When I was in high school I was a cheerleader. Our team was the warriors, the Western Warriors. When I took Andrew’s advice and read The War of Art, which I highly recommend by the way, I heard again the language of the warrior. We, as artists, are at war with something that Pressfield calls Resistance. It is that urge to do something else that comes from self doubt and takes the form of distractions. It is a powerful force willing us NOT to do what we must do as artists … create. It is a war against ourselves, our ego. The ego seeks immediate gratification and attention. Pulling ourselves back to the work is a tug of war.

At the same time I am reading “The Places that Scare You”. It is written by a Buddhist Nun in Nova Scotia. Pema Chodron also writes about the warrior overcoming the ego and attachment. The six activities of the warrior she lists as generousity, discipline, patience, joyful enthusiasm, meditation and an open inquiring mind free of judgement and attachment. The path to inner peace is to be active in these ways.

I just want to write, to become a pro. Pressfield talks about becoming a pro. He describes it as accepting the art as a profession, something that you work at daily, something you are dedicated to and proud of like you would be at any job. It is also something you work at mastering. That has helped me. I am a writing warrior a Western Warrior from my alma mater.
So is a professional warrior a mercenary? It does make sense. I want to be paid for my warrior activities and part of the resistance I feel comes from that notion. The self doubt is debilitating. The apparent lack of humility as we press our words to the paper leads us to skirmishes on the battlefields of our minds, bodies and souls. The apparent arrogance that is required to create clashes with the activities of the warrior to overcome such arrogance. And so we struggle.

Pema talks about the three kinds of lazy that I now recognize as resistance a la Pressfield. Comfort orientation is the first kind of lazy. Guilty! I seek comfort. I sometimes demand it and it does take away from my working on my projects. Loss of heart is the second kind. I have these sudden waves of hopelessness that put me in my chair in front of the TV. I watch for hours wondering why and helpless to get up and do something else. “Couldn’t care less” is the third kind of laziness and that one can lead to clinical depression. It is beyond the loss of heart to the loss of self. You can lose time to resistance or you can lose yourself. And so we struggle.

This struggle, this internal waging of war is tiring me out. I am done. Surrender is on the horizon. Surrender to what? To Buddha? To the Muses as described by Pressfield? Where do I go to surrender so this war with myself can be over? I surrender to the need to finish these books. I surrender to the need to put the books first for a while to treat them as a part of the career I love and that others value. I surrender to the work. I surrender to the art.

 http://youtu.be/XvhAsJPXj1M 

This is my 301st post.  It is hard to believe that I have been finding things to share with you over the years and it has added up to this.  A lot has happened since I began in May of 2008.  Six years of seasons and changes have brought PULSE back to where it was then.  PULSE is finding water and moving to form new rivers and streams of interest and income.  I am enjoying the monthly webinars and working with new clients and I am hopeful and grateful at the same time.

And as for me, I have changed too.  Older can be wiser.  It can also be more experienced.  Sometimes I do feel that I am repeating lessons from the past.  Life is like that.  If you don’t learn the lesson then you get to have the experience again.  For some reason we don’t see it coming.  The route is familiar so we continue until … bang … there it is the same old road block we hit once before.  If we are lucky we find the way around over or under, around or through this road block with resignation that the journey is ours to travel and no road block can stop us.

I recently read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  It is a fable about a boy who finds his treasure where his journey began.  the twists and turns are great and the lessons are clear.  Many journeys have detours and we sometimes get lost and go in circles but in the end you have to follow your heart, listen to your heart and find your way to your personal treasure… to complete your own personal legend.  Everything and every one has their own.  Finding it requires listening … with both ears.

Part of my legend is to write.  I love it.  It feeds my soul.  I am so happy to be able to continue to write my way to my personal treasure and circle back as the boy in the book did to where I began to write again and again until I get it WRITE.

Join me tomorrow at 10 MST for a free 40 minute  webinar broadcast on the GHOST protocol. Here is the link  http://pulseinstitute.adobeconnect.com/ghost/

Learn a simple five piece puzzle for getting conversations right.

I have been writing the BEACHs book for three years now. Somehow over that time pieces of it have ended up in different location. Today I think I have pulled it all back together and can begin to work again on this ambitious and potentially important book. You may recall it is about sociology in the workplace and uses the enneagram as a basis for a sociological construct to understand and predict how people react to each other in the workplace.

I am excited about the book and the myriad ideas in my head. I am realizing again how much perseverance and patience it takes to put a book together. I have the time and the energy but it is the where to start again that stops me in my tracks and convinces me to go do something else for a while. Patience was never one of my virtues. I have always preferred immediate gratification. Patience is something I have had to learn.

I have had many opportunities to learn the effects of NOT waiting and I have had many lessons on the payoff for patience. When I find myself becoming impatient with myself I have to force myself to slow down and think. Moving toward the project, slowly and methodically, so as not to scare it away, is the best approach I find. I can always find distractions and excuses but if I set up a step by step approach and put time aside in my calendar to write I can make progress.

What is progress? For me right now it is getting everything in the same place and taking one small step on a long journey to completion. Writers block for me is just the unwillingness to sit in the chaos and figure it all out. It is a detour on the journey, one I have become too comfortable with and have learned to enjoy. NOT GOOD.

Back to work. Thanks for listening

One of my favourite t-shirts has this saying on it… Love with no regrets.  I am wearing it today as a label.  That is who I am…. Love, Nancy Love … with no regrets.  I need to wear it from time to time to keep in touch with that part  of me that lives in the here and now.

