4 Steps To Awaken Your Superhero Power

Posted by on Apr 22, 2011 in Awakening, Guest Post | 3 comments

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Incredible HulkYou are a superhero.

My bet is that you can’t leap buildings in a single bound. I have a feeling that you can’t fly. It’s unlikely that you can make yourself invisible. You may have 20/20 vision (or better), but chances are its not X-ray vision.

But, you are a superhero.

Comic book superheroes possess a some type of super-human strength or power, often used to protect and/or “save the day.” (at least the good ones do). Real life superheroes have a unique power or strength that drives them to happiness and/or success. I guarantee there is something you know, something you do, a skill you have that is incredible. Something that is awesome. Something that makes you rise to the top, stand above the rest.

The challenge, of course, is to awaken your superhero power.

4 Steps To Awaken Your Superhero Power

Below are 4 suggested steps to awaken the superhero that lives within you.

1. Determine what drives you.

Take out a piece of paper and a pen (or the online equivalent). Write down the 10 things that you could not live without. These can be material (i.e., iPhone) and/or intangible (i.e., your family).

***It is important that you do not read ahead. I know it’s tempting, but write down that list of 10 before continuing.***

Ok. Now, take that list and eliminate half of it. What remains are the 5 things you can not live without.

Now, the hardest part: Remove 2 more. If you’ve followed the directions, you’ll have a list of 3 things/people you can’t live without. Look at this list. Study it. These 3 things are the most important things in your life. They are what drive you. My bet is there is a person (family, friend, significant other, etc) on that list. Be sure that whatever you do in life, the things &/or people on this list play a critical role.

2. Uncover, then play to your strengths.

The first part of this is a blog post eBook novel in and of itself. However, once you’ve determined what you are good at, focus on it. Craft your skill. Work on improving it. Don’t waste your time on stuff you are not good at. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you don’t try to learn new things; I’m saying that your time may be better spent going good to great instead of crappy to better than crappy. Make sense? With the incredible amount of information that is available today and the ease at which one can access it, it can be very easy – even tempting – to try and learn everything. Trust me. I struggle with this too. However, once you’ve figured out what’s important to you (see #1) and what you’re good at, work on becoming the best you can be.

3. Someone will always be smarter than you.

If you are competitive – with others and yourself – and a perfectionist, this one is tough to swallow. I’ve been thinking, eating, breathing, and sometimes sleeping email marketing for nearly 6 years. I think I know quite a bit; however, there are tons of email folks out there who are way smarter than me; others who are better writers, better speakers, better with clients, etc. We are all always learning, but will never 100% perfect our strengths (#3). Someone will always be better. Accept it. Move on.

Also, “smart” is relative. My wife is an Ob/Gyn. She knows a ton about medicine; a ton about women’s health, pregnancy, babies, etc. She is way smarter than me when it comes to this stuff. Is she the smartest Ob/Gyn on the planet? Unlikely. It’s all relative.

4. Have fun.
Let’s face it. Not everyone loves their job. Some of us have things going on in our personal lives that would not fall into the “fun” category. We all have days (weeks?) that suck – both at work and at home. But if you are not having fun, why bother? It may be time to stop and figure out what is missing in your life – in your control – that is preventing you from enjoying it. Life’s too short. Are you really having fun? (Note: There is a video in that blog post showing my wife & I in a wedding “Baby Got Back” dance off. Only watch if you want to smile).

DJ Waldow is a knowledge craver, a sponge, and a lover of beer, coffee & people (in no particular order). He is the Director of Community @BlueSkyFactory. and lives in Salt Lake City with his wife (K-Dawg) and 1 year old (@babywaldow). DJ is not only a U of Michigan, alum, but also a raving fan. He blogs on Social Butterfly Guy.

The power of realization or Superheros are where you find them

Posted by on Apr 21, 2011 in Awakening, Guest Post | 0 comments

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When I saw human resources’ number come up on my phone display, I knew I’d gotten it, too. After the brief and awkward meeting and requisite paper signing, I headed back to my office, packed up my stuff and took one last look out the 38th floor window at a deserted Burnham Harbor. It was a good run, I thought. Great people. Visible position. Nice paycheck, good benefits. I’ll miss this view. Who will adopt my orchids? I’ll miss this office chair. Then – choking back tears – What now?

I sought refuge at my then boyfriend’s rustic West Loop loft, assuaging my sorrows with old movies, bologna sandwiches (a symbol of my new pauperism) and a fair number of tears, while my beau, Tom, worked away in the other room.

While Tom (not his real name), a musician, had been employed by others on and off over the years, he made his main living by hustling clients for a half dozen different concerns ranging from website development to graphic design to sound engineering, seasoned with a smattering of paying music gigs.

