Phoenix Rising
Reflections on our Mastermind discussion
Change and control.
Moving toward and moving against.
In the last month I’ve spoken with many in the community struggling with the shock of changes in the world today. There had been an air of grief and despair. Today’s call touched on the same topics, but there was hope and action underlying our words. In closing the call, I felt a Phoenix rising from the ashes. In reality it will be a long time before a Phoenix rises…because the world is still just beginning to burn. But the energy of our community is already focused on the inevitable rise.
Focus on what I control
The themes in today’s call stemmed from a focus on how we’re all dealing with the seismic changes in the way the world is run. Most of us are coming out of some kind of shock and moving towards knowing this is the world we live in. The changes are really only beginning to ripple out into our reality, but we can see and feel them coming. The most common theme in the discussion? The nature of internal power.
I can focus on what I control - me. I can change myself, not others. But when I change myself, I gain the capacity to change others and the world.
One member shared her story of how she had some strong insights and shifted her perspective, only to have the world respond immediately. New opportunities resulted. It reminded us all that our personal changes have the ability to move the world around us, and ripples will reverberate far beyond what we know.
We wish her well with her new opportunities!
This conversation brought us together to reinforce for each other that the above statements are true. When we change ourselves, the world has to respond. It’s not always blindingly obvious, but sometimes it is!
The stories we tell
One of the most powerful points of dialog for me in today’s discussion was a reminder of something I believe in my core: the stories we tell, the meaning we make, the vocabulary we use—has the power to reinforce what we and others think we know, or open doors to new ways of understanding.
This is true for all of us, of all persuasions and all agendas.
So it invites us to be very intentional about what we say and how we say it. And it invites us to be very mindful of the sources of information we listen to. How are the people speaking to us shaping our reality? What reality do we want to reinforce? Are we taking in information from the sources who will do that?
Of course, this cuts both ways and, we can end up in an echo chamber if we’re not careful, but in our discussion—and in the sources I personally listen to—I’m very happy to report that we do challenge ourselves to look at unpleasant realities, to learn from the bad things that happen in the world and to improve our own worldview. Can we do more/better? Yes. Are we making progress? Yes.
And, we can use stories and language to reach other people who don’t think like we do. One of our members gave us powerful examples of this.
When we get too tied to our language—language that can trigger other people—we may lose the ability to connect with them using words that mean the same thing but without the triggers.
Should we always be adapting to other’s language? Not necessarily. Sometimes staying in our language helps us stay in our power. But always staying in our power has the ability to alienate others. To exclude them instead of invite them.
The opportunities are situational. We must remember that and use the flexibility of our language, and the ability to tell different stories with it, to help us stay in our power AND connect with others, as opportunity allows.
What are we moving towards?
A bit of wisdom I really valued from today’s call: “We have to create something compelling to bring people together. Resistance isn’t it.”
This resonates with something I teach in change management and leadership courses.
Resistance to resistance is…resistance
There is a time and place for resistance, but living in resistance means moving forward very slowly, or not at all. Resistance is not a long-term strategy. But a compelling vision of the future is. The more energy we spend focusing on what we’re against, the less energy we’re putting into what we’re for. Like our language, there’s a time and place for both what we’re attached to and what we’re not, but the balance is important.
Our call, our community, we have the energy of wanting to move forward.
Everything that is local is global
We had two international attendees join us today. Despite the fact that their governments were not upending quite like ours, we had more in common than not. People in their worlds are being affected by what we’ve voted for in the U.S.
We can’t forget that real people all over the world are undergoing change as a result of the language we use and the changes we make here in the US. Too many Americans either don’t think about that or don’t care. But it’s still true.
What matters most?
It was clear to me observing the discussion, the positivity, the hope, the sadness, that today’s environment of change is rattling down to each of us internally. It’s asking us to think about what matters to us and what we’re going to do about it. And our community is rising to the occasion, in our lives, and in our work.
Thank you all for bringing your power together with me.