Effectiveness
My friend Don Campbell, who is vice-president of product innovation and technology at software giant Cognos Incorporated, described this wonderful example of perspective and oneness:
My most recent experience with oneness comes from a new hobby. For years I’d wished I could draw. Unfortunately, even my "stick men" were so poorly constructed that it was hard to identify them as such. I marveled at those who had the talent to draw, when obviously, I had none. Despite the apparent hopelessness of the task, I scoured the Internet for information and checked out a backbreaking amount of books from our local library.
After pouring through both theory and practice, I took those first bold steps into an area that I felt was sure to give me grief and be littered with disappointment. I bought the necessary beginner’s supplies and started working through the exercises. I turned out to be as bad at drawing as I had feared. Luckily, this was both explainable and surmountable. It seemed that I had been looking at my subjects the wrong way—through the lens of separateness. To me, a face was made up of eyes, a nose, lips, ears, hair, and a few other details. My brain knew how to quickly substitute a known representation for these elements and plop them onto the page. It made drawing quick, but far from accurate.
You see, every face is different. Every expression is unique. From light and shadow to shape and contour, I wasn’t representing what I saw, but rather what I thought I saw. When I realized that every part of the face blended seamlessly into every other part, that the beauty and subtlety of the face was in how it all worked together, I was able to look at that face differently—as one—and draw it appropriately. There had never been anything wrong with my fingers or hands, or how they had moved to make lines on the paper. The problem had been with my eyes and my brain and how I interpreted what I saw.
After only a few short months of working with my new hobby, I am amazed at what I can now produce! While practicing my drawing skills on a recent plane ride, some of the flight attendants referred to me as an artist. In truth, I’m just an infant learning to see. And I can’t look at a face now without seeing the flow of its skin and the way the light dances, reflects, and hides along its many curves. What a beautiful sight!
As Don Campbell shows us, the practice of seeing life in separate pieces can sometimes block our path to effectiveness and fulfillment. Often, we make a breakthrough when we see the whole—the oneness of what we are observing.
January 17th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Indeed, in the physical sense, we are ONE. To draw a person, which I am not able to do, all the various components of that person must exist in harmony so that they are no longer individual pieces and parts, but a magnificent blending that creates oneness. True effectiveness comes from oneness. If you have perfect alignment with your head, your mouth, your heart, and your feet — in other words, what you think, what you say, what you feel, and what you do are congruent — you have oneness, and what you achieve in your life’s journey will be greater than you can imagine. Thank you, Don, for sharing your story.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
A tempting morsel of a much larger feast yet to come!
January 17th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
We are so used to old-thinking notions of effectiveness based on reductionism that the idea of becoming effective through Oneness can seem disorienting and even jarring at first. Examples like Don???s help light the path by showing us how it???s done.
Namaste
January 18th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Effectiveness – hmmm. Do all the principles lead to this point. Without effectively putting ourselves out into the world to make a wholesome contribution the other principles would lack meaning. Don Campbells story reminds me of my relationship with singing. Since 1997 I have been on a journey to develop my melodic voice. The fear I have felt over the years has been huge; the judgements I had about my voice were debilitating and yet my pull to pursue this – my passion and sense of purpose have helped me continue to ride through the fear to access the joy. I sourced singing lessons to help me develop my vocal technique and my competence has grown. When I sing alongside others I am more and more feel at one with them; when I sing on my own (in my own presence) I am at one; on the rare occasions when I stand before a group to sing solo – the fear kicks in and I lose access to much of what I have available within me. I lose my true, authentic voice. The fear of their judgement and of mine; the fear of looking ridiculous and singing bum notes (ie. not being perfect); the fear of being rejected etc ….. all kicks in ….. and all this separates me from the people in front of me; I place myself in front of them to do something to them ….that they might not want.
Only twice (and just in the last year) have I experienced something different – when I framed it as ‘giving’ (ie being in service) the song to someone (my frail and failing mother and also to an inspiring man who is suffering badly from Parkinson’s disease). In both cases I connected to the oneness of the universe and arrived at a state of grace, bliss and total connectedness with them and with all around me. Both times, at the end of the song I was visibly shaking/vibrating. It was so powerful and I felt so overwhelmed and filled with gratitude and love and emotion.
And just the other day, as I shared my experiences with a very dear friend and was talking about the paradox of my wanting to sing ‘to’ others and yet the idea of ‘performing’ actually turned me off, I suddenly heard myself uttering the words that my purpose in wanting to sing to others is ‘TO CONNECT US ALL TO THE DIVINE’. ‘Divine’ is not a word I generally use and yet its impact on hearing it was profound – I realised that I had been framing ‘performing’ as something inauthentic and disconnecting (which I don’t want and is contrary to my personal values). So now I have a new way of looking at it. And having, in essence, found myself articulating this Destiny statement, the rest flowed out as if they had just been sitting inside me, waiting to be given birth fully formed. My Cause: ‘Through song, to open all hearts to the joy of our universal connectedness’; My Calling: ‘To love and serve by singing with and before others’.
And right now, these are just words – I am not living them fully ……. and it all seems so huge and there is a bit of me that says ‘who the hell are you to think you have any claim or ability to do this?’
So where I am now, is beginning to explore how I can live this purpose and also what it means in terms of the Destiny, Cause and Calling I have previously articulated to myself (guidance from you Lance would be greatefully received). In the first instance I plan to explore how I can integrate all this into my consultancy and coaching practice – I know that the CASTLE principles will guide me in that journey……… fear will again be my teacher!
Namaste