INSPIRED WALK
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By Chris Walker - Advanced Awareness Course #37 Lessons from Being Paid to Lead Executives into Dangerous Places In my spare time I get paid to lead people into danger. Yup, that's my job in my free time. I guide individuals up into the Himalayas of Nepal where danger multiplies with every step. The threat of altitude sickness (we ascend at rates prescribed by the World Body on Altitude) combines with some pretty steep drop offs make this an amazing but dangerous journey. No different to leading a team at work. Every human being is leading. Life depends on it. Ultimately you are leading yourself and depending on the quality if that leadership you are leading others. If you lead yourself crappy, you lead others crappy. There is really only one real leadership. Then there are a thousand other things people do when they can't lead. Like manipulate, abuse, incentives, engage and more... all substitutes for real leaderships. Chris Walker - Innerwealth - Coaching, Adventures, Retreats, Education, Consulting
Himalayas
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After 50 trips leading people into danger here are just a few of the tips I share in a corporate keynote on Leading People into Dangerous Places
Section 1
Leadership From the Himalayas Introduction Points 1. Rise Above Problems 2. Over Prepare 3. Label Behavior Correctly 4. Know When People are Un-leadable 5. Turn UP
Introductions In my spare time I get paid to lead people into danger. Yup, that's my job in my free time. I guide individuals up into the Himalayas of Nepal where danger multiplies with every step. The threat of altitude sickness (we ascend at rates prescribed by the World Body on Altitude) combines with some pretty steep drop offs make this an amazing but dangerous journey. No different to leading a team at work. Every human being is leading. Life depends on it. Ultimately you are leading yourself and depending on the quality if that leadership you are leading others. If you lead yourself crappy, you lead others crappy. There is really only one real leadership. Then there are a thousand other things people do when they can't lead. Like manipulate, abuse, incentives, engage and more... all substitutes for real leaderships. You know already that you can't give what you haven't got. How can you give others leadership if you don't give yourself leadership? Self-leadership is a huge chunk of the formula for success and happiness in life. I'm going to start with a few hints about leading others then get into self-leadership.
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Leading others Whether you are leading a team or family you are leading people into dangerous places. Don't bluff yourself that it's not. They, your team, risk job security, their hopes, dreams, marriages, self respect, sport performance and libido. You are, like me, questioned 24/7 about the quality of your leadership, even if you are a single parent, it makes no difference, you are being paid to lead people into danger.
Don't drop down to solve problems. Two people in trouble doesn't make one better. If somebody in your team is experiencing angst toward you or life or the company - don't become entangled. Stay above their problem don't become a part of it.
Danger?
If you are running the gauntlet of the thin edge of your own competence then you are not available for the team. Over prepare means be over qualified for what you are doing and make sure that wherever the team is headed, you've been there at least twice before. A lead is not a leader if they are facing the same uncertainty as those they lead.
The future is the unknown. In government jobs we do all we can to eliminate the unknown which diminishes the leadership demands on an individual, but I think that just means the worst scenario on earth. That is, the need to produce something without the real empowerment of a leader, it leads to nurse maiding, Molly coddling, tricks to get people off their butt. I'm not interested in that leadership dynamic here, I'm focussed on the real world where people need to do good jobs to keep their jobs, and they know it.
1. Rise above problems
2. Over Prepare
3. Label behavior correctly All too easy these days for leaders to "blame" the team. If there is dissension, confusion or stress in the team, blame yourself. There are three sources of trouble: 1. Your vision is pathetically predictable. 2. You forgot to articulate your vision in the values 3
of each team member 3. You've reached your own level of incompetence and the team has left you behind (difference between a manager and a leader)
4. Know when people are un-leadable
cause everyone intuitively starts to doubt your capacity to lead them into the future. And remember, that's all leadership is leading people into the unknown. Get your own "house" in order before you start prescribing to others the technical details of their duties by remembering that leadership really invites people to walk in your footsteps and if there is danger perceived in doing that, people won't (or will do so, kicking and screaming the whole way)
All the whipping, shouting, cajoling, motivating, inspiring or nursing is not going to get a three legged horse across the Alps. And if you try, the rest if the team will either die of boredom or abandon you. Don't play to the loudest voice, or the most complaining, or the slowest pace (they always come from the same individual) - recognise quickly those unqualified to keep pace and give them another route (alternative project or job).
