Marshall Goldsmith Feedforward

Last Thursday, clouds covered most of the nation, so flying into San Diego; what usually is a beautiful landing over a rich blue ocean was cloud covered with just a thin line of blue.  The Helm Society was holding a Mastermind leadership workshop with Marshall Goldsmith and Srikuman Rao, both executive/personal mastery coaches. One of the lessons learned was receiving and giving feedback, Marshall calls it “feedforward”, or focusing on the future and not the past.  Feedback on a past we can’t change, has limited value, whereas suggestions for our future can catapult us forward.  The key is for us to listen, take notes, without critiquing the suggestions – this is all about people helping us to be right and not proving we have been wrong. 

Marshall Goldsmith Forward Feedback

Life Lessons

The first was a box turtle named Ben, and then there was our family parakeet that lived 17 years.  He was the family member we’d all talk to when no one else would listen.  My daughter and I wrapped our tabby in a soft towel, she held him as I drove to the veterinarian.  The veterinarian was also a Vietnam era vet, and had a presence that instantly made you feel like everything was going to be okay.  But that day we took our tabby home wrapped in the same soft towel, and buried him under the live oak that he loved to climb.  The pets in my life have given me so much unconditional love, a life lesson I’m still trying to learn, how about you?

Summer on One's Own

It was the summer before I started graduate school and we decided to take a vacation and head west.  I had an old long bed, slime green Chevy pickup that we loaded with our camping gear, and covered with an old army tarp.  It took one long day of driving to get to El Paso, and I remember as we lay by the fire and watched the embers glow against a starry backdrop we laughed, “Where would we drive to, tomorrow”?  We roamed for several weeks, camping in Monument Valley, became entranced by Navajo art and crafts, and picked cherries in a very wet Washington State.  It was a summer we flourished being ourselves, as e. e. Cummings suggests, “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else.”  Who will you be today?

Einstein and Miracles

Most are in a box at the lake house, but there are mornings these pictures become mixed with my dreams in a surreal kind of way.  It was the early 50’s and I could hear my mother calling as my babysitter and I crawl out of the foxhole.  When we get to the top, she brushes the dirt from my clothes, takes my hand and we turn toward my mother’s voice.  Was this a memory from my first years of life on Tachikawa Airbase Japan, or a reminder from deep inside not too stay in the foxholes of gloom too long.  It’s a choice we all have every day.  Einstein said, you can live as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle. I can’t wait to see the next miracle happen today, how about you?

Sleeping Dragon / Cancer is so Limited

Saturday night I rode the tail of my sleeping dragon in my roles as cancer survivor and cancer caregiver.  We’ve all been there, when life feels overwhelming.  I drove my scooter along the bayou where I watched the full moon dance between the cloud cover, and then drove to where the dragon sleeps – MD Anderson.  Shift change was in progress as I walked to the chapel, I sat, cried, kneeled, than prayed.  After a little over an hour I walked out, but a handout at the chapel door caught my attention, What Cancer Cannot Do.  “It cannot cripple love”, I thought of my wife, kids, and friends, “It cannot shatter hope, or corrode faith”, I thought of how my faith and hope have grown, “It cannot invade the soul or conquer the spirit”, I smiled and felt my passion for life – “cancer is so limited!” 

Life Stories - Life of Excuses

We all have life stories, some hidden deep inside, some that are recurring nightmares, some moments when recalled make us smile.  What’s important is what we learned from these experiences, and how we apply it to our life journey.  Our newest neighborhood homeless man is Mr. Evers.  His home is two wheelchairs, one chair carries his food/clothing, and the other chair is where his life happens.  When you talk to Mr. Evers, you immediately realize he is fully engaged in his life on the corner of Holcombe and Greenbrier, he just happens to live in two wheelchairs.  Most of us will never experience Mr. Evers life restrictions, but most of us also are not as fully engaged in life as Mr. Evers.  What is your excuse?

The Work Life Journey

I’m guessing close to 50 students from University of Houston Clearlake attend my lecture last night on engaging in the “Work Life Journey” through resilience.  We can’t be actively engaged all the time, there are moments or maybe even days that things just don’t go as planned or life gets in the way.  But through engaged resilient living we are aware of our choices and connect to ourselves and others in ways that bring harmony, gratitude, and joy.  Life becomes an art and each day is an opportunity to experiment with different brushes, techniques, colors, and materials.  We become the artist of our lives, creating it, instead of just consuming it, or being consumed by it.  What will you paint today?