Career Creative Curriculum 1.0

Working with the backbone 48 Bringing inspiration to life Vision Strategy Purpose, values, inspiration What do I stand for now? History

49 ExWeroWcirsokeir:nkWgionrwkgiinwtghiwtthihthtethhbeeabbcaakcckbbkoobnnoeene Bringing inspiration to life Please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights. Next, move on to the second card, moving up from the bottom. What do you stand for now? How has your experience in the past shaped where you are today? What strengths do you experience? What questions are you holding? You may want to recall or physically hold records or artefacts of prior work you have done around your present situation, including any Temenos Clean Slate Maps. You might want to start out facing your history, and then turn to face toward your future. Once again, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights. Next, move to stand on the third card. Invoking, and possibly physically holding or touching the artefacts of any work you have done on inspiration, purpose, and/or values, what do you understand or sense as you stand in this place? As before, employ all your “ways of knowing.” You might begin by facing the past and the present, and then slowly turn to face the future. What do you notice. Once again, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights.

Working with the backbone 50 Bringing inspiration to life Next, perhaps counter-intuitively, leap ahead to the card that says Vision. We want vision to be out front as we face the future, and we need vision before we develop strategy. Using any vision work you have done, including a Temenos vision map, the results of an Inspi- ration Quest, and perhaps any stories you have created about your future, reflect on what you know about your vision of the future? As before use all your “ways of knowing.” What do you know, understand, and perceive about your vision for the future. Allow yourself to look out physically toward the future, even beyond your vision, as well as back toward your inspiration and your sense of where you have been and where you are. As with each of the other stages, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights.

51 ExWeroWcriskoeir:nkWgionrwgkiinwtghiwtthihthethtbheeabbcakacbckkboobnnoene Bringing inspiration to life Finally, take a step back to stand on the card for your strategy. Touch in to any work you may have done on this topic, including creating Agile stories for implementation of your vision or any other planning techniques you have used (See section on Agile planning below). What do you understand from this place? Are there new insights about what’s needed in strategy and tactics to bring your vision to life? If your strategy has multiple streams, mentally “stand” on each stream and see what you notice. Do some parts feel exciting and motivating? Do some feel less in tune? What new insights are arising? As with each of the other stages, please be invited to record any insights in your journal, and to share them with any partners you are working with. Give yourself time to notice and record any insights. At any stage of this process, if you have not done work on the relevant area before, don’t worry. Go onto that space with an open mind, an open heart and an open will. Notice what insights arise - or what questions. The questions may be the most valuable gifts. Record what you are learning in your journal and/or share it with your partners in the exercise. You can also feel free to move back and forth across the cards. You can move in patterns that seem right to you and observe the learnings. We would suggest that you move slowly and mindfully, so you can pay attention to any changes that occur from one vantage point to another.

Working with the backbone 52 Bringing inspiration to life As you do the exercise, notice the relationship between the perspectives. Do they support one another? Is there a natural build, sequence or journey as you move through time? Do you notice disconnects or dissonances? As ever, be invited to use all your ways of knowing. When you are finished with each of the positions, you may want to stand or sit in a place where you can see the whole, and reflect on the entire process. As ever, feel free to share insights and record them in your journal. This exercise can help you to construct a sense of how your history and your inspiration can shape your desired future, in both visionary and practical terms, in an inte- grated and attuned way. You can return to the exercise at any time, come back to it again and again, and enter it at any point. Doing so may help to create new insights about how the whole system works together - and to re-tune elements that seem to be out of tune. The view of the whole may also give you clarity about what’s needed within any of the parts. You may want to keep your journal notes and any relevant artefacts in safe, memorable and accessible places where you can access them as you need them.

53 ExPeerPcrisesoer:snPoaenlrsaolunStaohl biaeuilotdogbriaopgrhayphy* Bringing inspiration to life Write your personal autobiography, working in seven-year time bands. Seek to write each segment in no more than seventy words. If you are young enough to have only two or three segments, you can work with these, or use three-and-a-half year time bands instead. Focus on the most emotionally important events in each time-band. What gifts did other people give you that shaped who you are? What challenges did you face, and how did you respond? What moments seem to illustrate you at your best? What things you have done that made you most proud? Alternatively, if there have been moments of particular pain, what would you like to do to create a world where these things would not happen again, to you or to others? Write your autobiography and keep it in a place where you can refer to it from time to time. What does your autobiography tell you about the person you are? About your strengths and achievements? About the person you want to become? * This exercise is inspired by the practice of the nowhere group, as described in their pulished works

Personal shield 54 Bringing inspiration to lifeWorking from your personal autobiography, makeyourself a personal shield. You could use a round pieceof cardboard or a round piece of wood as the back-ground.Divide the circle into as many sections as there aretime-band segments in your autobiography. If you areyoung enough to have only a few segments, you mightchose to use three-and-a-half year segments in the sameway as in the autobiography.Choose one or two evocative symbols that capture theenergetic essence of each time band and draw themonto the shield.What does looking at this shield tell you about yourhistory? About the things that have been mostimportant to you? About your greatest successes,accomplishments? About the things you love? Aboutwhat has shaped you and your ambitions for the future?Share and explain your shield with others. What does thetelling of your story in this way contribute to your ownunderstanding?* This exercise is inspired by the practice of the nowhere group, asdescribed in their pulished works

