking and responding to a slow world and the Zone is like another reality and nothing in your past can prepare you for this. The Zone requires all of you to be present in the NOW!!

Remember the Zone is an ideal that we are always reaching for and there is no limit, no end. However by reaching for Gold we will surely live above the line in Green and Blue and sometimes Gold.

To Your Goldzone!

Anjou MacPherson
Co-founder
Goldzone Education

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything. Because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It cannot be done.

If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”

- John Ruskin 1819-1900

Think of ultimate truth as being the ultimate accuracy and the ultimate untruth being the ultimate inaccuracy. The more accuracy – the more flow, so if you want more flow in your life, career or business… go for more truth.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

For us, we don’t gamble, however we do take a lot of risks. The difference is that when gambling you have a high chance of losing, whereas with a calculated risk – you have a high chance of winning!

A calculated risk is were you give thoughtful consideration to the risk and for which the potential costs and potential benefits have been weighted and considered.

Add to the mix ones level of trust… we take risks and we trust. Many people gamble and have no trust… go figure!

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

- gain power
- avoid conflict
- avoid an unpleasant truth about themselves
- avoid admitting mistakes
- diminish or suppress someone else
- avoid hurting someone’s feelings
- avoid anger
- avoid responsibility
- gain respect or admiration
- gain self-worth
- be liked
- maintain the status-quo, hoping everything will pass unnoticed
- gain something of value

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

We are not suggesting that you think of all the people in your organization in purely financial terms – that would be cold and possibly callouss… people do have value that is more than money alone. Having said that, an organization exists to add value and people have roles within that organization to add value to the stakeholders. How do you add value if you are a liability?

Adding value is all about being an asset. In every interaction you want to be an asset – not a liability.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

Understanding this chart and the other charts of the Optima Zones allows you to predict the results people will get from life, career, business and relationships. It also allows you to identify where you are at so you can change what you need to change in order to improve your results.

<< click on the chart to enlarge >>

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

The more you win, the easier it is to win… Most of us have experienced getting on a winning streak, where one win leads to another a d each successive win became easier and easier.

Think about how you can apply these Generalized Principles to win more often – and to expand the things you want, while contracting the things you do not want…

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

Many organizations have recalled products using BPA – but not Coca-Cola. Don’t get me wrong – I am not anti-Coke per se.

What interests me is that it’s taking the shareholders pushing a resolution to encourage the company to remove BPA from Coke cans. There can be only one conclusion as to why Coke is lagging the industry with regard to BPA…

Read the Shareholder Resolution here >>>

If you are interested in this subject, check out this site for a list of 2010 Shareholder Proxy Resolutions, where the shareholders are promoting changes in various companies via resolutions >>> and also a short description of Shareholder Activism >>>

Based on the true story of Chris Gardener who goes through a series of soul-sickening failures and defeats, missed opportunities and screw ups to not let anything stop him… to not complain and let any considerations get in his way… in the end he succeeds… wow, very inspiring.

The story starts with John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) who’s two young kids have a deadly disease called Pompa. They are not expected to live longer than a year or two at the most. Heartbreaking… But John decides to do something about it, he goes to see a doctor and scientist Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) who’s research about the disease could be helpful.

In the end John helps Stonehill finance his research, in hopes of making a cure…

The question of leadership is that often times it is real life situations that demand that we step up to take the lead on something – rather than wait for someone else to do something about it.

Most of us would prefer the “real thing” versus the fake, pretend or inauthentic leader.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

1. People who are aggressively pursuing their goals and are focused on bottom line returns.
2. People who are doing the minimum, disinterested and taking what life gives them.

For the rest of us, it seems obvious that by investing in ourselves, our skills, our knowledge and our abilities that we will advance in life and get more of what we want.

But this is not so obvious to most people.

Many people are disconnected from the fact that an investment in oneself will give a return on investment that continues throughout ones entire life.