Tom was not particularly organized or ambitious, but he usually managed to keep enough dough rolling in to keep the lights on and food in the refrigerator. Sometimes just barely. And sometimes the lights got turned off. Inconvenient and uncomfortable? Yes. But somehow, he lived.

While ruminating on my situation during the movie marathon, I realized something. Not only did Tom always seem to always figure out a way make things work, by my definition at least, he also was free. As were many of my other creative, self-employed friends. They all were in control of their own destiny. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that’s not how they saw it, but at the time that’s what I perceived. And I realized I wanted that. I wanted to be free and in control. More than anything.

I half-heartedly scanned ads looking to replace or maybe even upgrade my lost gig. A small severance provided some financial cushion, but my pride had hit the floor, hard. And the recent awareness of my deep desire to be free and in control made the idea of going back to work for someone else pretty repulsive. I was screwed.

Classic movie number 37 playing in the background and my ego still smarting, I thought again about Tom and company. I was 100 times more organized and ambitious than almost all of them. Then this thought: “Hmmh. You know, if they can make it on their own, I bet I can, too.”

Holy eureka-beam-of-light-streaming-through-the-clouds-angels-singing moment. I bet I can, too.

I shifted my focus from looking for a job to spinning up skills I’d honed at the agency as a business offering. The result was my first business, Lenalinks, which provided tech writing and project management for some big corporate clients. It was lucrative work but unfortunately it also was (to me) excruciatingly boring, which is what led me back to the marketing industry. But that’s another story, titled something like, “Why an arguably sane person would close a perfectly profitable business, take a 60 percent pay cut and agree to go captive again to hone another craft.” But I digress.

Actually, the thought – I can, too – was not as important as what came immediate after it, which was the realization. Dictionary definition: An act of becoming fully aware of something as a fact. Also known as an “Ah-ha!”

Realizations differ from understanding. You can totally understand something intellectually, but still not really understand viscerally the truth of it – what “it” means. To me, “I can, too” meant that there was a completely new set of choices available to me. Bear in mind, nothing in my external world had changed. The realization caused my perception of what was available to me in the external world to change. Same world, yet different world. (Hello, M.C. Escher.)

Often, one realization sets off a chain reaction that leads to a series of realizations. For instance, the realization that I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny freed my mind to reshuffle my worldview and deliver the realization that it was completely within my power to make it so.

Realizations can seem to occur completely randomly, but there are ways to condition yourself to have them more reliably. Here are three:

  1. Make being present a priority. Awareness cannot exist in the past or future. Unless you become aware that you’re thinking about the past or future, in which case, you’re actually back in the present. (M.C. Escher reprise.) Some ways to practice being present and strengthen awareness are meditation, yoga and martial arts. The objective of all these disciplines is to get you back in your body, to bring you back to now because now is where all the power is.
  2. Be open to changing your mind. Because I was open to believing something new, or in this case, at least not opposed to the idea of having my own business, my subconscious was free to serve up the realizations I needed to move forward.
  3. Demand insight from discomfort. Being present can be uncomfortable, especially if you’re in a tight spot. It’s natural to want kill the pain. But if you always give into the impulse to drown your sorrows, you may be missing an opportunity to experience a big shift. If instead you can manage to stay present and stare down pain such as fear, embarrassment or grief, you usually will be rewarded with insight. In fact, you should demand that it be so. Said writer, lecturer and mythologist Joseph Campbell, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

The point of this story is (actually, there are three): 1. Sometimes SuperHeros are unwitting, and thus, are where you find them. Don’t be snobbish about who delivers the catalyst message or models a new paradigm. 2. A single shift in your internal world can change your perception of the available choices even if nothing in your external world has changed. Be open to new thoughts. 3. Rather than waiting around for realizations, create the conditions that will allow your mind to more easily present you with them. A hidden pathway to your bold new future may be revealed.

Helena Bouchez is a writer, artist, connector and alchemist who makes a living as a purveyor of public relations and communications for marketing and marketing technology firms. To connect with Helena, follow her on Twitter @helenabouchez or email her at helena at helenabouchez dot com.


 

Making the Jump

Posted by on Apr 20, 2011 in Awakening, Guest Post | 3 comments

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I’ll admit to some bias where Chris Penn is concerned. He and I share a similar purpose in life, I think, even though we approach it from two totally different directions.

I’ve always believed in the superhero idea, and this idea of Chris’s rings particularly true: we have superhero powers, but we don’t necessary have superhero awareness.

Which brings me to ask this question: What makes a superhero?

And my answer: The belief you already are one.

We so often keep our eyes focused on what’s next, on where we want to be. On who we wish we were, or on what we wish we were doing. But the path between here and there has to built, and it has to built on something.

That something is you.

