Think of it:  there you are, divested of your usual social masks, so you’re not worrying so much about what others think.  You’re just focused on coming clean.

You’re probably more present, more attuned to your senses.  All you have to do is stay alert enough not to fall, then stand there and enjoy the fruits of others’ genius (thank you to all you inventors of plumbing, heating and great showerheads!).

As the hot water pours over your head, mental cobwebs get cleared away.  Whatever tension you normally carry in your shoulders and neck lets go.  Without thinking about it, great ideas can flow naturally, almost as easily as the water flows over your head.

It’s Harder to Block Great Ideas When You’re Naked and Vulnerable

As mindfulness practitioners know, most of us keep our minds so overloaded with chatter that we can’t notice or hear the quieter, more solid wisdom that’s always available to guide our minds.

Then there all the psychological and spiritual issues that block the reception of potential visions.  Fear is probably the best known visionary inhibitor but pride and self-will are equally potent.  So are belief systems, idealized self images and all the other things you may carry around with you, without even noticing it.

Take those off, and you become mentally, spiritually and emotionally “naked.”  In such a state, you’re better able to receive new ideas.  Or even old ideas that you’ve been ignoring.

How to Be “Naked” When Fully Clothed And Out in the World

A huge barrier to vision is the common tendency in our culture to rush decisions, as if not knowing the answer to something is weak.  In truth, we’re strongest spiritually and emotionally if we can also be vulnerable and open to help from others.

That’s why all great spiritual and therapeutic traditions require us to be naked emotionally and spiritually to ourselves, and often with others.  Indeed, one of the most powerful preludes to great wisdom is the spiritual practice of what St. John of the Cross called the dark night of the soul.

In this practice, we dare to go beyond all we know, or think we know, into the darkness of not knowing.  Here, we’re like travelers who have gone far enough from a city not to hear its noise, not even to see the afterglow of its lights.  Once we get attuned to the darkness, we can see more stars, more faint lights in the distance, and even the light of our own hearts.

Being naked out in the world doesn’t mean spilling all your beans to another.  But it does mean being bare of illusions or pretenses or beliefs that keep you from being fully present to yourself and the world around you.  Naked this way, you’re more attuned to what’s true about you and the world.  In this state, you’re more relaxed, better able to notice what calls you for work, for business, for service, and even for just having a great day today.

How Do You Get “Naked” So You Can Invite a Vision?

Do you actually hit the shower sometimes just to clear your head?  Do you meditate?  Do you have a spiritual director or friend who helps you strip away your pretenses and illusions so you can come clean to your true self?

Does a walk, or dancing or hanging out with a two-year-0ld help you get out of your own stuff so you’re more receptive to new perspectives?

Feel free to share your comments below.

As always, many blessings to you,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Look no further for inspiration and guidance than the mockingbird, an ordinary looking grey bird with white wingtips who can shift tunes at the rate of about eight a minute.

With Its Ever-changing Repertoire, the Mockingbird Is a Great Role Model for Human Creativity

Some mockingbird tunes are imitations of other birdsongs, or riffs and variations on them.  Mockingbirds typically mix these usually pleasant tunes with imitations of less pleasant neighborhood events, like cat fights or ambulance sirens. Some tunes seem to be each mockingbird’s own inventions, for the sheer joy of it.

Mockingbirds have been known to sing for hours.  Many bounce up and down as they sing from the highest local treetop or TV antenna, thus projecting their music throughout the neighborhood.  Their ability to sing so continuously once royally bothered Thomas Jefferson, who thanks to a lousy mattress and a really great mockingbird outside his window throughout a night, slept little one night.

Unlike Mockingbirds, Most Of Us Have Learned To Repress Our Creativity, Not Use It

Though humans are born with the potential to be far more creative than mockingbirds, the high creativity that bubbles in us as five-year-olds is mostly repressed by the end of second grade.  One of the easiest ways to recover that creativity and develop it is to imitate the mockingbird:

1.      Temporarily suspend all judgment, premature practicality and other human habits that kill imagination.

2.      Dare to try something new at least once a day.

3.      Get around and notice what others are doing.  Then comment to yourself through writing, dance, art, etc.

4.      When you like something, copy it shamelessly unless it is copyright or patented.

5.      Feel free to mix, match and alter what you learn from others.

6.      Give your imagination time to play without focus, so it is free to generate possibilities for your consideration.