55 ExMeryMcihsyee:HrMoeyershoeersoes* Bringing inspiration to lifeYour heroes might be Who are your heroes? We invite you to open and hold this question for yourself. Sometimes when we ask1. Historical figures, people who their heroes are, the question comes as a long dead surprise. We invite you to take it up as a question and carry it with you, without pressure for any kind of specific2. Living persons or limited answer, but as an ongoing and living3. Famous people investigation and resource for you in discovering your inspiration.4. Members of your family You might want to keep a heroes list - perhaps on paper,5. Members of your in your journal, or electronically in a medium attractive to you. communities6. Your friends What is it in the story of each of your heroes that makes7. Fictional or mythological them heroes for you? What characteristics of your heroes do you most admire? characters Are those characteristics ones you aspire to for yourself?6. Characters from film, Ones you would wish to see included in your family, your team, your organisation, your community? stage, television, How do you want to bring those wonderful qualities plays, novels, poems, into your own story? Into the stories of the relationships, songs, or stories teams, communities and organisations your are7. Characters from your own creating? imagination8. Animals, plants or natural forms9. Forces of nature Is it possible for you or others to embody the qualities you admire? If not, what is standing in the way?

My heroes 56 Bringing Inspiration to lifeYou might want to consider collecting photos,images or symbols of your heroes in one place … ordrawing images or icons to represent them and help youremember them and to make them vivid or inspiring foryou.You might also want to collect video and audio clips thatevoke your heroes for you, and to keep those clips in aspecial and memorable place where it is easy andinviting for you to refer to them and to draw inspirationfrom them.You may want to collect physical objects - human-madeor from nature - that evoke your heroes and their specialqualities, and again, maintain a special place to holdthese artefacts where you feel invited to draw inspirationfrom them.What metaphors give colour and shape to your heroes’qualities? When your heroes are embodying their mostinspiring or admirable qualities, they are like what?You might want to consider writing stories about yourheroes, where perhaps you are also a character in thestory. About your heroes: what they were like, whatchanged, what they are like now. Can you visualise thesestories, bringing them to life in your imagination?You might want to consider making a drawing or anevocative map, Temenos-fashion, to illustrate the heroicquality of some or all of your heroes, individually or ingroups.

57 ExMerMycisHyee:HMreoyrehoseersoes* Bringing inspiration to life We have offered you here a range of suggestions for discovering and living with your heroes. Please be invited to take on for yourself any part of these suggestions that serves you, and leave the rest. What insights about your own inspiration does having a relationship with your heroes evoke for you? Please be invited to record any insights in your journal, in maps, or through signs, symbols and artefacts. * This exercise is inspired by Fred Kofman

Covey’s funeral exercise 58 Bringing inspiration to lifeIn his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,Stephen Covey invites readers to carry out this mentalexercise.Imagine you are able to attend your own funeral, someyears in the future. If you are a young person, or find thefuneral image too morbid, you can imagine a celebrationin your honour several years from now.Considering the various streams of activity and inspira-tion that are important in your life, possibly animated byour five points of inspiration, consider who you wouldwish to be speaking at this celebration of your life, andwhat you would like them to say about you.For example,• What would you like to have someone say aboutyour relationship to those closest to you: possibly yourparents, your siblings, your partner or spouse, yourchildren, your closest friends. What kind of a person didthey see in you? What are their most touching andinspiring memories of you?• What would you like to have someone say aboutyour involvement in communities and ecosystems?Perhaps a company or organisation you have createdor led, your role in your work community, communitygroups, a faith-based group, a charity? Are you involvedin environmental work or do you have a particularallegiance to protecting nature? Are you involved insocial projects?

59 ExCeorScviteseeyp:’SshtfeeupnnhCeenoraCvloeevyxe’sye’rFscufiusnneeeraall Bringing inspiration to life • What would you like people to say about your Work? What have you created? How are you of service to customers, clients, colleagues, co-workers, stakeholders? What kind of professional are you? What are your special skills? What is your “art”? • What would you like people to say about how you have developed yourself? Your education, your health, your fitness, your personal achievements? • What would you like people to say about your sense of your highest truth? Your faith, your spirituality, your personal philosophy or worldview? How have you developed these elements? How have you shared them? Imagine what it would be like to see, hear and feel an ac- count of all the relevant points of this picture, by people you care about? Reflecting on these themes now, years before the point of future recollection you are now imagining, allows you time and space to consider what is really important to you. This is one way of gaining insight into what inspires you: what you think represents a good life for you, and what it would look like, sound like, feel like, to have that appreciated by others several years from now. What does doing this exercise tell you about where you would like to be investing your time today, so that when your life is celebrated years from now, the dimensions of your life that you are proud of have been realised? What would you like to create or call forward in the world? How would you like to serve? How would you like to be remembered? Allow yourself to imagine what’s possible.

