Reality is What You Make It

Reality is What You Make It

MakeReality

Despite how we talk about it, reality isn’t one thing. One stream. One truth. Reality is defined and designed by you, the individual. And, by design, you get to decide how “real” you want your reality to be.

You are given the possibility, and the imperative, of being able to bring into reality the things that are truly real, and truly healing for you.

If you decide that your reality is full of lies and half-truths—or even a casual ignoring of the truly real—then this is your reality. Your detachment from your truth is a critical aspect of your reality.

What is real anyway? Perhaps what’s truly real is what feels most like our authentic truth.

This is my desire: for anything other than my truth to be the uncomfortable place. I want to learn to sit comfortably uncomfortable in the beauty and messiness of my truth. I want to feel that anything less than it is a trap I am creating for myself. For I know — and have learned — inevitably, the truth will catch up with me. I can’t outrun it, though I can deny it. Yet no matter where I look, it will still be there.

The denying of our truth adds pressure and pain to our lives. It’s the pressure to re-frame everything; to re-frame our reality so that it painfully fits into the limited perspective we’ve deemed acceptable. It’s a carefully crafted noose that will eventually hang us.

Instead, why not bring into reality the things that are truly real, and truly healing for you? Trust it’s your imperative as its designer.

photo credit: Alison J-B

Sharing the Responsibility of Not Setting Prices

Sharing the Responsibility of Not Setting Prices

InvestInSharing

Recently, there was an interesting experiment conducted in not setting prices and charitable giving, by UC San Diego Rady School of Management and Disney Research. Conducting their experiment at a popular roller coaster, using post-roller coaster action photos as the item to be valued, they found not setting prices to be a viable pricing strategy and social responsibility strategy for companies–when the customer’s willingness to give is stimulated.

While the study focuses on stimulating generosity in a charitable setting, the study’s findings can be applied to any relationship and experience-based business. The researchers found when a customer feels more connected to what they are giving to—and in choice about what/how much they are giving—the more willing they are to give. When buyers know their money and generosity will benefit something specific, such as a charity, or someone specific, such as the business owner, they feel a more tangible and human connection to the value their giving is creating, and in turn, the more open they are to giving—and giving generously.

The study concluded not setting prices could be a tool for creating opportunities for “shared social responsibility” and this shared responsibility may provide the critical sustainability component that is often lacking in current social responsibility strategies. Fascinating.

photographed in my hometown of Toronto by Toban B.

There’s a Time and a Place for Everything

There’s a Time and a Place for Everything

PresentandPresence

There is a time and a place for everything, and this includes how you present yourself. For knowing how to behave properly in a variety of situations and doing so, rather than limiting you, gives you a choice in the presentation you create.

When you know your audience and manage your behaviours with them, you’re able to choose how best to get your message across in order for it to have the greatest impact. Knowing how to best present yourself connects you with your right people. For your knowledge is power—and knowing how to sell yourself is powerfully magnetizing.

To have presence, you need to be present to your audience.

If you aren’t present to your audience and how you behave with them, you’ll likely find yourself in an extended process of trial and error, unable to connect your goals with your audience’s. Rather than playing this marketing game, you can instead, by understanding and playing your roles at the appropriate moments, skillfully navigate your way through the obstacles of communication, and consistently reach your goals—and your right people.

Knowing how to present yourself is knowing how to communicate. Your ability to sell your goals through the strong presentation of them is a crucial skill—as it provides you with a choice in the roles you take, and the presence you create. When you’re present to your presence, you know the time and the place for everything in your life.

photo credit: Chris Florence