Facebook as an Inspiration Tool
I joined Facebook a couple of years ago, before it became the happening place it is today. At first it seemed like a sparsely populated desert where I was standing around talking to myself. I couldn’t understand why all the tech geeks were raving about it. Then slowly but surely people I knew started moving in. Now I’m connected with friends, colleagues, family, and even high school classmates. One of those classmates, my friend Phip Ross, created a video at the beginning of the Fall semester for his fellow teachers. I thought his video was so inspiring I decided to finally tackle my own video editing learning curve. Understand, I’ve been reading about editing for years, but after seeing Phip’s video I actually edited my first video. It’s a very silly video, but I had a lot of funny learning about the editing process which was ultimately my goal. So now I’m inching closer to my dream of creating an online collaborative training/learning portal for professionals in the child welfare field. And all because I reconnected with a long-lost friend through Facebook. Cool, eh?
Here’s Phip’s video. Watch and be inspired.
The Parallel Process in Action
I remember the first time I experienced inspired leadership. I was at a retreat with an amazing teacher. We had a limited amount of time to accomplish what felt like completely unattainable goals. If asked before the retreat if I ever thought I could accomplish these tasks, I would have said no, even though my inner voice would wish that in fact I could have said yes. No matter. At the retreat, out teacher exuded such confidence and knowing about what she knew we could accomplish, any doubt I had experienced earlier seemed silly and foreign. We accomplished our tasks with time to spare.
At no time was there a feeling of competition or pressure to succeed. Simply a natural flow where everyone accessed their own potential, and if someone faltered for a moment, another participant was there to remind them of their intrinsic ability. Everyone knew they had added value when the outcome was achieved. And everyone knew the synergy had been achieved because the teacher who presented the task in the first place exuded confidence and knowing, a secret knowing somehow, beyond space and time, of what we were actually capable of achieving when our insecurities, faulty perceptions and petty ego-needs were not given an audience.
Do I regularly encourage others to optimize their potential by mirroring their greatness, or do I focus primarily on lower qualities? Perhaps I can add more value to my little corner of the world by contemplating how my emotional and mental habits encourage or discourage those around me.