Inspirations from Agile 60 Bringing inspiration to lifeAt some point we may have a sense of a vision of thefuture we want to create - in which case the nextquestion can be: “how do I make this vision come alive.”The answer we are looking for might be some kind ofstrategy or plan (see the Backbone).If a vision is a long-range one, planning for it can seemdaunting on one hand, and potentially time-consumingon the other. We might ask ourselves how to plot out along-term future in great detail.One inspiration to help with this challenge, drawing onthe Agile approach to software development (or to anyother kind of creative development) is as follows. (SeeReferences for more information about Agile).Agile thinking’s precursors began recognising a fewdecades ago that planning large projects in excruciatingdetail for execution over several years was an ineffectiveway of working. Skilled practitioners in softwaredevelopment realised that, despite the hope of doingso, it is nearly impossible to forecast several years outwhat will actually be needed at that time in a dynamicstrategic or operating environment. Equally, almost noone - not users, not designers - is very good at definingrequirements for a major undertaking without seeingand working with the underlying product or output inpractical use.

61 MIennsItpnalisrmpaoitridaoetnli:osinnfsrpsoirfmartoioAmngs AfirlogemilAegile Bringing inspiration to life Agile planning works by writing stories about the future, and then working in short bursts of activity iteratively to bring small, usable parts of that future to life so we can try them out in the real world. Each time part of the future is “made”, we have a chance to try it out and learn from our experience. As we learn, we create more and more of our future reality, but each time we move forward we incorporate our growing knowledge and wisdom gained from using our prototypes in practice - including learning from mistakes and failures as well as successes. The planning and execution is dynamic and adaptive. Accordingly, one way to create strategies and plans on the basis of visions of the future is to write the vision as a story about the future, and then to create “slices” of that future vision - small bits of the story to bring to life early on, day by day, week by week, month by month. As you bring these parts of the future vision to life, you can use them in practice and see how they perform. And you can use your daily learning to make new decisions about how the story of the future evolves, and to make new decisions about which parts of the future vision to build next. If some ideas are failures, we learn this fast and welcome the learning. We fail fast, and inexpensively, in order to shape a more robust future.

Agile planning 62 Bringing inspiration to lifeIn your backbone exercise, Temenos, inspirational star,funeral exercise, or other inspirational or purpose workprovides you with a glimpse, or more than a glimpse, of avision of the future, write your vision as a story. As muchas possible, write the story in the present tense, andfrom the point of view of customers, users or beneficiar-ies (which may include yourself ) of the work or creativeeffort you have in mind.The story may have parts and sub-parts, for exampleparts of a business plan or dimensions of theinspirational star.You may want to create “swim lanes” on a large piece ofpaper for each of the parts. You can hang the paper onthe wall or lay it out on the floor.Write major elements of the story on large post-its orindex cards and and place them (or stick them if on thewall) in the swim-lanes in their “right place”, reflectingwhat needs to be done chronologically, but also in theright spatial order to reflect importance. Notice anyrelationships that suggest themselves to you betweenkey elements in the different swim-lanes.You may want to group activities in large buckets oftime: this year, next year, or whatever is an appropriatescale for you. Don’t do this with a sense of rigid commit-ment, but rather in a spirit of play, experimentation anddiscovery.

63 ExAegrAciilsgeei:pleAlagPinlleanpninlnagninnging Bringing inspiration to life We encourage you to keep the planning map you have created somewhere where you can go back to it, see it, develop it, play with it, change it. Don’t think of your future story as fixed: think of it as emerging and evolving, informed by what you are learning every day. For your near-term planning, choose some elements that of the story (including each of its parts as appropriate) that you think you can complete in a period of a few weeks, perhaps one week to one month, whatever seems like the right interval for you. The Agile world has developed a bias for shorter planning cycles, to facilitate rapid learning and adaptation. Break each story item down into actions or tasks you can do in less than a day, or ideally in one sitting. Create a small card or a sticky note for each story item you have created in this way. Focus on delivering small but internally complete and usable parts of your long-term plan, or prototypes that allow you test parts of it in action, in each short- term planning period (sometimes called Sprints in the Agile world). Separately from your long-term planning document, make a large sheet with three columns: To do, in progress, done. Place your near-term planning cards all in the To Do column to start. As you work on items, move their cards to the In Progress column. Try to work on only one In-Progress item at a time. As your items are completed, move them into the Done column.

Agile planning 64 Bringing inspiration to lifeAt the end of your Sprint or personal iteration cycle,notice what you have accomplished, and what not. Whatwas good about this cycle’s work? What stood in yourway? What have you learned for the next cycle? Whathave you learned about your larger, longer-term plan?Go back to it and make changes as needed.This way of planning, working, delivering, learning andplanning can be repeated over and over againindefinitely, and tends to make our long-term visionsand plans living things, emerging daily, and continuouslyinformed and improved by daily learning.