5. Turn up If you get fat, unfit, look like crap, tired, hair a mess, downhearted, miserable, sick, stressed, nervous, uncertain - then your greatest enemy will begin to seep into and through the bones of your team - family - DOUBT. Doubt is the leader's enemy. Doubt holds people into their automatic self preserving safety spaces. Doubt makes every conversation a struggle be4
Skills
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These are just a few of the skills you learn and share during a Self-Leadership/ Leadership corporate training offsite.
Section 1
Being REAL as a LEADER
Introduction
Summary
If you don't lead well, things go wrong. My experience working with people in business is that 1 in 10 people understand the real secrets of leadership. Most are just imitating, emulating or bumbling along doing their best. There's no need to make leadership harder than it needs to be, and really, it's all pretty simple. I'll list a few points I've picked up during my Himalayan Travels.
1. You can't give what you haven't got 2. Getting past rhetoric 3. Don't lead on the cutting edge
Every human being is leading. Life depends on it. Whether it's a single child family, a multi national corporation or a small 3 person business, you lead.
4. Don't chunk jobs down into smaller jobs 5. Have a picture in your head that is bigger than the job at hand
1. You can't give what you haven't got
6. Experiment offline 7. Operate at 70% capacity 8. Don't treat everyone as equal 9. Love the job
You have to look after yourself. Ultimately you can only leaders others as well as you are leading yourself. If the quality of that self-leadership is crappy, you lead others crappy: like manipulate, abuse, incentivise, engage and more... all substitutes for real leadership.
10. Never fake it 6
Good self leadership begins with understanding that there are seven areas of your life. If you ignore one of them, it'll come an bite you eventually. Self-leadership then extends to the quality of your G.I.V.E .(gratitude for the past, inspiration in the moment, vision of the future, enthusiasm for life).. which really means getting your personal act together, balanced and fulfilled in life. Then, and most importantly comes the ability to motivate and inspire yourself. Once you know how to do this, inspiring and motivating others is a piece of cake.
2. Getting past rhetoric
There's no need to do a training or learn corporate tricks in this. Simply be authentic and it happens.
3. Don't lead on the cutting edge At the cutting edge of any areas of life you are bordering on incompetence. That's growth and you need it. But in y9our leadership of others make sure you have walked the path you are taking people down many times before. For the cutting edge stuff, go with someone who can teach you when you reach incompetence, don't be dealing with that in front of those who depend on you for certainty.
There are no half hearted success stories and good leadership demands whole hearted investment. If you have doubt or uncertainty, lack of confidence or insecurity about the future, it smells and people can pick up that scent better than a shark with a drop of blood.Â
4. Don't chunk jobs down into smaller jobs
When you communicate with people as a leader they feel before they hear. Remind yourself about this and see what the "vibe" is before you speak. It's the key to communication and it's called story telling. Being able to paint vivid word pictures.
People bring skills to the table, not chunks of jobs. Instead of chunking jobs down into smaller jobs chunk outcomes into skills and allocate these to people. Play to people's values and skills not to convenient bundles of jobs. A person might be great at
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the concept phase of work, so give then concepts to do rather than project pieces.
5. Have a picture in your head that is bigger than the job at hand
bored. Don't experiment at the expense of those who follow you. If you are going to change the trajectory of the team or business or family, don't do it knee jerk - go virtual, run scenarios, try it in a synthetic small scale reality before you put everyone onto a wing or a prayer for hope.
