Can we change our consciousness ?

Can we change our consciousness?
We cannot change who we are, but we can shift our identity from being the personality to being the soul. This is a shift from identifying oneself as one’s self-image to identifying with one’s essence. In truth, we really ARE the essence, the soul. And we HAVE the self-image or personality.
To say that we ARE the personality is tantamount to saying that we are our sensations, our emotions, and our thoughts – which we are not. We do not HAVE a soul. We ARE soul and HAVE a personality.
In ages past, people did not speak of changing consciousness. It was not relevant. Consciousness is identity. In the past, people were their personality. And still today, the majority of people identify with their personality as who they are. However, there are more and more people able to disidentify from their personality and identify with their essence, the soul.
In many ways, these two levels of self, of ‘I,’ are opposites. It requires an extremely radical shift in perspectives to make the change from identifying with the personality to identify with the soul. One must re-evaluate all previous ways of understanding, of thinking, of acting, and of being motivated.
The change in consciousness from personality identity to soul consciousness can only occur when a person is ready. Readiness is determined by:
Having sufficient experience from which one has learned a great deal about oneself.
Being willing and able to face the subconscious realities that one has previously repressed.
Having built up a strong ego, so one is able to withstand the vicissitudes of life.
Being independent and responsible for one’s own well-being.
Taking responsibility for the consequences of one’s choices.
We cannot force a change in consciousness. It must unfold in its proper time.

7 Steps to Discovering Your Passion

Even before the first tip, you simply must get out a notebook, journal, piece of paper, napkin...SOMETHING to write on to save your discoveries! These tips will only help if you pursue them, so please either take a moment to find writing tools NOW or print this out and promise yourself to complete this exercise later. It may take you some thinking time to get it done......and now....here are your tips.....



1. Find Your Joy Factor Look at the whole of your life history. When did you experience the most sustained period of Joy? What were you doing then? Where were you? Who were you with? How did it feel?

2. What Are Your 3 Most Favorite things to do? If you had a free day with NO commitments, where would you be found? What would you be doing with whom?

3. In what area do you excel? (NO MODESTY ALLOWED HERE!)Truly, what are you complimented on a lot? This could be ANYTHING.

4. What do you most want to be remembered for? If you were designing your epitaph, what would you want it to say? (NOT what your Mom wants, or your SPOUSE wants or your third cousin twice removed, but what do YOU want your headstone to say?)

5. If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your life TODAY? How would it look compared to how it looks now? Which aspects of your life ARE changeable, both short term and long term?

6. How does your Joy factor overlap with your favorite things and the areas in which you excel? Do the areas in which you excel bring YOU joy, or are they really for someone else.....do you see which are obvious matches, and which do not fit? Those that overlap, that bring YOU the most Joy, are most likely the things that would bring you into Passionate Living.

7. What is the first even teeny tiny step you can take to living out your Passion as you have defined in #6? Take some time to really think this one through... concentrate and focus,

OWNERSHIP

One look at the photo and we are filled with feelings of exasperation that this sort of thing could have taken place. It tells us three things about the employee who was responsible for the drawing of the white line.

a. He has a poor attitude which is, "I will only do what I am paid for and nothing else".
b. Instead of solving problems, he circumvents them to the detriment of road users. Not only did he do a bad job, he also inadvertently informed the whole world about it.
c. He is obviously a de-motivated employee who may have self-esteem problems. He is only focused on serving his personal interests at the expense of the goals of the organization.

But on reflecting, isn’t this common in many organizations, i.e. this concept of "I will only do what I am paid for and nothing else, irrespective of whether it affects organizational performance". And before we smile and point fingers at others, please be aware that some of us may have this attitude unknowingly.

There are a few things we can learn from the above picture and situation:

Lesson 1. If you fall into this category of employees and think that you are adhering to your job description and nothing else, then your days at the organization or any other organization will be numbered. Please remember, that your company pays you not only to do your job well, but to also not make other people’s jobs difficult. Think of working as a ‘TEAM’ rather than as an individual in your individual silo.

Lesson 2. When you do not help to solve other employee’s problems, you in turn create problems for yourself. In the above scenario, when the guy responsible for removing tree branches comes and does his job, then the person responsible for drawing the line will have to make another special trip to that particular section to re-draw the line. In trying to make his job ‘easy’ the first time by circumventing the problem, he inadvertently created more work problems for himself in the future.