Conclusion: the first question.We hope that this first theme of the Curriculum provides at least a few valuablestimuli and provocations for you as you seek to discover and bring to life yourown sense of purpose or inspiration.Our intent is to provide you with a range and variety of resources, from whichyou can choose and adopt those that serve you, and leave the rest. Equally, if youare reading or working with this, we consider you part of our community, and wehope you will feel warmly invited to share feedback and creative suggestions forhow the curriculum can be developed and improved.Far from becoming fixed in a static form, we want the curriculum to evolve,continually and elegantly, with regular new editions released, electronically andphysically. Please help us shape and develop and grow this work. We particularlywelcome a diversity of voices - culturally, geographically, politically,philosophically, economically and from every possible orientation - so the workcan benefit from - and we can learn from and with - as wide and diverse anaudience as possible.We invite you to share this work with friends, family, mentors, mentees,coaches, teachers, colleagues - whoever helps to shape your experience ofinspiration and purpose, and whose experience of these things you help toshape. We have a profound respect - and a wondering and curious admiration- for the power of dialogue and collective intelligence in calling forward insightand breakthrough. We hope you will agree and that you will make use of thosepowers for your own learning and growth: to co-create, develop and then sharethe insights that arise for you.This edition, or release, of the curriculum includes only the first of our (currentlyintended) nine themes. We are at work already on the others … and … inspiredby an Agile mindset, we want to offer you, our customers, colleagues andcommunity members, early and regular opportunities to engage with the work,to use it in real life, and to help us, through feedback and collaboration, to makeit ever better and better as we move forward together.Please enjoy the journey and please share your stories and insights with all of us.





Quotes, sources, readingsNote to participants about quotations:These quotations have been gathered, and continue to be gathered, bythe founders and participants of this curriculum, as examples of ideasand expressions that have inspired people we know, or called them to asense of personal purpose, or drawn them to bring their gifts of crea-tivity and service to life in the world. They are from diverse sources anddiverse perspectives. As you read them, some may resonate, some maynot, some may repel. Some of the terminology may seem strange or for-eign or wrong for you. Please feel free to take what fits for you -- possi-bly including what challenges you -- and leave the rest. Also feel free toexplore within the community any ideas or terms that do not seemclear or about which you would like to learn more. And finally, this listas it now exists is only a beginning: please be in invited to contributeyour own inspiring quotations to this list!

Quotations My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. - Maya Angelou You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive. -Maya Angelou The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Some- body who may not look like you. They may not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think. - Maya Angelou It Is a tragic fact that [our] present system of education fails to get across to our youth the simple, basic truth that each has within them the capacity for greatness, love and inner peace, and that this treasure can be claimed if self is made the servant of the Creative Spirit. - Lou Austin

So many people say, ‘I wish I knew what I’m supposed todo in life.’ Well look for the clues. Source is leaving youbreadcrumbs all along the path. If you but follow thebreadcrumbs from one experience of Source to the next,you can lead your life as a never-ending flow of Source,following your soul’s design for your life rather than get-ting trapped by your conflicting ideations and confusingmind-talk.Your body is a barometer of the soul. If you want toknow if you’re on track, check your body. If you areexperiencing any of the qualities of Source, give yourselfa big pat on the back - you’re in touch, you’re in flow. Inthis way, your soul can guide you from one experience ofSource to the next....[In my workshops...] I ask everyone what are some ofthe qualities that seem to arise naturally out of Source.People call out the various qualities, and the words areall put up on a big whiteboard at the front of the room....below is [the content of ] a typical whiteboard“freedom, boundlessness, joy, clarity, abundance, for-giveness, synchronicity, awareness, peace, humour,fluidity, grace, stillness, fearlessness, openness, silence,divinity, surrender, beingness, alacrity, spontaneity, light-ness, wisdom, care, compassion, effortlessness, beauty,trust, inspiration, healing, vitality, fun, laughter, purity,playfulness, excitement, fulfilment, serendipity, oneness,humility, understanding, acceptance, delight, honouring,strength, courage, vastness, aliveness, vibrancy, passion,balance, timelessness, gentleness, curiosity, simplicity,pure energy, tenderness, wholeness, completeness,serenity, truth.” - Brandon Bays, The Journey

[SD note: I like to ponder the quotation above, oftensubstituting the word “Inspiration” for Brandon’s useof “Source”. Others might prefer to stick to her originalword, or use mine, or invoke their own….]Pain pushes until vision pulls. - Michael BeckwithIn order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles. - David Ben-GurionLeadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. - Warren BennisVision animates, inspires, transforms purpose into action. - Warren BennisIn the business world, the rearview mirror is always clear-er than the windshield. - Warren BuffettWe have reversed the usual classical notion that theindependent “elementary parts” of the world are thefundamental reality, and that the various systems aremerely particular contingent forms and arrangementsof these parts. Rather, we say that inseparable quantuminterconnectedness of the whole universe is the funda-mental reality, and that relatively independent behavingparts are merely particular and contingent forms withinthis whole. - David Bohm