Here are some of the tangible benefits:

• Enhanced quality of life
• Increased income
• Greater career opportunities
• Enhanced health
• Greater self-expression

What does investing in oneself look like?

Here are some examples:

• Buying new clothes
• Developing new knowledge through, books, seminars etc
• Enhancing ones skills
• Enjoying experiences that are memorable

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

This movie is about standing up for yourself – even though you may be the only one who believes in you and your mission.  This movie is also about justice and the price you may have to pay to get it.

The victim in this movie is seduced and manipulated through her weakness and the cost is oh-so-high!

Stephen is likable, friendly and very polite. The ultimate co-worker, who remembers everyones birthday, knows how everyone takes their coffee and is so self-deprecatingly sweet that when things start unraveling you feel sorry for him. Despite his audacious lies and deceits, you like him and wonder why everyone is being so mean. Stephen walks the fine line between good and evil so well, you watch in amazement. You feel sorry for him, you’re repulsed by him, you’re embarrassed for him…

However, he fabricated over 20 stories, invented sources, locations, times, dates, and companies. wow!

From an educational-point-of-view this movie may highlight some of the people you know and work with and what can be behind those seemingly innocent smiles…

The confrontation between the fierce and feisty head teacher (Meryl Streep) and the feminine and progressive head priest, Father Brendan Flynn (Phillip Seymor Hoffman) who is in fact a child-exploiting pedophile.

Full of hidden messages and dire warnings… worth more than one viewing…

An intense adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy about the Moorish general who “loved not wisely, but too well” – and so is duped by his evil aide into thinking that his wife has been unfaithful. As war between Venetians and the Turks rages, Othello weds the beautiful Desdemona and promotes Cassio over his longtime assistant, Iago. Othello prepares to celebrate his marriage, but Iago – insanely jealous over Othello’s snub – has dastardly plans in store.

Iago begins to poison Othello’s mind against Desdemona, claiming that she’s having an affair with Cassio; he even manages to produce “proof” of the infidelity. It doesn’t take long for the jealous general to start believing Iago’s allegations, and he winds up on the path of destruction and gives in to his “dark side” which is perhaps the most chilling aspect of the movie.

Very educational and will have you thinking twice about some peoples intentions and actions…

When we talk of the plot, we are referring to the story or interrelated sequence of events that exists between two or more people. The nature of a plot is that it takes a minimum of two sides in order to exist. When one side decides to exit the plot and takes the necessary steps to do this – the plot can no longer exist. Therefore, if a plot is existing, then both sides are contributing to it.

A relationship is often a complex web of plots that combine into a major theme. Therefore, if you can identify and resolve the major themes, you can experience a quantum leap in your results and level of intimacy.

In an ideal scene both partners would equally develop their masculine and feminine characteristics with one partner utilizing more masculine qualities and the other utilizing more feminine qualities in their expression with each other.

Problems occur in a partnership when one of the partners has not developed or embraced the characteristics of their gender. This forces their partner to compensate by taking on and expressing the opposite characteristics of their gender.

In other words if a man isn’t fully developed in his masculine role, then the woman in the partnership is forced to take on and act out the masculine traits that her partner isn’t owning. On the other hand, when a woman is over-expressing masculine characteristics, then the man is forced to become more effeminate and to under-express their masculine characteristics.

This can show up as a lack of male productivity – resulting in a lower than normal self-worth and a low income. For a man, his self-esteem is directly connected to his sense of productivity.

So if you want to disempower a man, make him feel unproductive. If you want to disempower a woman, make her feel ugly.

The basic masculine and feminine characteristics or qualities are as follows:

To the extent that a person is missing or overdeveloped in any of these qualities, they will draw partners to themselves who play right into their plot!

So the first key to escape this scenario is to look at which of the masculine and feminine characteristics you have developed and are able to express – and which are underdeveloped and unexpressed in you.

The second key, is to look at which of the masculine and feminine characteristics your partner has developed and are able to express – and which are underdeveloped and unexpressed in them.