7. Operate at 70% capacity Problems are caused by leaders who fix problems. Focus on where you want to be rather than where you are. Make where you want to be the focus of your mind-space rather than the problems. Hold that vision and trigger the creative juices that solve the problems on the way. Know that every step you get closer to the picture in your mind, the less inspired you will be. The job therefore means to keep reinventing yourself and your potential picture. Never let the picture in your head and reality meet.
The leaders running at 100% capacity is going to slip. The leader operating with margin is going to get the confidence of those they lead. This does not mean be slothful. It means to not be at the edge of emotional or physical exertion. To be intense and energised but to know, if the dial were to be turned up for a month, by 30%, you'd have the fuel for it.Â
8. Don't treat everyone as equal 6. Experiment offline 90% of the ongoing coaching i do with clients is experimenting offline. I become a sounding board to prevent their neck getting on the chopping board and in turn prevents them from getting
Yeah, yeah I know... we're all equal but what I mean is that certain people have certain things to offer and others don't, and sometimes people are over committed trying to sort out their private life and can't invest in the work. You are better to work out the real workload an individual can offer, and pay them to go 8
home early that to expect everyone to work the same intensity. So, how do you know who is ok and who is not? See how often they are smiling.... see how their face looks... see how the spring in their step is... watch what they eat and drink... don't, for goodness sake, ask them.
lead. If you are a crappy gardener and hate that job, nobody will let you lead no matter how many courses you do.
From the heart of Chris
9. Love the job The joy a dentist gets from pulling teeth is profound. Would you go to a dentist who hates teeth? Would you go to a motor mechanic who hates working on cars? Well if you don't love your work, whatever it is, people will not come to you and bingo, no leadership. Love it and link it.
10. Never fake it The most ridiculous thing I've heard is a leadership training course. Leadership isn't difficult no need for training, just be authentic and be good. It's only when people are not good at what they do that they have to learn leadership. If you are a great gardener then people will love your work and you will 9
Vision -Or Fantasy
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Vision is the key to leadership but there’s a radical and often undetected difference between the fake and the real vision of leadership. However one works and the other doesn’t. This article separates them
Section 1
Untitled
Lorem Ipsum
Introduction The lack of a vision leads to over dependency on a relationship. This in turn leads a relationship to collapse.
You might think the opposite. You might think that a vision, like build my business or help the needy is taking you away from a relationship or family. Not so. Let me explain why...
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1. The purpose of a relationship is not happiness When we lack hope or vision of the future we feel endemically unfulfilled and insecure. We grasp a relationship hoping like hell that it will fill us with happiness. it does for a week or two and then, the lies and deceptions start. Lying to ourselves and deceiving others. So, a real vision prevents this happening.
6. Sed metus libero cing elit, lorem ipsum. 7. Quis que euismod bibendum sag ittis.
2. People don't care what you say or think... they care what you do... 11
I listen to the most bored people telling their children how to behave and they can't understand why there is push back. "Do I want to be like you?" the children are asking? "Stuck in a rut, afraid of life, working yourself in a life you hate?" A real vision means doing what you love or at least knowing you are on the way to it. This changes your energy and makes you magnetic.
3. There are three things people cannot live without
4. You are not what you do A vision doesn't create you. A vision is what you do? The size of your vision represents the size of your ego and once you get over the past your ego is expanded and so too is your sense of possibility. Some people get all religious and spiritual and try to kill their ego and in so doing kill hope. You are you... and in the 30 day challenge you learn IAMI process ... how to embrace life rather than shrink and try to be somebody else. Vision challenges your sense of self and separates what you do from who you are. That's a great leap forward and a serious reduction in stress.
Someone to love (it starts with yourself) Something to do ( it starts with enjoying life as it is) Something to look forward to (and here enters the dragon)
The difference between rhetoric and vision can be marginal if you invest emotion in a vision. That's why a real vision takes 30 Days .... and why getting over the past is a crucial step in getting past reaction and into action. A real vision solves this dilemma.