My suggestion is that at each state the proper order ofoperation of the mind requires an overall grasp of whatis generally known, not only in formal logical, mathemat-ical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings, poeticusage of language, etc. (Perhaps we could say that thisis what is involved in harmony between the ‘left brain’and the ‘right brain’). This kind of overall way of thinkingis not only a fertile source of new theoretical ideas: it isneeded for the human mind to function in a generallyharmonious way, which could in turn help to make possi-ble an orderly and stable society. - David BohmThere are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio.What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worthliving for and what is worth dying for? The answer toeach is the same. Only love. - Lord Byron

The usual hero adventure begins with someone fromwhom something has been taken, or who feels there’ssomething lacking in the normal experiences availableor permitted to the members of his society. This personthen takes off on a series of adventures beyond the ordi-nary, either to recover what has been lost or to discoversome life-giving elixir. It’s usually a cycle, a going and areturning.But the structure and something of the spiritual sense ofthis adventure can be seen already anticipated in the pu-berty or initiation rituals of early tribal societies, throughwhich a child is compelled to give up its childhood andbecome an adult -- to die, you might say to its infantilepersonality and psyche and come back as a responsibleadult. This is a fundamental psychological transformationthat everyone has to undergo. We are in childhood in acondition of dependency under someone’s protectionand supervision for some 14 to 21 years ... you are in noway a responsible free agent, but an obedient depend-ent, expecting and receiving punishments and rewards.To evolve out of this position of psychological immatu-rity to the courage of self-responsibility and assurancerequires a death and a resurrection. That’s the basic motifof the universal hero’s journey - leaving one’s conditionand finding the source of life to bring you forth into aricher or mature condition. -Joseph Campbell, with Bill Moyers, in The Power of Myth

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning forlife... I think that what we’re really seeking is an experi-ence of being alive, so that our life experiences on thepurely physical plane will have resonance within ourinnermost being and reality, so that we can actually feelthe rapture of being alive.But if a person has had the sense of the Call -- the feelingthat there’s an adventure for her -- and if she doesn’t fol-low that, but remains in the society because it’s safe andsecure, then life dries up. And then she comes to thatcondition in late middle age: she’s gotten to the top ofthe ladder, and found that it’s against the wrong wall.If you have the guts to follow the risk, however, lifeopens, opens, opens up all along the line. I’m not super-stitious, but I do believe in spiritual magic, you mightsay. I feel that if one follows what I call one’s “bliss” -- thething that really gets you deep in your gut and that youfeel is your life -- doors will open up. They do! They havein my life and they have in many lives that I know of.And the other point is, if you follow your bliss, you’ll haveyour bliss, whether you have money or not. If you followmoney, you may lose money, and then you don’t haveeven that. The secure way is really the insecure way andthe way in which the richness of the quest accumulatesis the right way. - Joseph Campbell (pronouns adjusted by SD)The empires of the future are empires of the mind. - Winston Churchill

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You mustknow what you want from life. There is just one thingthat makes your dream become impossible: the fear offailure. - Paulo CoelhoI have seen many storms in my life. Most storms havecaught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly tolook further and understand that I am not capable ofcontrolling the weather, to exercise the art of patienceand to respect the fury of nature. - Paulo CoelhoWhen a person really desires something, all the universeconspires to help that person to realize his dream. - Paulo CoelhoMy literature is much more the result of a paradox thanthat of an implacable logic, typical of police novels. Theparadox is the tension that exists in my soul. - Paulo CoelhoBe brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience. - Paulo Coelho

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion,lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beingsneed to have elegance in their actions and in their pos-ture because this word is synonymous with good taste,amiability, equilibrium and harmony. - Paulo CoelhoI believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. Ilook for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d havestopped writing years ago if it were for the money. - Paulo CoelhoWe want to answer this classical question, who am I? SoI think that most of our works for art, or whatever we do,including science or religion, tried to answer that ques-tion. - Paulo CoelhoElegance is achieved when all that is superfluous hasbeen discarded and the human being discovers simplic-ity and concentration: the simpler and more sober theposture, the more beautiful it will be. - Paulo Coelho

… I’ve come to believe that there are two approachesto life. The first, followed by most, is the “paint by num-ber” approach to life. You do what other people say. Youfollow a well-travelled path. You stay within the lines.And you end up with a nice, pretty -- and unimaginative-- picture. The second, followed by few, is to start with ablank canvas and try to paint a masterpiece. It is a riskierpath, a harder path, a path filled with ambiguity and cre-ative choice. But it’s the only way to make your life itselfa creative work of art. To paint a masterpiece requiresa concept, a place to begin, a guiding context in theabsence of the comforting numbers and lines in the pre-made kit. That guiding frame of reference is the highestgoal…., and bringing it into your life with the help ofMichael’s discoveries is what this book is all about. -Jim Collins, in the foreword to Michael Ray’s The Highest GoalEvery human has four endowments- self-awareness,conscience, independent will and creative imagination.These give us the ultimate human freedom... The powerto choose, to respond, to change. - Stephen CoveyIn the last analysis, what we are communicates far moreeloquently than anything we say or do. - Stephen CoveyMost people struggle with life balance simply becausethey haven’t paid the price to decide what is really im-portant to them. - Stephen Covey

