Curious about Covey - What is the 8th Habit?

Several years ago a young man in my How to Discover Your Core Passion workshop, asked me if he was going to travel and was only able to take one book with him, what would it be?

Not an easy question for someone who loves reading as much as I do, who is always reading several books at a time (loving every one of them), and, yet, someone who has strong opinions and also wants to steer her students in the most helpful and rewarding direction.

Actually, it only took me a moment to answer. Why, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, of course. So, you can imagine how excited I was to hear just this week that Covey’s new book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, has been published. And then, as these coincidences always happen (on purpose), Covey was quoted in the recent issue of the magazine Business 2.0 with its theme of How to Succeed in 2005.

Covey said, “The seven habits were effective, but effectiveness isn’t key anymore. You have to be effective just to enter the arena. The key is to move to greatness... The industrial age was about control, and the information age, or knowledge-worker age, is about release. And release means helping people find their voice, so they can do what they love doing and what they do well.”

I wanted the book right away! And today I found it (discounted, no less) at my favorite bookstore.

No, I haven’t read it yet, but have glanced through it. Knowing Covey, it won’t be easy reading, but it will be life-changing if we follow his lead. I hope I have encouraged you to pick up a copy, and I would love to hear from you with your feedback about the ideas proposed in this treasure of a book.

After all, Tom Peters wrote, “May millions upon millions the world over read, share, and be moved to firmly grasp the reins of their lives as a result!” How about you? I'm planning to!

Curious Laws, Beliefs and Serendipity

Serendipity is “the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”

During this past week serendipity brought me the thoughts, beliefs and laws of two giving and successful people. Not only were they willing to share these paths to success, they explained how they work, and they convinced me that I am going in the right direction. I am on the right track - and it feels wonderful!

I have heard Deepak Chopra speak before (I even have some of his books and tape programs), but I guess that I was more ready than before to hear his Law of Detachment. “In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty...in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.”

Yes, it is fine to have goals, but we mustn’t become so rigidly attached to those goals that we force solutions on our problems, thus creating more problems. If we practice “uncertainty” we will attract a wealth of opportunities. Every problem is a seed of opportunity. You will find out more about this and Deepak Chopra at http://www.deepakchopra.com.

The second voice I listened to was Vicky White. She shared her program, “Your Secret Weapon: a Radical Path to Effortless Attraction.” Her path (quite similar in feeling to Chopra’s) helps you attract what you want. “It is a path that honors who you are. In fact, it demands that you be your authentic self because you most easily attract the life you want when your environment, your values and strengths, your vision and your actions are in alignment.”

Vicky uses what she calls the Five Keys to Manifestation and, being a certified Feng Shui consultant, pays a great deal of attention to keeping the energy flowing in our environments. You can check her out at http://www.effortless-attraction.com.

Both Deepak Chopra and Vicky White stress the importance of having intention and knowing our purpose. When we are “on purpose” everything works together for us and for the best. How about you?

Curious about Creatives? Meet Hugh Macleod

One of the most fascinating facts of blogging and reading blogs by bloggers is that you meet some of the most interesting - and also opinionated - people. One blogger whose words drew me in - I ended up reading his whole manifesto - is Hugh “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards” Macleod. Hugh is a creative director who writes about how to be creative in a non-creative world in his blog at http://www.gapingvoid.com/ .

He has a whole list of rules that will make you think about your relationship with creativity. For example, #6 states, “Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, `I’d like my crayons back, please.’”

I think the part of Hugh’s manifesto that hit me the hardest is when he warns the creative person that, professionally, we need to know “when to draw the red line that separates what we are willing to do and what we are not.”

I do website design and development. I also write, speak and tell stories professionally. When one is a freelancer and independent professional, there are times when we are incredibly busy and other times when it is easy to start worrying about paying the bills. This is when that red line can be compromised and easily turned to pink.

To avoid that happening to his cartoon work, Hugh keeps his day job - which he does enjoy and finds creative.

The way I have and do deal with it is to have enough careers that if one isn’t working for me, I can drop it and go to another. I have also learned how to be much pickier about those I work with and for. I will never be unhappy about not starting a creative job for someone who upfront spells, “Trouble.”

Finally, I have posted these final words from Hugh Macleod right beside my work area, “A Picasso always looks like Picasso painted it. Hemingway always sounds like Hemingway. A Beethoven symphony always sounds like a Beethoven’s symphony. Part of being a Master is learning how to sing in nobody else’s voice but your own.”

A lot of words to think about and act upon!

My CURIOSITY Took Over - Surprisingly, I Have Started My First Blog

I was introduced to blogs more than two years ago when I attended a bloggers’ get together with an evening of converts telling us how wonderful blogging was. I was there because of CURIOSITY and my love of all things Internet related.

My answer was that “I do so much writing already, why would I ever need or enjoy creating a blog?" Since that memorable evening I have read a few blogs (some worthwhile, lots a waste of time), but still felt no desire to have one of my own.

And then, it happened! During the past month, I have been bombarded by glowing reports of the importance of and marketing payoffs of having a blog. I also needed a place to introduce assessments (I have signed up for an assessment generator).

So, let the fun begin. I am still testing to see how useful this CURIOUS endeavor will be.