Road Trip
\’\’I’m leaving in 20 min to fly to LA to spend 3 weeks driving up and down the Baja California peninsula with my husband. I will write again if I can but if I can’t, I wish you the best while I take this pause…
The Doors of Perception
Last week I attended a 3-day coaching training program at Integral Coaching Canada. I’d never had any coaching training before and I felt it was important for my Self and my business to have my foundations built in a school of knowledge.
There are many coaching schools in Canada, and throughout the world, but when I learned there was a coaching school based on Ken Wilbur’s Integral Theory AND run by the Integral Institute, AND that it was in Canada, AND 4 hours away in Ottawa, I knew it was the place for me.
Integral Theory encompasses and expands on the Cultural Creative wordview. It is a holistic model, “a theory of everything” that outlines and explains the perspectives or lens through which every human sees and understands the world.
The 4 Doors of Perception – the Integral Theory model
In any situation, the model states that there are 4 quadrants of perspective active and occurring. In any situation, we come to understand a topic through 4 different ways of seeing. And every person is different in how they “see”.
Each of us favours some quadrants more than others. I, for instance, see situations from the lens of UL –> LR –> UR –> LL. That is my flow pattern. A situation occurs and I think of my meaning (UL), then I think of how it affects the bigger picture (LR), I then observe and regulate my actions in response (UR), and finally I will communicate with another about what has occurred for me (LL).
Most of my difficulties with life lie in the LL quadrant (or Shared Meaning & My Relationships), and likely your last quadrant of perspective is where your difficulties lie too.
How to Support Sustainable Change
In my Integral Coaching training I learned about each perspective (or lens) and how to discern which quadrant a client primarily approaches and relates to their specific topic. In my coaching role I help my client see their topic from all 4 perspectives for sustainable change can only occur when all 4 perspectives are seen and acted on.
The Integral Coaching Approach
The Integral Coaching approach honours how each of us perceives and takes action in the world, and it uses all 4 lenses to support change and the forming of new practices. Through this coaching approach change occurs when:
You know what’s best for you. You’ve gotten yourself this far. Sometimes we just need some help to illuminate different ways of seeing the world. Through Integral Coaching you become aware of your current approach to situations, see new possibilities for doing, and co-create the sustainable practices needed to function in this new way.
I got to bear witness to the powerful and lasting change this approach can create. It is amazing how someone can wake up and grow up when they feel that they are being seen.
Mapping the Results of Giving Freely
If I Am Ever Going to Support Something…
Perhaps you’ve noticed, but I don’t really do endorsements here. I just can’t get behind a person, a place or a thing that I haven’t experienced directly, and derived value from. How could I assure you of the value of something or someone I’ve never actually worked with? I can’t. So I won’t. And I haven’t.
This decision is despite ‘information’ otherwise insinuating that one could grow rich and buy a yacht if only they had some affiliate advertising on their site.
I love money, I do, but my focus is on value. And I will not support things just because I can profit from them. I am committed to associating with excellence, in every facet of everything I do. I can not ignore the cost to my business of promoting the mediocre, and not really helping people. It is not worth compromising my most prized asset, my integrity.
This is Me Supporting Something… and Why
Two weeks ago, Mark Dykeman of Thoughtwrestling offered me a free review copy of his ebook on mind mapping. His offer let me read the ebook with no strings attached. It wasn’t conditional on my agreement to review it publicly (as I have experienced before), he simply offered it with no instructions other than he appreciated feedback. He did not attempt to control the exchange, and this I perceived as confidence in his Self, and in his product. It made me even more interested to read what he had to say. I appreciated that he trusted that I could determine how, and if, I wanted to support him.
His Product Inspired Me
I’ve being mapping my mind, and my clients, for a few years now. I find mind maps are a great tool for planning creative projects and determining:
- The Big Picture – what you want to achieve
- The Pieces and How to Get Them – what it will take to achieve your goal
- The Motivation – how everything fits together
After reading Mark’s ebook, UnStuck Focused Organized – Using Mind Mapping, I was better able to focus my Pay-What-It’s-Worth Pricing book project, and was inspired to create this mind map of my ideas.
Click to actually read this bad boy
What Compelled Me to Write This
- Quality – Mind maps are a super helpful brainstorming tool for anyone, no matter your learning style, and Mark’s ebook can help you to utilize them effectively.
- Integrity – Mark’s willingness to give freely, and to let me determine the value of his work created a strong desire in me to give back and share my positive experience. It’s the same strategy of reciprocity that underlies Pay-What-It’s-Worth Pricing. Let go of trying to control others and trust in them that they can determine the value of your work.
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