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, butto schedule your priorities. - Stephen CoveyA leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent visionunless it expresses his core values, his basic identity. Onemust first embark on the formidable journey of self-dis-covery in order to create a vision with authentic soul. - Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiManagement has a lot to do with answers. Leadershipis a function of questions. And the first question for aleader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What arewe going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’ - Max DePreeIf you can dream it, you can do it. - Walt DisneyUnless commitment is made, there are only promisesand hopes... but no plans. - Peter DruckerIf we did all the things we are capable of doing we wouldliterally astound ourselves. - Thomas EdisonVision without execution is hallucination. - Thomas Edison

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talentfor absorbing positive knowledge. - Albert EinsteinPeople only see what they are prepared to see. - Ralph Waldo EmersonNo one’s going to care about our community as much aswe do. So we are the ones who have to take ownership. -Cecily Engelhardt, Thunder Valley Community Development CorporationCreate your future from your future, not your past. - Werner ErhardThe best vision is insight. - Malcolm ForbesTo accomplish great things we must dream as well as act. - Anatole France

We who lived in concentration camps can remember thepeople who walked through the huts comforting oth-ers, giving away their last piece of bread. They may havebeen few in number, but they offer sufficient proof thateverything can be taken from a person but one thing:the last of the human freedoms--to choose one’s attitudein any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s ownway.The way in which a person accepts her fate and all thesuffering it entails, the way in which she takes up hercross, gives her ample opportunity--even under the mostdifficult circumstances--to add a deeper meaning to herlife. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or inthe bitter fight for self-preservation she may forget herhuman dignity and become no more than an animal.Here lies the chance for a person either to make use of orto forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral valuesthat a difficult situation may afford her. And this decideswhether she is worthy of her sufferings or not.We must never forget that we may also find meaningin life even when confronted with a hopeless situation,when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For whatthen matters is to bear witness to the uniquely humanpotential at its best, which is to transform a personaltragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament intoa human achievement. When we are no longer able tochange a situation--just think of an incurable diseasesuch as inoperable cancer--we are challenged to changeourselves. - Viktor Frankl (pronouns adjusted by S Downs)

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. - Robert FrostIf you limit your choices only to what seems possible orreasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you trulywant, and all that is left is a compromise. -Robert FritzI don’t know Who -- or what -- put the question. I don’tknow when it was put. I don’t even remember answer-ing. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone-- or Something--and from that hour I was certain thatexistence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, inself-surrender, had a goal. - Dag Hammarskjold, in Markings, quoted by Gerald MayThe best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in theservice of others. - Mahatma GandhiMy life is my message. - Mahatma GandhiGlory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not inreaching it.- Mahatma Gandhi

He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction thathuman beings are not born once and for all on the daytheir mothers give birth to them, but that life obligesthem over and over again to give birth to themselves. -Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of CholeraA leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for whatthey can become and to release their energies so theywill try to get there. - David GergenWhatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Bold-ness has genius and magic and power in it. Begin it now. - Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThere is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickeningthat is translated through you into action and becausethere is only one of you in all of time, this expression isunique. And if you block it, it will never exist through anyother medium and be lost … It is your business to keep ityours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. - Martha Graham - dancer and choreographerSilence is argument carried out by other means. - Che GuevaraThe only passion that guides me is for the truth... I look ateverything from this point of view. - Che Guevara

One particular line of questioning that I found mostuseful, and research suggests is very revealing as to whatmotivates and drives an individual to eventual success,is as follows: When you were young, who was the per-son that was most influential in teaching you valuablelessons about life? What were those lessons the persontaught you? What are those tapes this person put intoyour head that are still there today and have emerged asguiding principles for you?Usually the person is a parent, an influential teacher, orsome other authority figure. Often times, this personcame into the individual’s life as early as grade schoolor high school. The lessons you are looking for are basicprinciples that suggest a high degree of self confidence,a sense of personal responsibility, a strong drive toachieve, and solid fundamental ethics. No hint of thesekinds of traits should be a red flag. - Bob Herbold – former Chief Operating Officer ofMicrosoft Corporation, on the productive questions toask in an interview. Quoted by Mike Figliuolo on his blog“Thought Leaders”The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision.It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefullyon every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. - Theodore HesburghCherish your visions and your dreams as they are thechildren of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimateachievements. - Napoleon Hill

