May 22, 2008 New Ideas

Group Coaching is an interesting phenomenon,,, a lot like a jazz combo – one riff comes after another and flies above it.  The rhythym of the group creates a certain tension that facilitates the solos.  Sounds strange, I know, but the things that are said are often unpredictable.

Last night we dealt with each person’s goals.  I saw that the way we normally treat a goal is similar to the way we usually deal with a project – in some sense like a straight line.  Here’s the starting point – then this step, that step, and on until this milestone is reached, then that and so on.  That’s not even what happens with project plans.  We lose sight of “Man plans, God laughs.”  When plans are fixed, we often scramble to deal with frequent emergencies, shifts in outside factors, oversights, etc.  They often seem to rely on one or two people who somehow deal with the breakdowns and move forward regardless.

Goals rarely start with a well-defined plan; the plan -if any – is usually incomplete or non-existent.  There’s often floundering around, searching for a useful direction.  I use the prairie dog metaphor — constantly sicking your head out and scanning the horizon to see what’s next.  Course correction is constant; ‘next’ is often more valuable than ‘forward.’  Too many people are discouraged by an apparent blunder.  Blunders teach.

Anyhow – ’nuff said.  I’ve begun to listen … Our hierarchy is often urgent – important and, if we’re good – commitments.  The trouble is we confuse contexts.  Commitments are paradigmical; urgent – even important are in a different domain.  When I coach, I put that in the domain of my commitments.  For me it’s all interconnected with a sustainable world, spiritual fulfillment and social justice.  And it’s all in the domain of living a joyous and satisfying life, in harmony with earth

May 19, 2008 Starting Over

I’m back for real.  Making all those decisions that starting over requires – Forgetting vacation is not hard; the vacation disappears –But recreating myself is hard; a week without myself is strange.  Because nothing else stops when I do and I don’t have externally provided routine to get me going.

So I’m back.  My daughter’s moving; another is having my 8th grandchild (a son) – And most important, I’m renewing my commitments.  Vacation is over.  I will no longer drive over 55 MPH.  I am committed to minimizing plastic.  I’m committed to listening to the people I trust to coach Me.  No more fucking with my diet.

I stand for environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment.  I promise  you to provide joy and satisfaction in harmony with Earth.  I am grateful that I can take this stand and make this promise.

May 1, 2008 More Learning

I tried an experiment last night.  Me to We coaching is based on these premises – 1)  that people who make a contribution are more open to be contributed to 2) that when one person sees something, the sharing will register with other people.3)that anything is an opportunity for fruitful coaching.

Last night I ran a session with a total of eight of us, really to test the validity of these premises.  And the premises are valid; an excellent session

What do you think about being a fly on the wall for one of those coaching sessions?

To me, this is just one of the ways that I work to fulfill my saying that I bring  Joy and Satisfaction — Environmental Sustainability, Spiritual Fulfillment and Social Justice to  People’s Lives 

April 27, 2008 My Greening

Yesterday I co-facilitated a Symposium (Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream)… It is more powerful than ever, always evolving.  It grows as it goes, because so do we. 

I’ve bveen asking myself, along with Nancy — “What’s next?”..There are some things we can do that we’re not ready to do:  replacing all our windows and getting a new furnace.  And there are some things we can’t figfure out how to do:  getting rid of all plastic (we can’t figure out how to eliminate all plastic wrapping on food products, but we’re coming close.  But we can’t possibly commit to not getting more eyeglasses, never buying computer, car, cell phone, etc.) so we’re putting that on hold.

But what we can do is increase our talking to people.  I started a new blog today:  MYGreening.  And I’ll start speaking about what we can do without scr ewing ourselves up….There’s nobody but us.

 

April 24, 2008 Today is Different

I did today backwards because I brought my car in for service – So I hit the gym at 7:30, then to the car place, then home for breakfast and a client.  So here I am at 1PM, doing my morning.  I wonder about the rest of the day.

I have the luxury of creating every day – I suppose we all have, even if it’s totally scheduled.  Inside the constraints of scheduling, we still create every moment – I caught myself when I said this is a luxury, but like most of us most of the time, we don’t realize that we really do create every moment.  Our minds are always ours; our responses to inputs are our responses.  And the responses determine the day, not the inputs.