Lesson 3. From an overall perspective, it is unlikely that the individual who drew the white line will have a successful career. Organizations today, want employees who are pro-active and who work with the mission of trying to make the organization more successful. They want energized employees who work with a highly collaborative spirit. Employees today not only have to do their jobs well, but also synergize and make other people more efficient in their work. Individuals and departments who have a ‘silo mentality’ will be a liability to any organization.

Understanding Conciousness

One of the most difficult issues of life to define and understand is consciousness. Yet it is a word that is used everyday and people don’t think much about it. Self-help books and personal growth courses often use the terminology of consciousness but frequently don’t really understand what it is all about. Most confuse consciousness with awareness. They are similar ideas but in some ways opposite each other.


Clarity about consciousness is all important. If we cannot properly name something we do not know it. And not knowing it, we have no influence over it. I wish to share with you a few basic insights about consciousness.


We are entering a period of human growth and development where consciousness needs to be a priority focus for each of us if we are to live a meaningful and purposeful life. Meaning and purpose are the primary fruits of consciousness development.


Consciousness is what makes something what it is. It is what defines a person as to who they are. It is the essence of a thing which reveals both its universal truth and its unique individual characteristics. Consciousness is the soul of any reality, it is its essence.


Everyone and everything has an essence or a soul and everyone and everything has consciousness. Each person or thing is unique as individuals. But we are all part of something greater as well. It is consciousness or soul which links us to our greater, universal nature, sometimes called the Divine.


When you have consciousness you are using your heart, your intuition, or your faculties of knowing that transcend the mind. Heart, intuition and these other faculties exist in the realm of soul. So when you know with consciousness you are not separate from what you know. You merge with it. You identify with it as you experience it. It moves you in a way that you experience it as a part of your greater self.


When you have awareness you are using your mind to know something in an objective way. You know something about something. You possess or have knowledge, but as the one who knows you are separate from the thing you know. Awareness happens as a mental reflex whenever the mind is exposed to something, The only choice involved is what we want to pay attention to, or the extent to which we want to learn more about something.


You could call consciousness ‘soul knowing’. The beauty of soul knowing is that soul is not separate from what it knows or contacts. It sees itself in the other. In knowing it fully we touch its essence, and in doing so we love what we know. As soul beings we are essentially love. And through this knowing with soul we grow and expand our sense of who we are as soul beings. We find peace and harmony in our relationships with those people and situations that we approach with this consciousness.

Moving on , Moving forward

"Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today." - Byways of Blessedness


It's been said that the majority of conversations by men over 40 are about the past --- sometimes it's about the "good old days" and sometimes it's about the deals gone bad, the "if I only had" stories, the missed opportunities, etc. Letting our "sins and mistakes of yesterday" dominate our thinking today robs us of our present joy and our future happiness. It causes us to miss the real opportunity of TODAY!



John Maxwell, in his outstanding best seller, Failing Forward, gives some great practical advice: "To move forward today, you must learn to say good-bye to yesterday's hurts, tragedies and baggage. You can't build a monument to past problems and fail forward."Take time right now to list the negative events from your past that may still be holding you hostage.



For each item you list, go through the following exercise:

1. Acknowledge the pain.

2. Grieve the loss.

3. Forgive the person.

4. Forgive yourself.

5. Determine to release the event and move on.



"Your best days are definitely ahead of you if you treat your "mistakes" as necessary lessons to be learned. If you understand that each lesson brings with it a certain amount of wisdom, you can understand how truly enhanced your life is becoming. Many people can't achieve the success of their dreams because they won't leave their past behind. They won't tear down the monuments they've built to their old hurts and problems.



One of my all-time favorite affirmation verses comes from the Apostle Paul who said, "...but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal..." One of the best teachings I ever heard on this was from a motivational speaker whose name has escaped me, but whose message didn't: "In life there are no mistakes, only lessons."And that's worth thinking about.

Jack Welch in the book, “Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will”

FACE REALITY AS IT IS, NOT AS IT WAS OR AS YOU WISH IT WERE

The above statement is as true for organizations as it is for individuals. From an organizational viewpoint, too many corporations stagnate on their past success. They keep on using the processes and methods that brought them previous success. What was right and what brought success in the ‘old days’ may not necessarily be the right processes or methods for today. Success formulas change every day.