For example, if both partners are overly competitive – then you will have a partnership that is combative, argumentative and constantly challenging. The solution in this example is not for the man to win the competition, or to back down. This will only lead to a lack of productivity. The most effective solution would be for the woman to stop being competitive with the man, and to focus on supporting him to channel his competitive spirit into an appropriate expression that benefits the partnership.

This is not to say that the woman should not be competitive, or that the man should not be supportive of her competitive expression. What we are saying is that in the partnership, they should not compete with each other!

And finally, if a man is getting all his needs met, is productive, expressive and the woman is not getting her needs met, she will either shut down sexually, or become nagging and controlling. A healthy balance of masculine and feminine characteristics in both partners, with each partner expressing the characteristics of their gender – is the only way to develop and sustain a fulfilling, productive and rewarding partnership.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

There are two main type of criticism; constructive and destructive. The difference between the two comes down to the intention of the critic. If the critic intends to improve something and delivers their criticism with this in mind, then the criticism is often (not always) received differently than when the intention of the critic is to minimize, tear down or destroy.

Criticism is also known as feedback.

The problem for most people is that they have have experienced so much destructive criticism that they can’t tell the difference between the two types and end up reacting to all criticism/feedback and writing it off automatically.

All successful people, public figures and leaders are subject to both types of criticism. Learning to differentiate between the two types and allowing oneself to benefit from the criticism/feedback – without taking it personally is an art and skill developed over time.

More insidious and destructive than any critic you may encounter at work or at home is the one you take with you on a permanent basis – the one inside your head that is known as the “INNER CRITIC”.

The Inner Critic is that part of yourself that criticizes everything you do, doubts what you do, doesn’t think you are good enough, gives you negative thoughts, is cynical, is never satisfied, and is a perfectionist.

Another term for the Inner Critic is the Inner Villain that plays a destructive game with yourself. Once you have disengaged from dramas with other people, you then have the task of disengaging from your own Villain that is making you a Victim to yourself.

As long as you are busy blaming other people for your feelings and circumstances… Your Inner Critic remains invisible to you. So it stands to reason, that when you cease blaming others, you will then become aware of your own self-blame, and inner-criticism. It is your inner-criticism that has you blaming others in the first place.

If you are sensitive to others blaming or criticizing you… Then you have a well developed Inner Critic. It is the Inner Critic that cares what others think about you. It is the Inner Critic that has you feeling hurt by what others say or do.

Once you have dealt with your Inner Critic, you will be less at the effect of other people, and more at cause over all areas of your life.

If you have a fear of rejection… This is a fear born directly from the essence of your Inner Critic.

Technically, the Inner Critic is your shadow-self that is you rejecting you. It is found in the depths of your subconscious mind. The opposite of your Inner Critic is self acceptance, or another way of saying this is your Inner Cheerleader.

When your Inner Critic is beating you up for a mistake you made, you become unsavory to other people. They feel that you are negative and perhaps toxic and therefore will be inclined to reject you. Your Inner Critic seduces the worst behavior from people as it only leaves space for a harmful act or nasty comment. You might as well have a sign on your forehead that says, beat me up, reject me.

It takes a very clear person to see this and not reject you or beat you up. This takes a lot of energy and isn’t fun. So you are no fun to be around (and you can’t stand yourself either.)

So now that we know what the Inner Critic is, how do we deal with it? How do we disengage from it?

The Inner Critic never goes away totally. It always remains in the background… always, and ever listening. So we can disengage from it, but never get rid of it totally.

How do you Disengage your Inner Critic?

Well, the first step is to become consciously aware of when your Inner Critic is at play. Once you are aware of it, your task is to accept your Inner Critic. Once you have fully accepted your Inner Critic, you can then accept yourself.

Self acceptance is the key.

Because two things cannot occupy the same space, the antidote to the Inner Critic is the Inner Cheerleader. So, when you hear negative self talk from the inner critic, thank it for sharing and counter with positive encouragement from your Inner Cheerleader.

