LIVING INTEGRAL COACHING

[Part I of this series rejects the quick fix attitude of performance improvement]

Over one hundred years ago, William James, the pioneering philosopher and psychologist, wrote this on development:

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

After the inner work is done by an individual, the outer changes will follow. These lasting changes will result in a more productive, meaningful, and enjoyable life. You will radiate skill, competence, and reliability, if you have done the required work.

Bottom line: It’s all inner work!

All learning, skill building, experience, is inner work. The sooner that people realize that everything they do is developing their inner selves, the sooner they can make the big step up. Once you start focusing on your inner self, there is no longer a separation between what you do and who you are.

Most people have it backwards. They think who they are, is what they do. When you focus on who you are (inwardly), you are that no matter what you do (outwardly). So the better you operate inwardly, the better you will operate outwardly.

This is why great leaders can operate at such high levels. They have the inner ability to be there which supports their outer performances. At a certain point, just going through the motions doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s not fake it, ‘til you make it. You have BE it.

Once you make the commitment to concentrating on and developing your inner self, you can then begin the true journey of leadership and executive development. Everything else, is just window dressing.

Questions to ask yourself:

How am I not addressing my inner dimensions?

What are the areas of my inner life that I need to work on?

What am I avoiding to work on because it is too painful or uncomfortable?

What can I begin to change inside myself that will allow me to operate at a higher level?

Question: How do great leaders rise to the highest positions?

Answer: They are able to better operate at levels higher than the rest of their contemporaries.

How did they get that way? Some had a bit of talent to aid them, but all of them worked for it. Brian Tracy contends, “Your outer world of results will always correspond to your inner world of preparation.”

One of Tracy’s favorite lines of poetry is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“Those heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night“

The desire for quick fixes abounds in today’s world. Everyone wants the most “bang” for the least amount of work. Carmine Coyote refers to this as “The perils of seeking success “on the cheap.”

Yes, one can have a marginal amount of short-term success with quick fixes. But it is not sustainable long term. You are fooling yourself to think that the burden is not shifted somewhere else. Long-term accomplishment is achieved through WORK and EFFORT.

The development of leadership capacities requires that one work on the inner aspects necessary to operate at higher and higher levels.

“What happens around us or what happens between us is never as important as what happens within us.” Diane Dreher

Our performance, results, profits, level of expertise, are all a reflection of the level of development inside ourselves. We have improved our inner abilities to the point where we can now realize increased outcomes.

[Part II will address the relationship between inner work and outer performances...]