My friend Matt Ridings talks about change in terms of building a bridge. Between where you are and where you’re going is the path, the bridge, to get from here to there. But what a lot of us forget is that to build a bridge, you need solid ground on both sides: not only do we need to have at least a directional idea of where we want to go (the other side) and a clear idea of how to get there (the bridge itself), we also need solid ground to build on – right now.

We forget the importance of finding our current bedrock. Of knowing — and valuing — the person that we are, right now. It’s that appeciation, that valuation, that gives us the confidence, and the courage, to step out over the chasm and onto the bridge we’ve built.

To me, that’s what awakening your superhero is all about: it’s about understanding where your bedrock is, and what it’s made of. It’s about finding your footing where you are, so that you have a steady base from which to step.

Without that firm footing we’re literally leaping out at the unknown, with no purpose, and no purchase to our grip.

It’s counterintuitive, I know: since we want to change, doesn’t that mean, by definition, we dislike where we are now? Or, at least, doesn’t that mean there’s something about us, right now, that warrants change? After all, if we were happy where we are, change wouldn’t be necessary, right?

But change, real change (as any superhero-awakening is) requires enormous strength. And ignoring — or worse, degrading or denying — some part of yourself you consider unworthy, weakens your position right off the bat.

It’s like starting with half a you — because that is, in essence, what you’re doing. You’re trying to make a whole change with only part of you.

And that never works.

No, the answer lies in taking yourself, warts and all. Of being honest with yourself, about yourself. In finding how to turn your weaknesses into strengths (or at least in figuring out how the strengths you already have are well-suited to mitigating your faults), and in starting in a position of comfort — of confidence.

So how do you do that?

Find something you’re proud of. No, really. There’s something about you that you like. Or at least, don’t actively dislike. What is that? How can you build on it?

Find the Force to your Dark Side. Also really. For those of us used to beating ourselves up, sometimes it’s easier to start from the negative. I’m not suggesting you stay there, but for each of us, we often have the antidote to our particular brand of poison within ourselves. So figure out what you don’t like, and then look for the thing you already have that balances it out. It’s there. Trust me.

Find a cheerleader. Our internal tape loops get worn out after a while, and we need to hear an outside voice. Find someone who believes in you. Unflinchingly. But someone who can give you straight-up honest feedback – in a way that you’ll actually hear it.They’re the ones who can help set your course, but remind you, too, of how fun where you are right now can be.

Find your purpose. Yes, this one dives a little deeper, but: What are you here for? What ties all that you do together? What do you really care about? We all do better when we have something to work towards. What is that for you?

Find your beliefs and values. There’s where you want to go… and then there’s how you want to get there. So know, going in, what you hold dear. What’s most important to you? What assumptions guide your thoughts? What price are you willing to pay? And, perhaps most important what price is too high?

You can only make a leap by pushing off the ground you’re standing on, so you better know what that is.

It’s time to fly, superheroes.

So go on. Grab your cape (or not). And go.

•

Tamsen McMahon helps people and organizations get from where they are to where they’re going. She’s the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Sametz Blackstone Associates, a Boston-based, brand-focused strategy, design, and digital media firm. She writes on organizational change at BrassTackThinking.com, a blog she co-authors with Amber Naslund, and writes on individual change atPersonalCartography.com. Reach her at [email protected], and follow her on Twitter (@tamadear).

We All Have It In Us

Posted by on Apr 19, 2011 in Awakening, Guest Post | 2 comments

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It is your fault. That is the simple and blunt answer that far to many of you will never embrace as the truth.

We want more. We crave better. We Lust after what we don’t have but someone near does. We are full of excuses and yet we fail to discover the answer.

I’ve known my whole life that I am cut from a different cloth. I seek out the road less traveled and rise every morning eager to attack the day head on.

I know this because a long time ago I realized that everything I ever wanted was out there for the taking. There are always obstacles, distractions and curves you never see coming. That is the comedy of life.

But, EACH of us has it within ourselves to have all we crave. The trick is turning off the little voice of doubt, the lizard brain that says we can not do it.

Sit down today and pick one goal. A tangible end that can only be reached or not without any gray maybe in it’s success.

Now determine what you will do today towards that goal. What will you spend the next week doing to get closer? Finally, in the next month will you reach it or have established new items to get you closer.

Write these down and find people that will nag, poke and push you to insure you are working towards them. Every time that voice of doubt creeps up in you reach out to one of them to squash it. Can’t reach them? Find a mirror and tell yourself.

We DO in fact have it inside each of us. Even the greatest of people doubt themselves. The best of us train, learn and master how to push beyond, bend the rules in our favor and achieve our dreams.