If you are with another person, friend or colleague and you notice your Inner Critic is running you, and you are unable to disengage it… Then the best thing to do is time out until you have it under control. This is responsible behavior and puts you more at cause.

The ultimate solution to the Inner Critic is to clean slate the area. This means clearing the areas that created your Inner Critic in the first place. Namely these are things that you have done to others, and things others have done to you.

There is no quick fix to this. It is an ongoing journey that you take with yourself.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

First, lets look at some definitions:

SHAME: A strong negative emotion that combines feelings of dishonor, unworthiness, and embarrassment.

GUILT: An awareness of having done wrong accompanied by feelings of shame and regret.

REGRET: To feel sorry and sad about something previously done or said that now appears wrong, mistaken, or hurtful to others.

In the Optima Zones, shame is located in the Redzone just above denial which is in the Brownzone. You could say that shame is right on the border between the Redzone and Brownzone.

While shame may appear to be an undesirable emotion, it is vital to the effective functioning of society and is necessary for our individual survival. The purpose of shame is to stop us from engaging in harmful or destructive behavior, and to encourage positive behavior. So when a person has harmful behavior and yet feels no shame, they are very dangerous because there is nothing within them to stop their harmful behavior. These people have no remorse.

Behavior Control

In all human societies shame is used by others to control personal behavior. For example, when a person is caught stealing or telling a lie, they feel ashamed – which acts as a deterrent to prevent the person from stealing or lying again. When the reward of the stolen item or lie is greater than the potential shame of being caught many people will continue their harmful behavior. This conscious wrongdoing has a very destructive effect on ones life by adding shame on top of shame. This is because shame is invoked by wrongdoing in addition to the shame that is invoked by being caught.

The True Cost Is Cumulative

Therefore, the true cost of wrongdoing is the cumulative and compounded feelings of personal shame! The fear of being caught out, and publicly shamed has one committing more cover ups, lies etc and creates cautiousness, conservatism, low confront, slowness and immobility. This traps a person in the Orangezone (fear) and the Redzone (grief and shame) and prevents them from asking for what they want, acting with confidence and creating the realities that they want.

Body shame may have one either physically obsessed or physically lazy, while at the same time they may have no shame around money and therefore may be able to make lots of money (however if they have shame around giving themselves what they want, they may have trouble spending it.)

Shame in too many areas will have a person unable to be successful in any area. Shame in a few areas will cause problems in just a few areas with a small overflow to the other areas.

Live Your Life Without Shame

Living ones life in a way that creates no new shame, and cleaning up all past shame allows a person to create the realities that one wants, to be in the right place at the right time and to be at total cause over ones life.

So what about the people who feel ashamed, and yet do not have conscious memory of wrongdoing? Often this is caused by years of social and cultural conditioning where we are told what is good and bad, right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate, and what we should and shouldn’t do. These are given to us by our parents, family, teachers, media, religion etc. For example, if we have been trained that pre-marital sex is wrong and we engage in pre-marital sex, even though we may consciously think it is OK, we will feel some level of shame. If we withdraw from all things we feel shame around, we would end up living a very limited, at effect life. Therefore, the key to healthy and successful living is to consciously choose and make up our own minds as to what is right from wrong, good from bad, and to choose rightaction of wrongdoing and to educate ourselves in a way that allows us to make educated choices.

Our True Feelings Are Often Hidden In Our Unconscious

The challenge with most feelings of shame, is that they are buried deep in our subconscious and we often have not conscious awareness until the shame is triggered or our results are not what we intended. Many of our behaviors are created by feelings of shame that have us driven in one area and withdrawn from another. For example, if we were a fat child and suffered a lot of ridicule we may as an adult be obsessed with fitness or totally lazy. If our family struggled for money and was out of control, as an adult we may work obsessively and make money in order to avoid the shame of feeling out of control. (one of the benefits of obsessive work and busyness is the avoidance of feeling) It is important to note that even though as an adult we may have corrected the physical cause of the childhood shame (ie going from fat to fit, and poor to rich) we may still have the emotional shame buried in our psyche.