5. Trust You are never really off track. You are on track 100% of the time. Your intuition is telling you that you are off track but wherever you are there is something vital to learn. If you get back on track and don't learn what you went sideways to learn then you'll no doubt come back to the same side track later. Vision
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helps you recognise the path you are on and learn what you need to stay on it, fast.
6. Vision is Story and Stories break Anchors Why don't people change? People don't change even when they say they want to change because they are anchored in the past or present so strongly they just rebound back each time they try to change. Do you know Gulliver's travels where he gets pinned to the ground with little threads of cotton? Well that's your vision (Gulliver)Â if you approach a vision and yet remain anchored with thousands of little cotton habits holding you into the past. In the 30 Day challenge I've created a loop process where vision is just one of seven steps that loop around and around letting go old habits - creating new ones. Over and over and over. until you and your vision are one.
7. Sensory Deprivation
I listened to the vision statement of a company recently and if Robin Williams was doing comedy it would have been hilarious. Spoken in monotone "We are the leaders in our field ... we are .... " my goodness that's the worst idea of a vision. I also heard a young actor in a cafe in Bondi sharing her vision and it would have also been a Robin Williams spoof... "I am globally famous, wonderful, brilliant and so happy, I love everyone and everyone loves me, I'm a star.... " either she needs more drugs or some earth in her boots. Real Vision is grounded in this very moment in time and expands the moment... When you really hear a heart speak about the future, it feels like it has already happened.
8. Hooked into a specific somebody One of those cotton ties that hold us down, mentioned in point 6 above, is a sense of staying small to make someone else happy. Someone else, who claims to love us likes to keep us small, in order to feel happy. 70% of the women who do the 30 day challenge face resistance from their partner at home because they are finally stepping up and being real to themselves and hubby doesn't like it. Eventually the resistance fades and 13
there's a powerful new relationship on the horizon... holding the vision in the face of resistance is a part of the strength it takes to own the vision. That's why it needs to be real.
9. Fear Fear can drive us nuts. Fear of the future marries with guilt of the past to cause a block of movement. Many people stay in toxic visionless spaces in order to avoid fear. It leads to regret. A real vision is founded on the basis of clearing fears.
10. Story Your vision grows daily... this is the 30 day challenge process...
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Staying Focussed
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One thing that can mess with the quality of your leadership is getting sidetracked and working on lower priority matters. Reframing is one of the many keys to staying on track as a leader and lover
Section 1
Focussed
Introduction
Staying Focussed
The whole idea of reframe is to see things thankfully. And it's vital that you do this.
Few things influence your health more than your frame of reference. If your mind space is awful and you exercise, then there is a high probability that you will be worse off after exercise than before it.
1. Reframing The single most common cause of strife for people in life is boredom and this is again a really great opportunity to change the frame of reference rather than the event.
1. Re-Framing Re - Framing means seeing the same thing, differently and to your advantage.
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It's important because even the unwell person has been framing things so badly and become bored to death.
Sometimes we're so loyal and faithful to a spouse or mortgage or to long deceased parents that we stay in boredom in order to please others.Â
Think through your tomorrow... then, when there is a boring or repetitive task or meeting promise yourself you will not change the meeting as much as you will change your frame of reference. Here's an example:
Tomorrow Wake at 5.00am cup of tea
Boredom isn't so much about what we do, it's about a mindset that just can't see GIVE (gratitude, inspiration, vision and is therefore lacking enthusiasm)
5.15am do blog 6.ooam go run 6.30 client
One rapid, therapy free, non invasive way to solve boredom is to RE-FRAME ... here's an example.
9.00 am yoga 9.30am client 11.30am to city
I was taught this technque by one of the world's most successful female singing artists...