I am sick of all the doubt in the world because I know you have it in you. I know you can do whatever you desire with enough drive and hard work. Life will NEVER be easy, so stop your complaining, find your cape and soar to whatever sunset you crave.

===================================

C.C. Chapman is an entrepreneur, speaker and author. His first book Content Rules was released last year and he is the Founder of DigitalDads.com, where a Dad can be a Guy. He writes, speaks and consults with companies of all sizes to empower them to do better with their marketing dollars.

 

Teaching The Pebbles

Posted by on Apr 18, 2011 in Awakening, Guest Post, Photography | 2 comments

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When Mr. Penn approached me, as he had others, with the opportunity to create a guest post for him in his absence, I was initially and naturally quite honored.  That feeling, however, turned like spring weather in the Midwest often does to a horrible feeling of dread.  How could I, far from a professional or even remotely consistent blogger of letters, possibly hold a candle burning at both ends to the likes of Mr. Wall, Ms. Hoffman, Mr. Kownacki, or even Mr. Penn himself?

It took me a few days of fighting a Xanax-resistant strain of seizing panic to finally realize what he did here: not only was this an opportunity to fill space on Mr. Penn’s website while he racked up more frequent flyer miles than Clark Kent, it was a teaching moment directed squarely at me, and that’s a superpower we all possess.

Despite the reflexive reach for a gas mask that the term “life coach” compels out of me, we all possess some knowledge of some subject we can convey to someone else in the world.  It could be a mechanical, philosophical, intellectual, or an artistic skill or talent, but the unrealized superpower in all of us is this: No matter the pursuit and how much you think you know or don’t know about it, there is always someone who knows less about that subject than you.  These people are your target, your audience, and your unrealized opportunities.

It’s important to remember that whatever your subject or level of expertise, your students will almost never be blank slates. Like pebbles on a mountaintop, each student will behave differently in accordance with their natural gifts, needs, and their own unique imperfections.  Some of these pebbles will stubbornly refuse to move, fighting the push of external force and the pull of gravity and in doing so deny themselves their own innate potential, accepting a destiny of forever remaining where they lie.  Some will veer off too soon, impulsive and without direction, and tumble off the mountain, never to be heard from again.  Some only seem to move when forcefully motivated by the boot of the teacher.  Many will sadly slide down the smoothest path available, avoiding friction and resistance at every possible turn, safely landing at the goal of the bottom without so much as a scratch, but at the same time unnoticed and with little fanfare — they will have traded away their potential for an easy victory but are left with nothing to build on of their own.

The best students, however, will be the ones that show patience.  They recognize their flaws and they wait — waiting to be shaped by the teacher’s tools — however limited those tools may seem — and allowing the experience and the environment to smooth away the imperfections.  They’re the last pebbles to leave the mountaintop.  Once these pebbles are ready and set down the path of the mountain, however, they become immense, awe-inspiring forces unto themselves that even the teacher dares not stand in the way of.  They command a following of the very environment around them they once waited unassumingly in — water, ice, wind, boulders the size of cities — and transform it all into a crushing, unconquerable force of an avalanche that changes the landscape of the world.

What about the teacher, you ask?  Of course the teacher is a pebble himself influenced by his own teacher until set free to become the foundation of his own mountain.  Turn enough pebbles into unstoppable waves of energy, however, and you will be seen as the real definition of a superhero — something everyone will fear and respect for your ability as a kingmaker to unleash the power of the pebbles under your care.

My own pebble is the girl in the picture above, and my shaping tool is a camera.  She’s ever the patient student and has taken well to learning my photographic philosophy of being part of the world she imagines inside the camera — as opposed to being simply on the world with a camera in hand.  You can see the rounding of the corners and the smoothing of the jagged edges of this pebble with every new photograph she captures. Should it continue to be her pursuit, it will not be long before she is ready to be set upon a world that will never see her coming — and I will take great joy in watching the elements at her command rush past me and form something more amazing than I could ever imagine for myself.

It’s one of the many open secrets of the universe that we all possess this ability — most of us simply fail to realize it.  We are content to be our own unassuming pebbles gliding down the easiest route possible on someone else’s mountain.

Your challenge and biggest reward as a teacher is to find these pebbles of opportunity on your own mountaintop and set them upon the unsuspecting world below, transforming them from a humble start into something unimaginatively powerful.  These pebbles do not necessarily need to be children or relatives — we are surrounded by potential pebbles of all ages in nearly every interactive aspect of our daily lives.

Be a superhero: Find a pebble and teach it to become its own mountain.

Bryce Moore (@abiteofsanity) is an IT professional by day, a photographer by love, and one of Christopher Penn’s many pebbles by grace and choice.  While trying to duck out of the way of boots thrown in the area of his cranium, he photoblogs daily and writes not nearly enough according to some people at abiteofsanity.com.