Control Your Destiny or Someone Else WillFor example, Kodak and Fuji, the worlds leading photo film makers will have to accept the reality that in 5 years time, there will be minimal demand for their product because of digital cameras. As much as there is a sentimental feeling for their product, they will have to move on into the arena of cameras, photocopiers etc. They will have to accept the reality that although they were No 1 in their product line a few years ago, they are now way back in the pack as far as their new products are concerned.

On the other hand the traditional mini-market must realize that with the hypermarkets, they will have to offer value added services to compete. Subang Grocer a mini-market in Subang Jaya allows it’s customers to buy products online and then undertakes to deliver these products to their consumers homes. In spite of the presence of CarreFour, Makro, Giant and now Mydeen, this mini-market is doing very well. Its success is largely due to the fact that it faced reality and reasoned out that to compete with these hyper-markets, it had to concentrate on value added services. It could not do business the ‘old’ way anymore.

In the course of my training, I have gone to many organizations where I always feel that the main problem is that senior management did not want to face reality, but hoped that things would change or else interpreted reality in their own lopsided way. When sales go down, they come up with statements like, "Don’t worry, it will turn around", "it’s only a short down turn, sales will go up in the next six months". When informed that China or India will be a threat in terms of competition, they go into denial mode and remark that it will not happen during their lifetimes. Slowly, but surely, organizations like these will wither away, and one of the main reasons for this is that reality was too difficult to face.

The message above is also relevant from an individual perspective.

How many of us have improved our skills and competences to take into account the changing working environment.

How many of us have changed our mindsets to take into account the different values and work ethics that new employees bring to the workplace?

How many of us have learnt new skills that were not relevant or important 10 years ago, but are critical today. Not knowing how to touch type for example is a serious handicap for employees today. To remain ‘relevant’ I believe that managers must make efforts to discard some of these outdated, culture-influenced ‘mental models’ and to adapt to the changing needs of the very competitive business environment.

A positive start would be for CEO’s and all managers to adhere to the following three simple principles:

Indulge in less rhetoric and more action in terms of best practices.
Surround yourself with good managers/people.
Accept and encourage contradiction at all times.
Practice of the above will most certainly go a long way to ensure continued success of organizations in the current volatile business environment.

Effective Listening

Highly successful people tend to be excellent listeners.

On the other hand, people who struggle in life tend to be so wrapped up in their own 'story' they can't really hear what is available for them.

Effective listeners have developed the ability to temporarily let go of their history, beliefs, assumptions, expectations, wants, needs, and desires in order to be open to new information and ideas. They, of course, don't change their opinions just because some new data shows up, but they are open to receiving it.

Listening is an important attribute of being open. Their model is listen, receive, evaluate, move forward. But people who must have their present and future be a certain way take those needs into every conversation. You know what it's like to talk with someone who's 'mind is already made up.' They are not effective listeners. And you have probably found them to be not very happy, satisfied, comfortable with life, nor fun to be around.

What can you do to temporarily let go of your story and practice really hearing the
abundant information, knowledge, and wisdom which surrounds you?

The Power of a Positive Attitude

Introduction

Attitude is one of the most important elements in life. It applies to every sphere of life, including one’s personal and professional life. Everyone has a potential in life, and a positive attitude will go a long way towards achieving that potential. Can an individual be a good manager without a good attitude? Can an individual be a good speaker without a positive attitude? For that matter, can a person be a good parent without a good attitude? The answer to all these questions is a clear, “NO”. The foundation of success in life, regardless of your chosen field, is attitude.

In a survey carried out by Harvard University in 1994, Chief Executive Officers of major corporations in North America were asked the question, “If you had a magic wand and there was one thing you could change in your company to make it more effective, more productive, more efficient, and more competitive, what would it be?” The majority answered, “the attitude of my employees”. This finding is complemented further in the study when they asked companies, what was the main criteria used when staff were recruited. They answered that 85% of the time, the main criteria was attitude, and 15% of the time the criteria was skills, experience and other factors. It is clear from the above, that attitude plays a critical role in the success of individuals as well as organizations. All the above is as relevant in a Malaysian environment as it is in the American context.



Do you agree ?