7.      Learn to tolerate dissonance and ambiguity, to weave harsh challenges into sweet thoughts to create a rich and satisfying symphony.

8.      Express yourself with exuberance and joy … forever.

Imagination is Just One of Many Creative and Visionary Potentials.

Whatever you imagine as a possibility will need to be fully fleshed out so it can become a true vision.  It will need grounding in reality and a lot of careful research before you can discern whether a new idea is likely to work or not.

In coming posts, we’ll explore other visionary potentials and how you can engage them.  In the meantime, have fun imitating the mockingbird’s prolific creativity!

As always, many blessings for your life and work, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Note:  this post was originally written as “The Mockingbird Solution To Almost Any Problem” in 1994 by Pat McHenry Sullivan.   Your comments are welcome below!

copyright 2011 by Pat McHenry Sullivan, t/a Visionary Resources

Here’s my favorite autumn inspiration ritual, inspired by the Jewish New Year:

1.    Collect an apple, some dried fruit and a few nuts.   Go to woods you love, preferably some with a stream.

2.      As you walk, reflect about the past 12 months and what you are ready to release:  excess weight, perhaps, or pettiness, or habits that keep you too busy to enjoy life.

3.    Pick up a fallen leaf, preferably one with brilliant autumn colors.  Imagine releasing your “old stuff” into the leaf as easily as the leaf has let go its branch.  Then release the leaf into a stream and watch it float away.  (If there’s no stream, bury your leaf into a pile of other fallen leaves.)

4.    As you walk again, imagine everything around you has a message for you, like the multi-legged insect that once “told” my husband John that he needed to get out into the world more and wave his equivalent to the insect’s feelers in all directions.

5.    Savor the apple slowly, reflecting on the many delights of your world that are meant to nurture us, not hoarded or consumed thoughtlessly. Vow to create more savoring time over the next 12 months.

6.    Look at the nuts and raisins, symbols of the bounty of the world, the power of the human mind to discover things like how to preserve food, and the human habit of lovingly passing on wisdom through the ages.  Reflect on the gifts you have given through your life and work, and the gifts you have been given the past 12 months.

7.    Pick up a small rock. Invest it with the memory of how it feels to be here, slowed down and connected more to all that is.  Make it a touchstone to remember your deepest yearnings to live more fully, and do more of what you are called to do with your one precious life.

8.    As you walk back to your ordinary life, choose to see more clearly who you are and what you are called to do.  See how long you can keep alive the spirit of your walk.  When you forget, hold the touchstone and remember how simple it can be to reclaim your place in a wondrous universe.

John comments:  all this may be too much to do at one time, especially if you get really involved in one of the steps.  So do that one to your heart’s content, and save the other steps for another time.

What about you?  What are your favorite ways to be more connected to yourself and the world around you?  How can you adapt this ritually to better suit you?

As always, comments are welcome.  Many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Career confusion is one key sign that you need a true vision from your heart and soul. That means you need something more than a goal set by someone else or even a brilliant idea that you activate before you discern whether or not it matches your true needs, dreams or desires.  You need a clear, compelling vision that’s anchored in current reality and leads you to your most fulfilling future.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll feature practical tips and tools for being the visionary you were born to be, particularly around your work, money dealings, and spiritual life.  Now, here are some key signs for how all this can be useful to you.

7 Symptoms of Limited Vision

1.  When you meet a goal (or even spend a lot of time and energy on it without meeting it), you realize you really don’t like the results or what you have to do to meet that goal.

2.  You feel burnt out while following your supposed dream.  Your pain goes beyond the kind of tiredness that can be eased with rest, exercise, proper nutrition or fun with others.

3.  You’re either closed to new possibilities or always feel like you have to create something new  and different.

4.  You suffer from a dearth of ideas or feel overwhelmed by them.

5.  You have a habit of falling for (and being betrayed by) the wrong partner, employer, financial plan, etc.

6.  You tend to be so pessimistic or you are so perpetually optimistic that you fail to notice opportunities or problems in time to deal with them effectively.