12.00pm client
Here's the reframe Never go to bed at night without reframing the day ahead. 5.15 am Wake - celebrate the new day with Tea ritual 17
6.00am Open Hearts Globally with writing
My friend was really cruel in her words the other day
6.30am Do what I love GIVE with another brother or sister i can help
Instead of saying to myself "woe she has a problem" I reframed and said to myself "woe, I'm being tough on myself, glad my friend pointed it out" (nobody beats you up more than you do to yourself)
9.00am Celebrate my body - fill with prana (life-force) 9.30am Do what I love GIVE - Open another heart 11.00am Continue reading that great book while en route to city
From the heart of Chris
12.00 pm Open another heart and bring some really great energy to the CBD (healing the city)
These are my reframes I simply link everything I do to what I love to do, my highest priorities. If you know your VIP (Vision, inspiration and Purpose) then it's even easier because you can to link things to that purpose. You can tell a person who is in GIVE... Enthusiasm is the bottom line Even in a relationship you can reframe...
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G.I.V.E
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Change is constant and if we let change dominate us we will end up fighting it more than we need to... set the direction and let change take you there.
Section 1
G.I.V.E
Introduction Ultimately, life change requires strategies that win. There are winning strategies and losing strategies. If you are a good person with a losing strategy, sadly you're not going to get what you want and nothing is going to change.
Summary
If you are a careless individual with the right strategies for change, you will get what you want.
1. Gratitude for the Past
Simply being good doesn't get you what you want... nor happiness, nor success, nor to heaven, nor love nor goodness.Â
2. Inspiration for the Moment
1. Gratitude for the Past
3. Vision of the Future 4. Enthusiasm for life
The first and primary strategy to get what you want is not to lose what you've already got. If you lose what you've got and get what you want you will begin a never ending journey chasing your tail. Now this includes cancer or heartbreak. With both of those you want a different future but you've got something precious and you need to be - yes - thankful for that - grateful and I can show you how.
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2. Inspiration for the Moment The second strategy to get what you want is to stop separating yourself from it. We identify and say "I am Chris" and "that thing that I want is over there" this is rubbish. We breed mental health problems by separating ourselves. Jesus went to the desert, Buddha sat under a tree, Mohamed went to the mountainall just to discover that we are connected to everything, including what we want. If you place a person outside of you and say "I want him or her" you will fail. If, instead, you say "where am I that person" and you recognise that they are just a reflection of you, then your mental health will stay sane, you won't get desperate and you won't get suicidally controlling. Lets call this Inspiration.. being at one with what you want...
power and freedom of money and wealth and control. All of which can come from fantasy, surfing and watching TV. They really don't want what they want, they want how they feel when they have what they want. It just isn't going to cut the mustard. It isn't strong enough to generate the momentum and strength to achieve. Lets call this VISION.
4. Unapologetic Enthusiasm Finally, Enthusiasm... it means filled with the divine spirit.. and you just can't fake it... if 1,2,3 are not right,,, enthusiasm is where it's revealed. And enthusiasm without 1,2,3 is not enthu
3. Vision of the Future The third strategy to get what you want is to want it. That's stupid I know but you would be shocked at how many people say they want things, people, ex partners, business success but really, if you were to check their values, they really only want how it feels to have those things. So, for example, someone wants business success but do they? They might just want the 21
Health and Leadership
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You can’t give what you haven’t got. And If you are sick, it’s really hard to concentrate on your work, inspired or fulfillment. Intuitively - feeling unwell is telling you to change.
Section 1
Health and Leadership
There are ten common reasons why people get sick:
1. Not High on Values List Summary 1. Not High enough on Values List 2. Confusion about Health 3. Too much organic
People get sick because they forget how important it is until it's gone. Heal can easily slip down the values chain below money and sex and work and self esteem until it's gone altogether. Then it slides right up there again. Best keep it as a huge priority. It's hard to do good if you don't feel good.
