Dance, as though no one is watching,
Love, as though you’ve never been hurt before,
Sing, as though no one can hear you,
Work, as though you don’t need the money,
Live, as though heaven is on earth.

~ Rumi

Related posts:

1. I Want to See You
2. The bird and I
3. Every Action is a Selfish One

I haven’t posted for 2 days now, but the great thing is that I do not have to apologize to anybody. I was swamped with work, and the couple of hours I could relax, I chose to do so. I did write a lot during my absence. It was all work related. I am currently working on two big projects one which is reaching go-live date. And many of us know what that means…

I have been on many projects and I know the drill. But I do experience them today with a different state of mind. I’ve grown. In working experience, skills (just repeating it often enough to know what comes next), but I consider my biggest growth to be spiritual. Not in the sense that I am floating between the stars all day, but I am way more relaxed. Even when shit hits the fan, I take the perspective of “what does this teaches me…about me!?”. It is pure selfish behavior, and I like it. More people should do it. First attend to yourself, and when you feel good about yourself let’s meet. You might actually have something to ‘give’ me.

As I wrote earlier I am more and more an observer. I try to observe with appreciation, which empowers me to see the bigger picture. This helps me when the pressure is on, and I deliberately do not join the blame game. With a more clear mind I see opportunities and it enables me to be more productive. But I am not in that appreciative state of mind all the time. At times, I also lose the connection with me, and I fall down the rabbit hole of frustration. But more and more I can step back and observe myself and ask “what does this teaches me…about me!?”.

Originally posted here: http://300words.posterous.com/swamped-with-work

Related posts:

1. Why talk when nobody listens?
2. My work is done
3. I am

In ordinary life I am a solution architect, so I spend my working days helping customers to a successful IT implementation as part of a bigger business change program. Today I had an interesting discussion about design documents and how they relate to each other and what information they should include in order for the readers to understand the context. During the conversation it became clear to me that the Golden Circle concept would greatly enhance the success of IT implementations.What would be the effect if the resources on the IT project would believe in ‘Why’ the customer is executing the big business-driven change program and what the role of the IT part is. I believe it would inspire people to give their best. And I am not talking about the blood, sweat and tears Simon Sinek is referring to in his examples. I am talking about the inspiration that enable people to show their best skills in which they believe they have. It would put the people on the project in a certain state of being that results in less boring and inefficient meetings. No more endless discussions in which the real topic is whose ego is the biggest, but short and effective meetings in which people listen to each others arguments and agree to the best solution in that specific context. People would appreciate each other for their specific expertise and allow one another to thrive.

But how can you achieve all this? You can make this as complex as you like, but just stick to the basics of the Golden Circle concept. Inspire! Be inspired. Influence others by believing in the ‘Why’. In other words: Be passionate about the program and projects. Believe in ‘the cause’. And more important: Be passionate about being passionate. That is one of the things I learned from Bashar. Being truly passionate is really being passionate about being passionate. This way you will influence (and actually attract) people who are ready to hear your message and make it their own. The ‘How’ and ‘What’ will follow as the next logical step. And not only to you, but to everybody you have influenced.

Now back to the title. Why an experiment? Just for the fun of it. What I will do is to deliberately take notice of the people I work with if they work from the Why -> How -> What perspective, or the What -> How. I will notice their attitude towards work and maybe life in general and see what I learn from that. It will be fun. Join me and share your experiences.

Related posts:

1. People Do It For Themselves
2. Experiencing contrast – Give me the money!
3. They changed the title!