I facilitated a session called “What is Education?”Instead of telling the campers what education is, I askedthem to reflect on their favorite learning moments fromthe camp, and together, we drew out lessons on whateducation meant to each one of them. Each item onthe list, connected to a specific activity, day, or momentthroughout the camp, was truly remarkable: education isfun, collaborative, personally transformative, equitable,aligning with personal passions, making us better peo-ple and friends, multiple ways of being smart, directlyconnected to our lives, looking inside and reflecting,connected to the community and environment, learningto be happy, and learning to love. - Tim Huang, from an experimental education symposium in Bhutan 2014The greatest use of life is to spend it for something thatwill outlast it. - William JamesVision without action is a daydream. Action with withoutvision is a nightmare. -Japanese ProverbThe kind of power I am talking about is entirely differ-ent. In fact, it makes you feel less manipulative of thosearound you, and certainly more loving. I am talkingabout power within the self. This means power over yourperceptions of the world, power over how you react tosituations in your life, power to do what is necessary foryour own self-growth, power to create joy and satisfac-tion in your life, power to act and power to love.- Susan Jeffers, in Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and theonly way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe isgreat work. And the only way to do great work is to lovewhat you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking,and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart,..you’llknow when you find it. - Steve JobsThe artist is not a person endowed with free will whoseeks her own ends, but one who allows art to realize itspurposes through her. As a human being she may havemoods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist sheis “human” in a higher sense - she is “collective human,”a vehicle and moulder of the unconscious psychic life ofhumankind. - C. G. Jung ‘Psychology and Literature’, 1930) (pronouns amended by SD)Your vision will become clear only when you look intoyour heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks insideawakens. - Carl JungA vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is anappeal to our better selves, a call to become somethingmore. -Rosabeth Moss KanterThe best way to predict the future is to create it. -Alan Kay

A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. - Soren KierkegaardYou don’t lead by pointing and telling people someplace to go. You lead by going to that place and makinga case. - Ken KeseyIf a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweepstreets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven com-posed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He shouldsweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven andearth will pause and say, “Here lived a great streetsweep-er who did his job well.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.There is no end to education. It is not that you read abook, pass an examination, and finish with education.The whole of life, from the moment you are born to themoment you die, is a process of learning. -Jiddu KrishnamurtiFreedom from the desire for an answer is essential to theunderstanding of a problem. - Jiddu KrishnamurtiSo when you are listening to somebody, completely,attentively, then you are listening not only to the words,but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to thewhole of it, not part of it. -Jiddu Krishnamurti

What is needed, rather than running away or controllingor suppressing or any other resistance, is understandingfear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directlyinto contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not howto escape from it. - Jiddu KrishnamurtiThe journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. - Lao TzuAt the center of your being you have the answer; youknow who you are and you know what you want. - Lao Tzu, quoted by Deborah Hartmann PreussWhen you are content to be simply yourself and don’tcompare or compete, everybody will respect you. - Lao TzuA good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent onarriving. - Lao TzuThose who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those whopredict, don’t have knowledge. - Lao TzuThe key to growth is the introduction of higher dimen-sions of consciousness into our awareness. - Lao Tzu

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective itmay be, than to follow the duty of another, however wellone may perform it. He who does his duty as his ownnature reveals it, never sins. - Lao TzuThe snow goose need not bathe to make itself white.Neither need you do anything but be yourself. - Lao TzuDetermine that the thing can and shall be done and thenwe shall find the way. - Abraham LincolnDreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unlessyou can imagine it. - George LucasThe greatest danger for most of us is not that our aimis too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and wereach it. - Michelangelo

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. Thereis no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need forsilence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do lan-guage. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world isbruised and bleeding, and though it is important not toignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb toits malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains informationthat can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.- Toni Morrison, quoted by Maria PopovaThis may sound too simple, but is great in consequence.Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chanceto draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning allacts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementarytruth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas andsplendid plans: that the moment one definitely commitsoneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream ofevents issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor allmanner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and materialassistance, which no man could have dreamt would havecome his way. -W. H. Murray, The Scottish Himalaya Expedition 1951If I have seen farther than others, it is because I wasstanding on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac NewtonThe best stories are lived (not written)- Song title, The Ocean’s EyesRowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in thewrong direction.- Kenichi Ohmae

I did not think of language as the means to self-descrip-tion. I thought of it as the door — a thousand openingdoors! — past myself. I thought of it as the means tonotice, to contemplate, to praise, and, thus, to come intopower....I saw what skill was needed, and persistence — howone must bend one’s spine, like a hoop, over the page— the long labor. I saw the difference between doingnothing, or doing a little, and the redemptive act of trueeffort. Reading, then writing, then desiring to write well,shaped in me that most joyful of circumstances — apassion for work.I don’t mean it’s easy or assured; there are the stubbornstumps of shame, grief that remains unsolvable after allthe years, a bag of stones that goes with one whereverone goes and however the hour may call for dancing andfor light feet. But there is, also, the summoning world,the admirable energies of the world, better than anger,better than bitterness and, because more interesting,more alleviating. And there is the thing that one does,the needle one plies, the work, and within that work achance to take thoughts that are hot and formless and toplace them slowly and with meticulous effort into someshapely heat-retaining form, even as the gods, or nature,or the soundless wheels of time have made forms allacross the soft, curved universe — that is to say, havingchosen to claim my life, I have made for myself, out ofwork and love, a handsome life. - Mary Oliver, quoted by Maria Popova in BrainPickings