If you have any area of life that is not flowing, and after taking the correct actions no improvement is sustainable, you may find that shame is inhibiting the area.

Here are the steps to healing shame and alleviating its effects:

• Commit to right action as a way of life.
• Take massive action to correct any past wrongdoing.
• Review any areas of your life that are not flowing, identify any hidden shame.
• Clean slate any areas of shame.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

How does this happen? How can you go from being in the zone one moment to being angry the next?

This does not happen on its own. Someone did something that caused the magic-zone you were in the disappear. We call these incidents Anti-Magic, or Anti-Magic Moments.

Here is a short definition:

These Anti-Magic incidents cause a lot disharmony in relationships, especially on teams of people working closely together. You could say that Anti-Magic works directly against synergy and is opposing the teams stated purpose and direction.

Research has shown that Anti-Magic incidents are not chance occurrences, they are usually deliberate and sometimes unconscious behaviors of people who are working against you.

Surprised?

These people are more common than you think. Driven by competition, resentment and jealousy, Anti-Magic is used as a weapon to “bring you down to earth”, “put you in your place” or outright dominate you.

People who struggle to get in the zone, can (not always) become jealous and in order to feel better about themselves, sabotage you from your in-the-zone-moment.

Another example is the friendly colleague who is competing with you for a promotion or “top employee” award. If they feel they can’t beat you in an outright competition, sabotage will do. And if you confront them about this, they will say something like “oh, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to do it”.

This is very costly to a businesses bottom line and can explain why some companies and teams only achieve a fraction of their true potential and seem to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!”

Now that you are aware of Anti-Magic Moments, and the next time you jolt out of the zone, look for who did what.

What would happen to your overall results if you had a system to identify Anti-Magic and to correct it, thus preventing it from happening repeatedly? More about that in a future article.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

I believe the fortunate and well-to-do have an obligation to help people who are less fortunate than themselves. Giving money is one thing, giving time another, giving talent even better, however providing inspiration and education… these last a lifetime and spread from person to person. The effects are magnified over time and are long-lasting.

Since as long as I can remember I have felt inspired to make a difference in other peoples’ lives. Travel around the world and you soon see how great the need is.

For many years I thought the path to giving was through sacrifice and self-denial. I realized over time that there must be a middle way between self-sacrifice and self-interest.

What the world needs most is courageous leaders who lead and inspire others. Leaders who are not seduced by the negative aspects of power, leaders who are congruent, are examples for others to follow, leaders who live in integrity and inspire others to do the same.

In 2003, together with Anjou MacPherson, we established the Goldzone Leadership Center as an educational organization dedicated to educate, support and inspire leaders into a new paradigm of leadership. We deliver consulting, training and coaching services via custom build, full-service leadership centers.

In 2009 we established the Goldzone Foundation as a non-profit organization with the mission of promoting; higher values, responsibility, leadership and to inspire individuals to step up to the leadership challenge.

We established this Website (www.renaissanceforleaders.com) to provide information, education and inspiration on a daily basis.

To date, the Goldzone Foundation has not taken outside donations and is 100% funded by Anjou MacPherson and myself.

If you are interested in joining us in this mission – to change the world – by supporting leaders, contact me here:

• Send Harrison an e-mail c/o The Goldzone Foundation >>>

Love, anger, hate, fear, these are examples of emotions. Most people spend their time chasing emotions they want, and avoiding emotions they don’t want. The trouble with living this way, is that the emotions you are chasing seem to run away faster than you can catch them – and the emotions you are avoiding (or running from) seem to follow you wherever you go!

Research shows that most people make buying decisions emotionally, followed by rational, logical justifications. This means that in order to lead or influence people – you must move them emotionally. This is impossible to do - authentically - if you are not moved emotionally yourself.

What are emotions anyway?