For me, this is n’t Earth Day, or week.  It’s Earth Always.  And there’s nobody except us who are going to get the job done.  I got rid of one of my cars; I use cloth bags to shop with, I belong to a local CSA; I use wind power for 20% of my PSE&G bill.  I use CFBs.  But that’s not nearly enought.  I don’t eat red meat, but that’s not nearly enough.  I stand for environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment.

Aptil 19, 2008 The new immediatley by michel lipp

I always start the day by writing this.  I’m starting my day late.  Shopping at Whole Foods, then toys for Brandon – tomorrow he’s 6 – at Target; then a quick good morning to Camron and making lunch.  We are having a non-seder Passover; Too much young, undisciplined family . I celebrate my freedon by allowing them theirs

Anyhow it’s my annual treat of matzo Brei for breakfast.  If you don’t know what is is – it’s French Toast made with matzos.  Superb.  Eatedn with jam, maple syrup, sugar and cinnamon.  My father just used salt and pepper.  So a quicky — To your freedom; And our planet’s

March 26, 2008 Nancy’s Home

Wednesday’s the day that Nancy works at home.  I’m still adjusting.  I think my buggest ine is that I need to wear headphones to listen to music – it distracts her.  But her presence keeps me on track.

I am very excited, getting ready to launch my teleseminar on Coaching 2.0.  This method of coaching makes results more accessible and immediate.  I’ve said before that one of the main things is that insights are contagious.  And the other, that I articulated yesterday is that Coaching 2.0 gives each participant an opportunity to contribute.  And it’s much easier to contribute to someone who contributes.  Normally, everyone wants to contribute, but nobody wants to be contributed to.

Stay tuned.  I’ll be talking about this as we lead up to it. 

I’m clear that giving this technique to you furthers my own mission, which is  to inspire and empower people to live fulfilled lives in harmony with Earth.

March 25, 2008 Gratitude

The whole notion of blogging is fascinating – I talk to the world and here and there, people listen and even respond from time to time.  I just say different things and I assess responses (which are the most important stuff)

I’m launching a new teleseminar program – possibly unlike anything that’s been done.   I’m in the research phase, to determine the technical feasibility of what I want to do…. which is to demonstrate Coaching 2.0 —  I’v written about it, but there’s a huge difference between finding out and experiencing.

So I’m filled with gratitude today – About everything in my life – family, friends, pieces of earth that are special because they listen, my health… just great to say thank you.  But I’ll never forget to share my commitment.  I have the notion that simply sharing it will spread it – My commitment is to have our world be spiritually fulfilling, socially just and environmentally sustainable for the species we are luck enough to share it with (though I often wonder about mosquitoes)

March 18, 2008 TRP

Last night was the third session of my free seminar, The Relationship Principles.  As often happens, the seminar went its own way and carried me along with it.  And what I saw was that I had never seen the inter-relatedness of commitment and vulnerability.  And, personally, with that and creativity.

Mostly I had never seen how guarded we are to keep our vulnerablity hidden, to protect ourselves - to seem invulnerable.  Probably because we all have somewhere in our past multiple instances of being hurt. 

I’m still puzzling over this.  My point is that this seminar is a constant surprise.  I don’t know if I said this before, but insights are contagious.  Once started, they cascade… and there’s a sense of safety that allows us to lower our guard.

The next cycle of the free 6-session seminar starts April 21 and runs through June 9, missing May 5 and 26.  You can find out more and register on my website, www.michaellipp.com

March 10, 2008 Consistency

Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”  Ir’s a quote I learned completely wrong.  First, I thought it was Mark Twain.  But more importantly, I learned it as, “Consistency is the hobgoblin…”  Funny what one word will do.  It’s a foolish consistency… 

I looked it up:  One definition is “Reliability or uniformity of successive results or events”
Another is “Correspondence among related aspects; compatibility”  Seems to me that the assumption of consistency might well be foolish. 

Anyhow, today is another day.  The wind has died down.  The climate has not demonstrated consistency.  Night and day still follow one another.  The seasons seem a little mixed up.  But not all of them:  We’re moving to the end of the basketball and hockey seasons, while baseball is warming up – only a few weeks away.

There’s no point to this – it’s inconsistent.  I just want to say something about commitment.  The trappings of commitment change like the weather and the seasons.  It’s up to each of us to dance with them, to dance with the circumstances, but be consistent with our commitments.  I am committed to making a difference, to bringing joy and satisfaction into people’s lives.  I’m committed to environmental sustainability, dpiritual fulfillment and social justice for all of us.  That’s a big mouthful.  There’s bound to be a lot of dancing.  Dancing is fun.