4. Too Much Business Suit Not Enough Wetsuit 5. Too Much Look Good Not Enough Cardio
2. Confused About Health
6. Too Much Sex Not Enough Sleep 7. Sleeping on A Full Stomach 8. Too Stiff 9. Not Evolving
People get sick because they think health has something to do with their body and nothing to do with their mind. But where does the body stop and mind start. Studies show that worry, unthankfulness and anxiety (better known as depression) cause more sickness than all the food related illness. Health therefore
10. Too Ugly 23
is a mental and physical discipline. How many people do you know who do Thankfulness pushups each day?
but keeping your body under wraps all day and night will eventually lead to illness. Vitamin absorption declines, mental health declines and toxins build up. We need to be nude in the sun a bit (well not totally nude in public)Â
3. Too Much Organic People get sick because they become fragile. Buckminister Fuller, one of the greatest philosophers of our time used to smoke one cigarette a day claiming he was simply evolving his lungs to deal with pollution. In contrast there are allot of people obsessed with fresh air, organic food, purifications and detox who forget that challenging the body is how it evolves to cope with ever evolving and more threatening virus. In fact Nobel prizes have been won by those who proved that the evolution of the human specie is achieved through virus (or more - our increasing ability to fight them)Â
5. Too Much Look Good Not Enough Cardio People get sick because they get unfit. Just because we are at the correct weight or look good and can walk around the block doesn't mean we are healthy. That's a common myth. Better to be even a bit overweight but have stamina than look great but not have stamina. To be able to exert yourself 100% for 30 seconds, with rests in between to recover your heart rate 4-6 times in a row (total exertion time 3 minutes) and do this four times a week build immunity and stamina for health.
4. Too Much Business Suit Not Enough Wetsuit People get sick because they don't expose themselves to sunlight. Being mindful that sun can cause skin cancer is healthy, 24
6. Too much Sex - Not Enough Good Quality Sleep People get sick because they don't rest well. Watching TV or sitting at the pub having a beer is great resting time but very inefficient. You can get three times the benefit in one tenth of the time by doing the corpse pose or deep relaxation audio. Most people cause secondary problems with their health by resting clumsily. Going to the pub causes rest for example, but it adds huge amounts of Gluten to the body which is inflammatory and causes arthritis and gout. Or watching TV for rest can cause bad posture and joint immobility - eventually resulting in hip replacements and worse.
7. Sleeping on A Full Stomach People get sick because they eat late in the day. Food for recovery, I.e food you need to replenish your body after exercise is best absorbed by the body within 30 minutes of the exercise done. Food consumed after that will most likely be absorbed slowly and mostly rejected or stored as fat. Food consumed within 4 hours of bed time will digest overnight and not have
any real place to go but into storage - cholesterol and fat. Eat light after 5pm and 99% of cholesterol problems reduce significantly.
8. Too Stiff People get sick because they don't stretch. Imagine a dish cloth in the kitchen. You use it every day to sponge up crud from around the sink. Imagine not wringing it out, ever. Now you have some idea why Yoga and Pilates are so great for your health. Most exercise uses muscle but doesn't stretch or squeeze the goop out. You know lactic acid builds up in muscle and that stuff will age you faster than a divorce.
9. Not Evolving People get sick because they carry baggage around for years and years and years. So, your best friend cheated on you in 1832. That stuff doesn't need to be running your life in 2013. But it does for many people. And, what's worse it feels like it happened yesterday. Triggers are there all around us sending us back to emotional reactions to unfinished business. It's wise 25
to process baggage and free yourself up at least to experience new stuff. No need to hang on and hang on - the only thing that feeds is your ego.
10. Too Ugly People get sick because they are mean. Generosity, kindness, compassion and love are the most health giving states of living and yet, greed, anger, hate, judgement and jealousy rule the world. Illness comes from attitude sickness. And that's a great place to start a health programme.
From the Heart of Chris
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