7.  You can only meet your goal by significantly harming yourself, others or the earth.

7 Benefits of Being the Visionary You Were Born to Be

Each one of these benefits actually reverses the key symptoms above!

1.  The process of building a vision is in itself energizing and enlightening.  Whether you meet your original goal or you discover new ones, you grow.

2.  You meet challenges with grace and resilience.  Because your vision is purposeful and meaningful, burnout just isn’t an issue.

3.  You welcome insight from all sources (e.g., intuition, imagination or even “out of the blue”), whether they are groundbreaking or tried and true.

4.  You are always entertaining new possibilities, but you’re so clear about what you’re called to do that your mental “find” tool can quickly wade through mounds of data and find the information that’s just right for you.

5.  Your sharp discernment skills and boundaries lead you toward what’s right for you and away from what’s not.

6.  You are aware of dangers and opportunities, not stuck in fear or illusion.

7.  Integrity in all its meanings — honest, just, on true with yourself and on the level with others- – is your basic bottom line. Meeting your goals enriches the lives of yourself, other humans and creatures, and the earth.

What can you add to either list?

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

And, oh, yes, money.  That’s particularly important in developing countries where very few people have the funds to make their new homes earthquake or storm resistant, once the international recovery funds dry up.

Some good news, reports earthquake engineer and founder of Build Change,  Elisabeth Hausler, Ph.D., is that “in a place like Haiti, building a house to withstand an earthquake can also help it to withstand a hurricane, particularly by tying the roof down to prevent it from flying off in strong winds. For earthquake-resistant design, the roof is often tied to the walls to provide some kind of bracing effect for the walls.

When India was devastated by a January 26, 2001 quake that killed well over 20,000 people,  Hausler was halfway through a civil engineering Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley. At the same time, she was undergoing an existential crisis:  how could she do something truly meaningful with her training?  How she turned that question into Build Change, which helps create safer housing in developing countries, is a textbook example of how the mind of a visionary works.

Visionary Habit 1: Letting Problems Affect You

Most of us feel overwhelmed by the news; many ignore it altogether. Elizabeth Hausler watched reports of the 2001 quake and knew she wanted to do something.  At the same time, she was also increasingly clear that she did not want to work for the kind of developers who would be eager to snatch up civil engineers of her professional caliber.

As she watched news reports, Hausler reflected on what she already knew as an earthquake engineer, including the limited loss of life in earthquakes in California, where structures built to recent earthquake codes generally ride out tremors with minimal damage.  As she saw the need for skilled brickmasons to help rebuild India, she thought, “I can do this!” having been well trained by her father, a master mason.

By 2002, she was a Fulbright scholar in India, where she could roll up her sleeves and help.

Visionary Habit 2: Honor and Expand What You Already Know

As an earthquake engineer, Hausler was skilled in technology to resist earthquakes. Thus, she knew how to prevent buildings from collapsing by using such practices as tying together concrete columns and bond beams, steel reinforcement, and “toothing” the masonry to allow the structure to move better.

Working in India and later in Iran after a huge quake there, she realized she had a lot to learn about how cultural norms and challenges impact building.  For instance, people in many developing countries don’t want to build their homes from wood (the most quake-resistant material), but from brick or adobe (the most likely to fail in a quake if not handled properly). Nor do they usually like round structures, which tend to ride out earthquakes.

Everywhere she saw the need not just to rebuild quake-damaged structures, but also to prevent future problems from quakes. This, she envisioned, would require a focus on training people how to build safely, as well as a lot of education for consumers and government workers about why safe construction was both necessary and achievable.

Visionary Habit 3:  Work with Others Who are Compassionate and Skilled

Hausler learned from numerous people how to become a change agent.  One of the most important was Martin Fisher, a Ph.D. engineer who co-founded Kick Start to help people in Africa break the poverty cycle and to “create a new, successful, scalable, replicable, and sustainable solution to poverty.”

