The Challenge and Power of Unlearning

“When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.”

– Henry David Thoreau, The Heart of Thoreau’s Journals

To all our highly valued clients and acquaintances:

I think many of us are being challenged to get past our past and to create a tabula rasa, with a fresh palette of colorful paints and a blank canvas to work on – with a beginner’s mind.

Stephen R. Covey was known to often say this: “If you want small changes, work on your behavior; if you want quantum-leap changes, work on your paradigms.” 

In this brief video (less than 4 minutes) from a work session on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, best-selling author Stephen R. Covey explains the significance of paradigms and how they affect the way we behave and the results we achieve.

https://resources.franklincovey.com/mkt-7hv1/paradigms-src

Might it be time for a ‘checkup from the neck up’?

I suggest that any of us who thinks that most of the specifics of our pre-pandemic life plans are still completely current need to bring ourselves in for a fresh checkup and tune up.

Recently, I heard an internationally famous pastor ask a 100-year-old woman in his congregation how she managed to keep looking so youthful, vibrant, bright, and lucid. 

Her response? “I don’t worry, I let things go, and I laugh a lot”

Are you ready to go “where no one has gone before”?

In October, I experienced “Star Trek” actor William Shatner’s 11-minute trip into space as very metaphorical, in the sense that any of us can go to places we haven’t yet been.

For all the “Star Trek” Galactic Travel he did, Shatner had never really traveled into space and now, at age 90, Shatner is the oldest person to actually have flown in space.

After landing back on Earth, Shatner said the flight was “the most profound experience” he could imagine. “I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it,” he said.

You can read more here:

https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-flight/index.html

In terms of our creative ingenuity and initiatives, who might we be waiting for?

“Procrastination is the fear that producing something will engender worse criticism than the criticism of not moving ahead at all.”

– Alan Weiss – best-selling author and speaker.

We are the ones we are waiting for. I like Winston Churchill’s often cited quote:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Here are two recent articles about unlearning, that you may want to peruse.

The first is based upon the work of organizational psychologist Adam Grant, from The Wharton School, where he has been the top-rated professor for seven straight years. His books have sold millions of copies and his TED talks have over 25 million views.

The second one is from London-based, independent thinker and coach, Harsha Perera

Here’s a couple of ‘One-For-The-Road’ Quotes, for Your Additional Inspiration

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”

Marianne Williamson – American author and spiritual teacher

“I’m not gonna give up, shut up, or let up, until I’m taken up…as a matter of fact, I’m just getting warmed up”

– Zig Ziglar – best-selling author and motivational public speaker.

May your November be one that brings you great joy and energy.

Gratefully yours…Don

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