July 6, 2011
I am deeply grateful that we have the potential to be free! We just celebrated Independence Day on July 4th in the United States. When you hear the words "Independence Day" what comes to mind?
Our ability to be free means we can choose what we say "yes" to and what we say "no" to. We can create our own goals and agenda for our lives based on our own values and natural talents! But sometimes I forget this. Sometimes I get on automatic pilot and forget that it is my responsibility to act like a free person who can create my own goals and not live on someone else's agenda for me. I am the only person who is responsible for weather or not I create and meet my goals -this is what makes me a free person. Do you agree?
The other place my thinking goes at the beginning of July is, "Wow! Where did the first half of the year go? How am I doing in meeting my goals for 2011?"
So my challenge for us today is this:
Create a Conversation for New Possibilities with yourself about what you want to impact, influence or create during the last half of 2011.
Use Conversations for New Possibilities when:
- Proposing a new idea or solution for a problem
- Uncovering ideas from peers and team members
- Brainstorming new ideas
- Trying to solve a problem that needs a new solution that is not clear to you
Here are some ways to get your Conversation for Creating New Possibilities started:
- What would you like to create?
- I have an idea I'd like you to consider and I'd be open to hearing your ideas too.
- What are the options?Can we come up with three or more options that we had not considered before?
- If we waved a magic wand and the problem was solved, how would we know? What would be different?
- What ideas or suggestions do you have about how we could approach this?
- Tell me about your goals and objectives, where you see things going . ..
- If you could be the best at one thing what would that one thing be?
- If you knew you would not fail, what would you do?
- Imagine that you just won three million dollars. What would you do with it? (Let yourself play with this question as if it just happened.)
- Let's see if we can come up with 50 ideas in the next ten minutes. No idea is too trivial or out of bounds. We are looking for volume now and we'll come back and edit them later.
- Tell me about your thoughts about how to improve or change the situation.
- Perhaps if we considered this in a new way we could put our puzzle pieces on the table together and see what we come up with.
- If you could envision the best possible outcome, what would that look like?
- If there were no limitations, what resources would you need?
- People invented the rules. When you are creating, approach it from the angle that there are no rules, or that the rules can be changed if needed. What rules are holding us back that we could consider revising?
- What have you learned from your past that impacts this situation? How can we build on that with new ideas?
With someone who has read Conversations for Change™: 12 Ways to Say It Right When It Matters Most or attended the seminar: I'd like to have a Conversation for Creating New Possibilities. When would be a good time for you to do that?
If you have not yet read Conversations for Change™: 12 Ways to Say It Right When It Matters Most now is the time!
