Category Archives: Leadership

How We Connect the Dots (and how I make my notes for podcast/creative ideas)

  1.  Curiosity.
    1. This requires and open spirit that allows itself availability to come into contact that which it does not know.
    2. Here questions > answers.
  2. Interest
    1. Once interest is perked, one can start to access their vault of experiential knowledge and start to accumulate some dots for connecting with the new subject via form, fashion, feel, etc.
  3. Understanding
    1. Here the dots begin to connect.
    2. Pattern, rhyme, tempo, consistency, and predictability begin to be learned, seen, and noted.
    3. We now know what was unknown has some knowability for us…and perhaps it could teach or enlarge us.
  4. Appreciation/Reverence
    1. Here we start to freely share what we’ve learned.
    2. Enjoyment, sharing, and participation are all mirroring the awe we’ve been able to line up with these new dots.
    3. Unity > Uniformity and this reality is celebrated.
  5. Wonder-filled/Bewildered/Quickened/In Awe
    1. One now begins to take ownership with their relationship to these dots.
    2. A gratuitous spirit is now lost in the mystery, but found in the passion of the process, art, and flow these dots provide for them.
    3. The dots become metaphors across a myriad of life’s offerings.
    4. The nuance of the dots personally become known and consistently reflected on.
  6. Holiness/Beauty/Presence
    1. This is what we all want.
    2. Time stands still.
    3. Meaning has arrived.

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Original > Another

This can be just another Monday.

A groggy attempt to reclaim weekend highs with a frustrated posture for wherever you may find yourself in spirit, mind, and body.

Or it can be magical, majestic, and pregnant with possibility and hope.

It can be just another ________

…or it can be an original.

Maybe your children are offering you a song that welcomes you back to your original child-likeness. Remember that ‘you’? That you never had a business card and won’t ever need one either.

Perhaps the sun that will warm your skin today is the same sun humming a tune into the dirt and vines on your block ushering spring into being out of the muck of autumn’s decay. Could the bloom(s) of spring be millions of lovely questions and affirmations bursting specifically for you? If you listen closely, you can hear them exude via color “I’m an original…and so are you!”

Or maybe this monotonous Monday has an agenda that is woven with earth and Heaven? And what if that agenda could use a conduit, a bridge, or a medium to transport something that, end the end, could transform something? What if that conduit was you? What if you were also meant to be in on the transformation?

Call it whatever you need to.

Just don’t call it Monday.

That carries too much baggage.

You’ve been given wings to go somewhere new, eyes to see with possibility, and hands to paint with hope.

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Take Notes…on yourself.

If you can remember to, take note of the connections below for the next week or so.

See if this rings true for you…

  • An awareness of one’s consciousness and presence will lead to greater joy, contentment, and fulfillment. The more you’re with the moment the more surprised and delighted you are by all that your moments offer you.
  • On the other hand, a lack of awareness and connection to one’s presence will lead to greater anxiety, frustration, disappointment, and suffering. To check out (or numb out) is to miss out on the meaning that’s trying to weave its way through your moments.

 

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Podcast 52: Be Who You Are with Rebekah Lyons

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Rebekah Lyons is the author of Freefall to Fly: A Breathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning and You Are Free: Be Who You Already Are (released February 21, 2017.) She is a mother of three, wife of one, and dog walker of two living in Nashville.

She’s an old soul with a contemporary, honest voice who puts a new face on the struggles we all face as we seek to live a life of meaning.

Through emotive writing and speaking, Rebekah reveals her own battles to overcome anxiety, depression, and consumer impulses—challenging people to discover and boldly pursue the calling God has for them. As a self-confessed mess, Rebekah wears her heart on her sleeve, a benefit to friends and readers alike.

You can stream and download this episode and all episodes of Let The Music Play Podcast at www.AshtonGustafson.com or iTunes.

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