Regrets like worry are a waste of time.  That was then.  This is now. Let it go.

I remember wearing this shirt in Hawaii and having a half a dozen people read it and give me a smile or a high-five or a “Nice t-shirt!”  It is a good sentiment.  I am not sure that everyone attaches the same meaning to it as I do.  For me means that  I don’t want to have regrets at the end of the day or week or month or year or at the end of my days.  I want to be able to look myself in the eye and say I did what I came to do.

I have loved deeply.  I have contributed two wonderful daughters to the world.  I have made a change and a difference in many people’s lives for the good with PULSE.  That’s cool.  And I get to continue doing that.  How lucky am I?

Sometimes I get down on myself for not producing … not finishing the books that I am writing and not completing things.  There is so much in my head that there seems to be wrestling match going on to see what will get out first. Setting priorities and schedules and sticking to them is a great plan.  Sometimes a plan is just something to base change on.

What I need right now is forgiveness … not regret.  ” Okay, Dr. Love.  You are behind on your promises.  What are you going to do now to make those right?”  I have to be gentle and honest with myself today and work my way through the pile so I can meet the expectations of others and myself.  My expectation is of course that I meet others’ expectations and I can.  Timeliness is key.

What takes you away from the LISTS?  When I really think about it for me it is only family and a new obligation to myself and my fitness … ZUMBA.  I know that the time that I spend exercising will pay off in great dividends of energy in the end.  It is right now a time management issue.  No regrets, though because it is time well spent.

Love … with no regrets!!!

Thank you to those who joined me on yesterdays webinar. The link to the recording will be posted on the events calendar at www.pulseinstitute.com or you can email me and I will send it to you.  I also added it to the bottom of this post for your convenience.

I spent a great deal of time thinking about how to address checklists on the broadcast. I wanted to touch on the history of checklists as a tool for people who do their work in conversation. Any agenda at any meeting is a checklist. The PULSE checklists where created to help people in difficult situations remember what needs to be addressed at any meeting or in any form of social exchange to ensure a sustainable outcome. AND it works. It is a proven and fast way to move through a conversation or an email or a novel.

I also wanted to talk about the reason that many people do not use checklists and why I have faced resistance from many of my participants on sticking to the script and the checklist especially when you are first learning how to do this work. Most people think that as a professional you SHOULD know how to do this. Their fear is that the clients will think they don’t know what they are doing. In fact the checklist will give the clients MORE confidence in you rather than LESS. That seems counterintuitive and yet it is true. Ask your clients. Would they rather have someone with the right tools do the job or someone who appears to be wining it?

The other thought that occurred to me as I prepared for the webinar was the result of a book I am reading. The Happiness Hypothesis, by Haidt, is a great book. So far I have learned that happiness = work + love. Of course Haidt’s theories are much more robust than one simple equation. The notion of coherence is explored with respect to cultures and religions and although I am clear that PULSE is neither of those it did occur to me that the PULSE Frame and the PULSE movement to create people with the courage to make a change and the confidence to make a difference, to create peaceful productive workplaces is coherent. What I mean by that is that you can start anywhere with PULSE and learn about it from that starting point. It is true to the values and skills and philosophy at every level. Based on Appreciative Inquiry it is curious rather than accusatory. Based on a Sociological Perspective it studies behaviour not psychology. Based on the conflict theory it uses the skills and the language of mediation to prevent and avoid the need for it.

If you begin with the checklist for example you will find the process, the protocol and the purpose for each of the many and varied situations where a PULSE Frame can be successfully applied to improve the likelihood of a sustainable outcome. Whether you are working with teams or one on one doesn’t really matter. The principals are the same. Using it as an operating system inside any organization leads to significant change on the people side, the so called soft skills side. That is why we promote it as a tool for anyone who does their work in conversation or through social exchange. If you are vicariously responsible for the work of others then this PULSE Frame can help you do your work faster and easier.

If you begin with a study of how people do their work in conversation you can get to PULSE. If you begin with how organizations and teams are structured you can also get to PULSE. Teams form. While forming they experience the Prepare stage. Knowing what questions need answering at the Prepare stage makes that forming easier and faster. Then teams become fractious. This is them Uncovering the title of their story, shedding the emotional attachments to a past that a skillful PULSE professional can negotiate with them. Then teams becoming working teams. Here they work with each other to develop a sense of shared values in the present. They Learn what their criteria for the future are. Then they perform. They are good at what they do. They understand their circumstances and their significance and now they Search for what’s also possible. Then teams reform with a new purpose or they wrap up and move on, Explaining what the next steps will be. The cycle of teams=Prepare, Uncover, Learn, Search, Explain. The cycle of organizations, the cycle of relationships, the cycle of social exchanges can all be represented by PULSE. Understanding the theory behind the checklist is crucial but, believe it or not, not necessary for you to use it successfully. That’s because it is coherent and elegant and effective. Try it. You can download a 30 page document with five kinds of PULSE scripts and checklists from our website or using the links below.

I could go on and on … and I tend to. Sorry. Suffice to say I am excited by what I know about how PULSE has worked in the past, the significance of it in the present and the endless field of possibilities for it in the future.

http://pulseinstitute.adobeconnect.com/p2jutzkylyg/ 40 minute braodcast – Checklists for Every Occassion

For 30 pages of PULSE checklists cut and paste the URL into your browser.

https://db.tt/5g65JCBv