{"id":18902,"date":"2018-09-13T22:32:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T05:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18902"},"modified":"2018-09-13T22:32:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T05:32:05","slug":"mindfulness-is-what-gets-the-insight-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/mindfulness-is-what-gets-the-insight-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindfulness is What Gets the Insight Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Insight Out<\/em>, by Tina Seelig, was a fascinating book about how we get from imagination to entrepreneurship. She claims that her goal is \u201cto bring together what we know about creativity with what we know about entrepreneurship so that we can define, learn, teach, and practice these skills in a rigorous and reproducible manner.\u201d[1]<\/a> Her desire to help people get their imaginative and creative ideas to a place that the can make an impact on the world around them was inspiring and brilliant. I know for me, it is hard enough accessing my creative brain, let alone getting those ideas to a useful place. Her simple method of breaking it down into the following four steps was extremely helpful: \u201cImagination leads to creativity. Creativity leads to innovation. Innovation leads to entrepreneurship.\u201d[2]<\/a> Although I have never really seen myself as incredibly creative, I was encouraged by Sir Ken Robinson\u2019s quote that \u201ccreative ideas don\u2019t have to be original to the whole world, but they must be original to you, and they must have value.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

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I can see why this book is included with our reading list on leadership this quarter. It has valuable \u201cinsights\u201d to make us all better leaders for the simple fact that it explains how we can communicate ideas to those around us in an effective way. Many brilliant people have numerous genius ideas that they can\u2019t ever get out of their head and communicated in a way that others can help them see it into reality. Many ideas also come with challenges, which is why Seelig says, \u201cThe key takeaway is that you need to begin with curiosity, which opens doors to countless opportunities to identify challenges that need to be addressed, and then envision alternatives.\u201d[4]<\/a> Once again, the author lines out a process of simple steps to get from curiosity to overcoming challenges with alternative solutions. If we are committed to getting our ideas into the world, we have to be willing to overcome obstacles and take risks so our creative ideas don\u2019t just get left floating around in our head or left on the back of a napkin.<\/p>\n

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This next part was surprising to read, but you can imagine why it drew my attention. The concept of managing your own psychology, which basically means paying attention to your self-talk, is something I deal with my clients on a daily basis. I have to include this brilliant excerpt on this topic from Justin Rosenstein\u2019s talk at Stanford: \u201cThe most important part of being a leader is managing your own psychology. . .How many people in the room have experienced some sort of voice in your head that sounds like it\u2019s your voice, but it\u2019s telling you, you are doing things badly? There is a voice that is self-doubting and judging. And it\u2019s very easy to confuse this voice for yourself, especially because it speaks in your own voice, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s sort of like having an annoying judgmental roommate living in your head. You\u2019ll notice this now that I point it out. . .I\u2019ve done a ton of meditation work and I still hear this voice. But the difference is that I now have a new relationship to it. I hear the voice, I say, Thank you, I appreciate that you are trying to be helpful. You can keep hanging out in my head, that\u2019s totally fine. Kick your feet up, make yourself comfortable, but that\u2019s not me and I make decisions from a different place. And so I continue to act in the face of fear, even when those things keep coming up and telling me, Oh, you are screwing this up. This skill is often called mindfulness, which is defined as focused, intentional, and nonjudgmental attention on your sensations, thoughts, and emotions in the present moment.\u201d[5]<\/a> This reminds me of the verse in 2 Corinthians that says\u2026\u201cWe demolish arguments and\u00a0every\u00a0pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take\u00a0captive\u00a0every\u00a0thought<\/em>\u00a0to make it obedient to Christ.\u201d[6]<\/a> This is such an important leadership principle because if we, as leaders, can\u2019t manage the thoughts in our heads and weed out the negative ones, we will end up becoming our own worst enemies.<\/p>\n

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The art of mindfulness seems like a skill very few people are proficient at, yet it is one of the keys to staying centered and personally aware of what is going on in your head and body. In my practice, I work extensively with people to help them become more aware of their feelings, bodily sensations and their needs. This helps them become powerful and more able to express themselves with their loved ones and actually teach others who they are and what they need. It is fulfilling to see my clients become more self-aware and experience the results of getting their feelings heard and needs met, sometimes for the first time in their lives. The following excerpt from Ellen Langer confirms the importance of mindfulness: \u201cMindfulness is the process of actively noticing new things. When you do that, it puts you in the present. It makes you more sensitive to context and perspective. It\u2019s the essence of engagement. . .I\u2019ve been studying this for nearly 40 years, and for almost any measure, we find that mindfulness generates a more positive result. . .No matter what you\u2019re doing\u2014eating a sandwich, doing an interview, working on some gizmo, writing a report\u2014you\u2019re doing it mindfully or mindlessly. When it\u2019s the former, it leaves an imprint on what you do. At the very highest levels of any field\u2014Fortune 50 CEOs, the most impressive artists and musicians, the top athletes, the best teachers and mechanics\u2014you\u2019ll find mindful people, because that\u2019s the only way to get there.\u201d[7]<\/a> If we are to get the ideas out of our head and into the world, we will need to learn how to become intimately aware of what is going on inside our heart and mind and manage it well.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] Tina Seelig, Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World<\/em>, HarperOne, Kindle Edition, 6.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Ibid., 7.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3] Ibid., 9-10.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [4] Ibid., 17.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [5] Ibid., 113-114.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [6] 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [7] Tina Seelig, Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World<\/em>, HarperOne, Kindle Edition, 114-115.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Insight Out, by Tina Seelig, was a fascinating book about how we get from imagination to entrepreneurship. She claims that her goal is \u201cto bring together what we know about creativity with what we know about entrepreneurship so that we can define, learn, teach, and practice these skills in a rigorous and reproducible manner.\u201d[1] Her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,1337],"class_list":["post-18902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-seelig","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18904,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18902\/revisions\/18904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}