The InvitationIt doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I wantto know what you ache for and if you dare to dream ofmeeting your heart’s longing.It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know ifyou will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream,for the adventure of being alive.It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring yourmoon. I want to know if you have touched the centreof your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’sbetrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fearof further pain.I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill youto the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioningus to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations ofbeing human.It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me istrue. I want to know if you can disappoint another to betrue to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betray-al and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is notpretty every day. And if you can source your own lifefrom its presence.I want to know if you can live with failure, yours andmine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout tothe silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or howmuch money you have. I want to know if you can get upafter the night of grief and despair, weary and bruisedto the bone and do what needs to be done to feed thechildren.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came tobe here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre ofthe fire with me and not shrink back.It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom youhave studied. I want to know what sustains you from theinside when all else falls away.I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and ifyou truly like the company you keep in the empty mo-ments. -Oriah Mountain DreamerWhen you work only for yourself, or for your own per-sonal gain, your mind will seldom rise above the limi-tations of an undeveloped personal life. But when youare inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinaryproject, all your thoughts break your bonds: your mindtranscends limitations, your consciousness expands inevery direction, and you find yourself in a new, great andwonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talentsbecome alive, and you discover yourself to be a greaterperson by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. - Patanjali, founder of the Yoga sutras, 2nd century BC Quoted by Nick Williams, author of “The Work We Were Born to Do”A few centuries of listening to the head and more or lessignoring the wisdom of the body have produced a worldthat makes sense to the head but bewilders the noblephysical being that’s hiding beneath our business suits. - David Pearl

Whence come I and whither go I? That is the greatunfathomable question, the same for every one of us.Science has no answer to it. - Max PlanckIn reality, we are servants of the Mystery. We were puthere on earth to acts as agents of the Infinite, to bringinto existence that which is not yet, but which will be,through us. - Steven Pressfield, author The War of ArtYou may think that you’ve lost your passion, or thatyou can’t identify it, or that you have so much of it, itthreatens to overwhelm you. None of these is true. Fearsaps passion. When we conquer our fears, we discover aboundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion. - Steven Pressfield, Do the WorkA child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nordoes the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, withour big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and over-think and hesitate. Don’t think. Act. - Steven Pressfield, Do the WorkThe drawing is also a reminder that there’s an artist with-in each of us, and we must encourage that artist to dothe work, to make something that matters, regardless ofanything else that is going on. - Steven Pressfield, Do the Work

The opposite of fear is love - love of the challenge, loveof the work, the pure joyous passion to take a shot at ourdream and see if we can pull it off. - Steven Pressfield, Do the WorkThe real voyage of discovery consists of not in seekingnew landscapes but in having new eyes - Marcel ProustWhere there is no vision the people perish. - Proverbs 29:18The root word of education -- educare -- means to leadforth a hidden wholeness in another person. A genuineeducation fosters self-knowledge, self-trust, creativityand the full expression of one’s unique identity. It givespeople the courage to be more. - Rachel Naomi Remen

At the end of the Healer’s Art in all the 90 schools thatpresently teach it, the students stand in a large circle,silently review their memories of the course and identifythe most important thing that they learned or remem-bered during the course. They then turn this insight intoan affirmation: a little phrase which begins in one ofthree ways: I AM…. I CAN…. or I WILL. One at a time, thestudents go around the circle each saying their phraseout loud. This year will be the 24th year that I havetaught the course at my medical school. The most com-mon thing that students say in this sharing is a simplethree-word phase: I AM ENOUGH. Year after year it is thesame phrase I myself say as well. It is the beginning ofeverything. -Rachel Naomi Remen, MD. Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Univer- sity of San Francisco and author of the curricu- lum called the Healer’s Art, now taught at over 90 medical schools around the world, including over half the medical schools in the US.Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses whoare only waiting to see us act, just once, with beautyand courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, inits deepest essence, something helpless that wants ourlove. - Rainer Maria RilkeThe work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you. - Rainer Maria Rilke

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame your-self that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches;for the creator, there is no poverty. - Rainer Maria RilkeThe only journey is the one within. - Rainer Maria RilkeBe patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart andtry to love the questions themselves, like locked roomsand like books that are now written in a very foreigntongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot begiven you because you would not be able to live them.And the point is, to live everything. Live the questionsnow. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,live along some distant day into the answer.” - Rainer Maria RilkeLet life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right,always. - Rainer Maria RilkeThe purpose of life is to be defeated by greater andgreater things. - Rainer Maria RilkeI hold this to be the highest task for a bond between twopeople: that each protects the solitude of the other. - Rainer Maria Rilke

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who reallylove: the more they give, the more they possess. - Rainer Maria RilkeA person isn’t who they are during the last conversation you hadwith them - they’re who they’ve been throughout your whole rela-tionship. - Rainer Maria RilkeI want to be with those who know secret things or else alone. - Rainer Maria RilkeStart anywhere and follow it everywhere. - Myron RogersKeep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.- Franklin D. RooseveltAll work is an act of philosophy. - Ayn Rand