Hausler also worked with people who focused on funding the kind of work she was called to do. By 2004, she had a working board and a 501(c)(3) status for Build Change. That year, she was named one of the world’s best emerging social entrepreneurs by Echoing Green for her plan to “promote and implement affordable, disaster-resistant construction in less developed countries.”  www.echoing.green.org

Visionary Habit 4:  Adapt Your Vision as Necessary

Of course, Hausler and other members of Build Change are moved by the rescue work that’s happening now in Haiti and the re-building work that will happen later.  Tempting and necessary as this work is, Hausler found that Build Change serves best when it is true to its specific mission, which as stated on the brochure as:

Build Change is an international non-profit social enterprise that designs earthquake-resistant houses and trains builders and home-owners in developing countries to build them.

What Can Your Learn from the Story of Elisabeth Hausler and Build Change?

What challenges and opportunities in the world now call you?

What visions might emerge if you reflected on this question:  “how can my skills, interests, and passions best be used to serve others?”

As always, your comments are welcome.  Many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Right now, people I know are really hurting financially. Here are some examples, all with changed names.

After two years, Joan and David finally sold their house in the town where they used to live, so they could pay expenses in a new location that works better for the family, but they lost a lot on the transaction. To qualify for a mortgage again, they will need to create a bigger down payment and larger reserve fund than they ever imagined.

Jake’s carefully planned retirement is falling apart. His new part-time employer went into bankruptcy. The value of his 401k has dropped drastically.  A widower with grown children, Jake can’t sell the big house he doesn’t need and buy something smaller, more affordable and nearer the grandchildren.

Louisa hasn’t found a job in spite of a great track record and a year of almost full-time, creative job-hunting. Like many late-life job-hunters, Louisa also faces the challenge of having most of her experience in a dying industry.

Tom’s successful business is in danger of failing in spite of cost-cutting and voluntary cutbacks of hours and benefits by all staff. If Tom fails, there go the jobs of 22 people, all of whom Tom knows and respects, and none of who can afford to be without a job.

Of all these people, only Joan and David have health insurance at a rate they can afford.

Both assessing current reality and visioning a richer one require a lot of faith, self-respect and other gifts that can easily become battered by financial and other challenges. Plus, the world is filled with a lot of temptations to give up, hang out with pessimists, deny pain, and/or base your plan of action on such theories as “someone needs to rescue me.”

The process of focusing and building visions for life and work has been so fascinating to me that I made it the focus of a master’s degree in 1998. Only over the past few years, however, have I really appreciated the concept of current reality, though I had learned it in a workshop in the mid-1980s designed by Robert Fritz, author of The Path of Least Resistance, Creating, Your Life as Art, and other great books.

Current reality affirms that while certain things never change, like all of us are born and all of us die, reality is always changing. E.g., once I had decades to build a secure retirement, now my retirement-income building window is narrowing fast. Once my vision for what is possible was limited by fear or lack of experience; now it is sharper and richer, based in fewer illusions and increased experience.

Changing reality brings new opportunities as well as new challenges. Creativity loves the fertile ground of challenge. People coming together in common need and caring can be enormously resourceful. Out of new needs and new inventions come new jobs and new markets.

So here’s the big challenge for all of us: to dare to dream, individually and as a whole, long before we have any idea how to manifest the dream. Here are a few capsules of current reality in contrast to a vision. Note that each vision has some nice, juicy details to give your creative mind something to play and work with.

Right now, I am out of work. I’m running out of money, and it’s hard to find the energy to look for a job when sometimes, all I want to do is crawl into bed with the covers up over my head. I envision the day when I say thank you to all the people who have helped me find satisfying new work. I imagine the joy of working in a new job where I am treated with respect as I do tasks that stretch my skills and use my experience purposefully.

Right now, I am bankrupt or near bankruptcy. The only assets I recognize are my skills, my compassion, my track record of resiliency, and the willingness to do whatever I can do to improve my situation. As I recognize more and more gifts in myself, I also discover more internal gifts and worldly allies. I envision myself on my feet again financially. I see my heart more open, my creativity more courageous.

