Being Point

Month: September 2009

  • How To Convert Your Potential Energy Into Kinetic Energy

    Kinetic energy is energy in motion – anything moving. However, when a person or object is at rest, it has potential energy. For example, a rock on top of a cliff that could fall: before it falls, it has potential energy. During its fall, it has kinetic energy.

    Think about you as a human being. Each of us has tremendous potential energy – both in terms of physics and metaphorically. Your energy – the potential to literally “move” your life – is phenomenal and, at least theoretically – virtually unlimited.

    What is your potential energy as a person who improves your life? As a contributor to others? As a provider of useful goods and services? As a teacher or a student whether in or out of formal school? Think about your potential as energy like all the rocks on top of a cliff and how vast that potential energy is.

    How can you convert your potential energy into the best possible motion? Where have you been limiting your potential energy? What are the rewards for releasing it?

  • How Connected Are You To Your Ancestors?

    Our families are obviously not only the people that we know, but those who came before us whom we never knew. The writer, Thich Nhat Hanh, says:

    “If you look deeply into the palms of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.”

    Amazing thought; isn’t it? He said *each* is present in our bodies. Families are the means by which we humans continue. Some cultures know a lot about their ancestors; our American culture, not so much. It’s mysterious to think about those people who preceded you – and that they were the continuation of those who came before, just as we are their continuation.

    How connected are you to your family and, in particular, to your family history? You’re connected even if you never knew your birth parents. What characterizes that connection for you, and how can it be a richer part of your life?

  • All Of Humanity Belongs To The Human Family

    This week, we’ve discussed both our families of blood as well as our families of choice. Larger than any of those is the human family comprised of all human beings. The Dalai Lama said:

    “My message is that practice of compassion, love and kindness. Compassion can be put into practice if one recognizes the fact that every human being is a member of humanity and the human family regardless of differences in religion, culture, color and creed. Deep down there is no difference.”

    In a world with deep divisions, sectarian violence and war, how able are you to view everyone as a member of the human family? What kind of feelings does that view afford? For example, is there more compassion in recognition of the fact that all of us share the human condition? Is the notion of human family overly idealistic, or does it have value and application in our modern world?

  • “Family Of Choice” ~ Different From ~ “Family By Blood”

    “Family,” of course, means immediate blood relations, but it’s clear that it also means “family of choice.” These are friends we have met through a variety of circumstances with whom we have become exceedingly close and we consider “like family.”

    Back in Ancient Greece, Homer said, “A sympathetic friend can be quite dear as a brother.” No doubt, each of you has encountered people in your life who are as dear as the closest of blood relatives – and, no doubt, those ties are as real as any.

    What is your perception about these special people in your life? Do you recognize those ties as the same as blood relations? If they are different, how are they different? What is required for you to consider someone “as family”? All hyperbole aside, are there differences in your “family of choice” and your “family by blood”?

  • “There Is Only One Thing Then – To Learn” ~ T. H. White

    It’s Back to School, and we’re here to learn! One of my favorite quotes of all time is from T. H. White’s, The Once and Future King. Merlin is speaking to young King Arthur. Enjoy!

    “The best thing for being sad . . . is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewer of baser minds.”

    “There is only one thing for it then – to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

    What kind of learning are you drawn to – and what are some of the lessons that you’d very much like to complete for the balance of this year?

  • What Are The Consequences Of Knowingly Allowing A Basic To Slide?

    Yesterday, during our call, we discussed making a list of five basics which, if acted upon, would make a huge positive difference in our lives. Today on the call, we are going to discuss the lists of five that participants sent in. What are your five?

    It’s interesting that oftentimes when things are working really well, humans have stopped doing the fundamental things that helped make things work. Perhaps there’s been some sort of mechanism that has had us take things for granted from time to time. Has that ever happened with you or someone close to you?

    Is there anything that you have allowed to slide – any basic – that you know you’ve been allowing to slide, but you haven’t yet reversed it? Some people think that the consequences of not taking corrective action when you know better are even worse than unknowing omission of what we know to be right. What do you think?

  • “Back To Basics” Can Feel Boring, But It Is Fundamentally Important

    “Back to basics” may sound boring, but basics can be the most powerful place on which to focus. Our lives can feel incredibly complicated – so much so that, from time to time, we have lost sight of the dynamics that underlie the results that we wish to have.

    Basics like: do your homework, take care of yourself, treat people well, take personal responsibility, keep your word.

    I was recently inspired to focus more on my meditation practice because of a conversation with someone whom I learned actually taught meditation – which was very different than the profession where I had known him. His example of meditation as a “basic” taught me a lot.

    What basics would benefit from your attention at this point in the year? If you could think of only one “basic” on which to focus, what would the most important “basic” be? What kind of result would you expect to receive from focusing on it? What can you learn from the example of others?

  • Back To School ~ What’s In Store For You For The Balance of 2009?

    Welcome back! It’s “back to school” and back to the traditional focus on successfully completing the remaining four months of the year. This is the time to review your goals for 2009 and to plan how you’ll achieve them. Where would you like to be at the end of December relative to your personal and professional life?

    As we all know, target dates are very effective for accelerating our progress – as long as there’s accountability. How can you create a high level of accountability to accomplish what you intend to accomplish for 2009?

    To whom are you accountable? What are the consequences – both of performance and of non-performance? What is your history in reaching your goals by the end of the year? Have you written down your goals for 2009 and the specifics of how you’ll achieve them?