From mid 16th century French, the word e-mo-tion is derived from the Latin word emovere, which means to to excite, to move. Emotions range from feeling nothing or numb, all the way to feeling fully-alive. Emotion could be described as Energy in Motion or in other words it is the energy that creates our motion.  It is the fuel that moves us.  Just as there are positive and negative flows of electricity, there are positive and negative flows of emotion. You could say this as moving towards, and moving away from.

When we are attracted to something or are feeling enthusiasm – we move towards it.  When we are feeling angry – we attack (which moves the target away.)  When we are scared – we move away from the potential threat.  When we have given up – we go numb. And when we are numb – we have no idea how we feel about anything!

Most of our actions are driven by these known and unknown emotions.  How we feel about people, places and events dictates our actions or how we behave.

All emotions involve both a physical and mental component. We feel them physically in our bodies and along with these feelings are packages of thoughts and beliefs. Some people say that the thought creates the feeling, others say that feeling creates the thought. I don’t think it matters which creates the other – as they clearly go together.

Childhood influence

From the time that we were small children, we where taught by people that we loved and trusted that there are “good” emotions and “bad” emotions.  For example, we may have been told that anger was OK and joy is not OK.  In other families they were told that joy is not OK and anger was OK.

To fully understand the role of emotions in our lives requires us to consider changing this childhood programming, as to what is an OK feeling and what is a not OK.  Our judgments of good and bad have us suppressing what we consider to be bad and over-expressing what we consider to be good.  Whenever we are over-expressing we are not being authentic and are acting.  Acting takes a lot of energy to maintain and can feel to others like hype.

Why can’t I feel?

Whenever we suppress a feeling, it stays locked within us and denies access to our energy, our vital force.  This is because emotions are a integral component of our Lifeforce.  Whenever we block an emotion from flowing, or don’t allow ourselves to feel it, we are blocking our Lifeforce. It is common for people to suppress unwanted emotions – not realizing that their ability to experience desirable emotions is limited by this same suppression.

To the degree that you can experience the depths of the unwanted emotions – you can also experience the highs of the desirable emotions. For many of us a lifetime of emotional suppression has caused us to “numb out” to how we feel about many of the people and events in our lives. People who are numbed out can act in a way that is harmful to others – because they are disconnected from their own and other peoples feelings.

“Putting up with” has a hidden cost

An example of this numbing effect is when someone “puts up with” a job they hate over  a long period. If they do nothing to change the situation they may become numb in order to cope. This numbness can prevent them from connecting with their real passion and can make it difficult for them to start a business, change jobs, or change careers. In fact if you suggest this person consider a new career, you will run into their resistance and lack of motivation. Asking any numb person to change and you will run into the same phenomena.

This does not mean that we should express all our emotions inappropriately, or in a way that infringes on the rights of others. Allowing ourselves to fully experience the emotion will allow it to flow. When our feelings flow, so does our life.  When our feelings are blocked our lives are filled with struggle, drama and problems.

Mis-wired emotions

Some people assert that you can’t feel anything unless you choose to. Next time someone purposely stomps on your foot to enjoy your pain, try and remember that! Chances are no matter how calm you are – you will feel angry. If your response is joy and happiness, then you may be suffering from a common affliction of mis-wired emotions – in other words feeling a different emotion than what most people would consider normal.

To share an example of this, a few years ago I attended a funeral where the widow of the deceased was laughing loudly with other family members right before the coffin was lowered into the grave. Most people would find that unusual or abnormal. An appropriate emotion at a funeral would be grief and sadness along with a cocktail of other emotions as the mourners remember the good, the bad and the “other” from the deceased’s life.

Emotional mastery

The mastery and understanding of our emotions is essential to the understanding and mastery of life. So what would happen if people learned about feelings, and their impact on life? What would happen if people listened to their intuition and their emotional natures more and included this input into their decision-making? What would happen if people learned safe ways to express their feelings – rather than suppress them?

We would have happier, more fulfilled, more balanced, more loving societies.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.