Right now, I earn sufficient income, but at the expense of my personal and family life and sometimes in opposition to my values. Sometimes I am so exhausted at the end of the day that I don’t sleep well and I almost never have a full day off. I envision earning sufficient income with deep integrity. I see myself having time and energy for personal and family life. I envision helping my children develop better values about money. I envision having time and energy to mentor at-risk youth.

Hopefully this helps you to continue to enrich and hone your vision for a better financial future. Keep playing with it, and feel free to share what you are discovering here or elsewhere.

Again, a blessing to edit if you wish: May I see more clearly current reality: warts, gifts, faults, challenges and all. May I be again like a child, awestruck by the wonder of the universe, including my own imagination and other visionary potentials.

Come back real soon with your own insights and inspiration, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Imagine it’s a year from now and the economy has improved in many large and small ways.

Imagine you are sitting in a large room where people are celebrating the many ways in which life is richer. Everywhere you hear snatches of wonderful conversation.

Last year, at the end of 2008, I was out of work; now at the end of 2009, I have a new job with people who appreciate me, more money than before, and more time for family life.

Last year, our nonprofit organization was near bankruptcy. Now it’s thriving after we learned better ways to market our services and take better care of our money. It’s really exciting that many of the people we used to serve are now thriving and happily donating.

Even when the economy was tanking at the end of 2008, I was doing well. Now I am doing even better.

Imagine that the energy in the room is excited but free of hype. Words like integrity, meditation, and spirituality mingle easily with words like return on investment, due diligence, and business plan. Imagine that instead of competition or ego, you feel a grounded camaraderie among people from all races, many types of jobs or businesses, many faiths.

Imagine people talking about how, even before the end of 2008, a Great Change had already started to happen.

“It was so awful, I had to do something, not wait for a miracle from Obama or anyone else,” says a young man. “Remember how people kept quoting Einstein’s comment that it’s pure insanity to try to fix a problem with the same thinking that created it?”

“Yes,” says a woman of an age that used to be considered way past doddering, but now is honored as a time of wisdom and joy. “Remember how self-responsibility and working together became more popular than the ‘greed is good’ motto of the 1980s?”

Imagine, for a while, just listening to story after story. Notice that some of the stories are quite dramatic, but most report a series of small steps, like assessing the family finances in detail, evaluating the satisfaction value of each expense and adjusting the budget based on vision and values.

Imagine how each person’s conscious and caring relationship to money affected others. Imagine that by the time Obama took office, the renewed calm helped him and his team make wiser decisions. Remember the many stories you have heard of government and business employees finding savings from careful assessment of expenditures and imagine that they are true. Remember how often you have heard examples of people who took off their unconscious money blinders and paid attention to money reality.

Finally, you’re ready to tell what happened for you between late December 2008 and December 2009. Like other stories, your story is filled with juicy details that are meaningful to you and inspiring and informative to others. Here’s what you say: ________________.

So what would you say? I invite you to listen carefully to the longings in your heart and soul for money sanity, money harmony, money integrity or whatever term you use for what it’s like to be able to earn, spend, invest and share sufficient money with absolute integrity, purpose and joy.

Listen past current fears or voices that say you dream too big. Dream past any concern about how you are going to make your vision come true, and any doubt that it is possible. We’ll deal with that later. For now, just write down what your heart and soul envision. Use the future present tense (?I go,? ?I have?), and include whatever is meaningful to you. See what parts of your vision inspire your own grounded actions for a better economy for yourself and others.

Need some help with visioning? See www.workwithmeaningandjoy. In the section on vision, you’ll find an article on “Finding Visions for Work and Life” and a poem called “Dare to Dream, Dare to Do.”

One last hint: Don’t strive for perfection. One of the neatest things about visioning is that it’s fluid and your vision can be edited at any time. And many of the best visions announce themselves while you are going about your daily business.

Blessing for today: Even though I may have learned to quash my imagination in the process of growing up and learning how to make a living, I open myself again to this divine gift. May I dare to dream again, dare to hope again, and dare to speak my dreams, even if only to myself.

That’s all for today. Do what you can, share your vision in the comments section if you wish, then come back again real soon.

Pat McHenry Sullivan