When you see yourself and your work as a story that is rich in meaning, you get to relax the ‘not good enough’ or ‘the imposter syndrome’ a little and be tuned into a deeper knowing, a knowing that guides the direction of your thoughts.
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This illustration is an extract from my new Leadership Landscape book. A picture book with 48 metaphoric locations where emerging, established and experienced leaders have conversations and deep contemplation into various leadership states, stages and skills.
I first heard about the idea of earth school from Ram Dass in his book,
Be Here Now. Recently, it has appeared to me again in the work of Linda Francis and Gary Zukav. Their book,
Heart of the Soul, is explicit about the idea that we are automatically enrolled in classes around emotions and that the job of earth school is to help us integrate our soul and our personality.
Caroline Myss talks about it in her book
Sacred Contracts and goes on to explore the premise that we choose to come to earth to have experiences and learn from them.
In the works of Neale Donald Walsch, we see the school appear again but this time as a way of the divine experiencing itself.
So many modern and ancient wisdom traditions are presenting us with the idea that we truly are spiritual beings having a human experience.
OK, so what does this mean for you and I as thought leaders? What does all this soul purpose, earth school stuff have to do with running a commercially successful thought leaders practice?
For me, and I invite you to adopt the same orientation, the idea that we are born pregnant with purpose (Thank you Elisabetta Faenza) is super helpful, I don’t even mind that much if it’s true! The idea that I am experiencing life to experience my highest self is smart. This is at the heart of self-authoring and a key element in the narrative order presented by Augustine. In essence, consider the possibility that your life is autobiographical and that your story is unfolding as part of a bigger one. This does not have to be bound by a mythology or religious point of view but it does explain why religion as a meme is so very powerful and ‘useful’ for many.
When you see yourself and your work as a story that is rich in meaning you get to relax the ‘not good enough’ or ‘the imposter syndrome’ a little and be tuned into a deeper knowing, a knowing that guides the direction of your thoughts.
Thinking
Focusing
Knowing
Three approaches to developing and sharing insight. As thought leaders, we often think that thinking is first when perhaps it’s the deep knowing, the gentle voice of knowing that provides the greatest wisdom and allows you to have a greater impact through your work.
This by Rilke seems to capture some of the knowing provided by our enrollment in The Earth School.
“I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I will give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?”
Rainer Maria Rilke
I have a deep affinity and love of birds of prey. My favourite is the New Zealand Falcon. Its Māori name being kārearea, this beautiful art by my friend Rachel Callander sits in my workshop.
